A tale of displacement: A year-long fight against a landlord shows the struggles facing renters forced to move.

by Nicole C. Brambila

The long locs Linda Robinson lost by the fistfuls to chemotherapy five years ago had finally grown back when she lost her braids again, this time to a stressful eviction proceeding.

“We, Black women, our crown is our hair,” said Robinson, 68, noting that in the Black community, hairstyle is a lifestyle.

Robinson added, “When you lose your crown, it’s devastating.”

Robinson scrambled to find housing before being forced out, even though her displacement was not due to a problem paying rent. And while her troubles began before COVID-19 shuttered the economy and prompted Gov. Tom Wolf to order a moratorium on evictions, her journey through the legal system is instructive to the tens of thousands of out-of-work Pennsylvanians that lawmakers and housing advocates expect will be swept up in a wave of evictions once filings resume.

In an unprecedented move, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] on Sept. 4 issued a temporary moratorium that expires at the end of the year. This reprieve, however, requires renters follow a specific process that includes a signed declaration.

In October, roughly 300,000 Pennsylvanians were not caught up on their rent, according to a U.S. Census Bureau survey. Although it is unknown how many Pittsburgh renters have been impacted by COVID-19, more than 5,500 have applied for assistance through the Allegheny County CARES Rent Relief Program, as of the program’s late September deadline.

Evictions can happen for several reasons — not just because rent isn’t paid, but the process hurts low-income renters most. Advocates believe that understanding the impact of evictions in the United States is critical to addressing the issues from which it stems: an affordable housing crisis rooted in longstanding societal problems that include poverty and housing insecurity; educational and income disparities as well as health care inequities.

“Housing should be a human right,” said Carol Hardeman, executive director of the Hill District Consensus Group, a grassroots organization formed in 1991 that works to empower low-income and working-class residents.

FEATURED IMAGE: Linda Robinson in the home she rented in Pittsburgh before being forced to move in early 2020. (Nick Childers/PublicSource)

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