Eviction Turn-Around

Nancy Andrews

Washington Post

Carolyn Clarke and her family were evicted, the returned home after neighbors and community leaders intervened and paid the back rent and fines on her public housing apartment. Community activists and residents contend that the Washington D.C. housing authority is too harsh with evictions, questioning where dependent children would be able to live if removed from public housing, the housing of last resort. The Clarke family was evicted as part of the Housing Authority's new initiative to crack down on delinquent tenants. The Clarke family had lived in a homeless shelter prior to moving into public housing in 1995. Here Gregory Clarke, age 7, peers from behind a neighbor's door as he watches the eviction debate take place in the Stoddard Terrace courtyard. His family was about to be evicted because his mother owed more than $6,000 in back rent and fines for their public housing.

Nancy Andrews , "Eviction Turn-Around," in POYi Archive, Item #28046, http://archive.poy.org/items/show/28046 (accessed November 23, 2024).