Virginia is home to some of the most-evicting cities in the nation. More than 100,000 families face eviction every year in Virginia.
Phil Storey, a housing attorney with the Virginia Poverty Law Center, says that’s far too many for Legal Aid attorneys to help. It was even overwhelming for an attorney-staffed eviction hotline the VPLC ran from 2019 until last year.
The problem is one of scale, Storey says. An attorney, or even a group of attorneys, can only help so many people. So using lessons learned from that hotline and resources developed to help people navigate eviction, VPLC has started the Eviction Defense Center.
“Court’s confusing, and it's intimidating for people who aren't there all the time. And so, sometimes people can feel like they just don't know how to participate,” Storey said.
FightMyEviction.org, which is also available in Spanish, includes breakdowns to help people read and understand eviction letters, step-by-step explanations of the eviction process and scripts for court appearances.
“Hopefully, folks who shouldn’t be getting evicted or have a good defense can actually raise that defense and avoid eviction in court,” Storey said.
Evictions became a hot topic in Virginia when Princeton University’s Eviction Lab published data in 2018 showing that many Hampton Roads cities, along with Richmond, had some of the highest rates of eviction in the country.
More recent data from the Eviction Lab still shows sky-high rates of eviction in places like Newport News and Virginia Beach.
Storey says Virginia’s eviction process moves quicker than other states, typically taking weeks rather than months. But by arming families without legal representation with knowledge, Storey says they can stave off eviction or at least get a little more time and play a more active role in their fate.
“Slowing the process down for a couple of weeks can have a huge impact for somebody who's facing the choice of living in their car, or, you know, having a little more time to find another place to land.”
