Over the past few years, a big topic of conversation has been how expensive things are, including buying and renting a home.
When it comes to the housing market, the options have also been limited, or out of people’s budgets, especially for low-income and moderate-income households.
When the cost of living outpaces the payments coming in each month, families face the threat of eviction.
In fact, according to the RVA Eviction Lab, eviction filings and judgments across the commonwealth are steadily increasing to their highest volume since the start of the pandemic.
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For that reason and more, the Virginia Poverty Law Center has developed the Eviction Defense Center. It’s a free online tool that provides people with general legal information about eviction.
The idea is to help people navigate the eviction process and participate in legal proceedings against them.
When you enter the website, you'll be brought to the homepage which is set up in a questionnaire-type format that will give you situation-specific legal information.
For example, let's say you click "fight my eviction.” You'll be asked another question like, "Has your landlord started a court case to evict you? If you say yes, you'll be asked about what has happened in your court case.
Each question you answer will bring you closer to advice that will actually help your situation.
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Annika Schunn is a housing paralegal at the Virginia Poverty Law Center.
She tells me, "We really just want to make sure that tenants are given a fighting chance if they're, you know, facing eviction to even participate in legal proceedings against them. That's really the impetuous behind the eviction defense line -- just giving tenants equal access to justice."
In addition to answering situation-specific questions, there's also general information about tenant rights and how to navigate the legal process.
If you need this resource, you're not alone, VPLC says more than 400 evictions are filed each day in Virginia and many people have to go without an attorney’s help.
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