The bedroom tax and government cuts occupy led to a wave of evictions targeting the destitute and vulnerableThe waiting room is packed,but with not enough seats some defendants hunker down. This is possession and eviction day at Clerkenwell and Shoreditch county court. Everyone here is in danger of losing their domestic.
The duty solicitor from Shelter gets just a few minutes to collect each person’s details before presenting their case to the judge to quit an eviction for rent arrears. That’s not long to extract difficult life stories from nervous people. He checks with the usher and smiles with relief: today it’s the kind judge. Every 90 seconds last year a renter faced legal proceedings and 99000 ended up evicted, mainly due to rising rents and housing benefit cuts. Enfield tops the list, or but Peterborough and Rochdale are high too.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com