On March 20 from 1 – 4 pm, LCD Executive Director Linda Peyton and representatives from other non-profit legal services agencies and human services organizations testified during a City Council Hearing on the Philly Eviction Crisis. Eviction, and eviction without legal representation, is at a crisis point in the City of Philadelphia. It has a particular impact on at risk communities, such as people with disabilities who LCD represents.
According to a fact sheet put together for the hearing, Philadelphia’s eviction rate impacts one in 14 Philadelphia renters. There were more than 24,000 evictions filed in Municipal Court in 2016, which does not include the significant number of illegal evictions that are never filed in court.
Furthermore, as the nation’s poorest big city, the cost for legal representation in court is out of reach for many residents. Eighty-one percent of landlords attend court with representation, while only 1% of low-income renters attend with legal representation.
You can view the testimonies below. Executive Director Linda Peyton’s occurs at 02:48:00, and Dr. Dan Taylor (St. Christopher health partner) occurs at 02:04:52.