URGENT: Final push to pass renters’ right to representation in 2022

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Too often, renters in Delaware are faced with an eviction notice that threatens their homes, their families, and their well-being. Even more often, the people facing eviction are left to navigate that legal hurdle by themselves. In Delaware, 86% of landlords have legal representation in court eviction proceedings, but only 2% of renters have representation.

Senate Bill 101 (formally SS 1 for SB 101), sponsored by Senator Bryan Townsend and Representative Melissa Minor-Brown, was introduced in 2021 — but it’s facing its steepest challenge now, and we need your help to get it across the finish line before this legislative session ends on June 30, 2022.

SB 101 is a common-sense bill with a wide range of support in the General Assembly. It has passed the Senate and one committee in the House, but has been stalled in the House Appropriations Committee. As Delaware grapples with the effects of an ongoing pandemic and evictions ramp up across the state, renters are facing evictions without the help they desperately need to connect to resources, delay evictions, and stay in their homes. Here’s how SB 101 will help:

Creates a right to legal representation for renters facing eviction whose household income is lower than 200% of federal poverty guidelines;
Places coordination of the program within the Delaware Attorney General’s Office, who will contract with appropriate legal service organizations to provide representation in proceedings covered by the bill;
Requires landlords to provide notice of the right to representation at certain designated intervals of a tenancy and in eviction proceedings; and
Creates an Eviction Diversion Program designed to help resolve payment or other issues once a landlord files for eviction.

With your help, we know that we can help combat the growing housing crisis in Delaware by keeping people in their homes. Please send a message to your House representative and House leadership today asking them to pass SB 101, the right to representation bill, NOW.

Urgent action: send a message to the House of Representatives to support renters' right to representation.

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Your Message

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Subject

I’m writing today to ask you to support SS 1 for SB 101, the right to representation bill. As Delaware grapples with the effects of an ongoing pandemic and evictions ramp up across the state, renters are facing evictions without the help they desperately need to connect to resources, help pay arrears, and stay in their homes. But SS 1 for SB 101 can help!

Message Body

The recent housing displacement situation in RD 2 is a prime and horrific example of why SB 101 is so desperately needed. A.J. Pokorny’s renters had been living in unsafe conditions for decades, meanwhile, Pokorny was ensuring a profit from those unsafe properties, taking renters to court — often for less than $500 in arrears — and nearly always settling or winning his cases. If those renters had been provided access to representation in those proceedings, then perhaps Pokorny’s practices would have been brought to light sooner, which would have forced him to take care of his properties. But because odds are stacked in favor of landlords, and because renters rarely have the kind of representation that knows the Delaware Landlord-Tenant code well enough to push back, dozens of Pokorny’s renters are now left homeless at no fault of their own.

SB 101 is a common-sense bill that aims to do one thing: make eviction proceedings more fair. Landlords, renters, and the State of Delaware all stand to benefit from SB 101.

Giving low-income renters a right to representation to connect to resources and stay in their homes can’t wait any longer. This bill is a housing justice issue, a racial justice issue, and an economic justice issue — and we need your support on this. Please pass SS1 for SB 101 NOW.

Sincerely,

[First Name] [Last Name]
[Your Address]

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URGENT: Final push to pass renters’ right to representation in 2022

Act Now

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