THREAD: @AGKarlRacine’s office is planning to appeal a ruling that landlords in DC are allowed to continue filing for evictions, even though they still are not allowed to carry them out until May 31. Today was the deadline to formally challenge it.

The DC Superior Court said that preventing landlords from filing for evictions violated landlords’ constitutional rights on Dec. 16. Street Sense Media covered the ruling here: https://www.streetsensemedia.org/article/dc-eviction-moratorium-covid-19-2/#.YAGl_WaZMdU

The DC Council banned evictions in March 2020. Between March and May, landlords filed over 1,000 eviction complaints, until the council banned filing complaints in early May.

Evictions remained banned, but having an eviction filed against you can be almost as harmful as actually being evicted, as Street Sense reported in December. https://www.streetsensemedia.org/article/eviction-record-sealing-bill-council/#.YAGo12aZMdU

. @ShreeyaAranake wrote, “Landlords make little distinction between an eviction complaint and an actual eviction when screening potential tenants, according to advocates. If either shows up on a potential tenant’s record, their rental application will most likely be denied.”

In fact, in DC 94.5% of eviction complaints never result in an eviction, according to @eva_rosen. But “public eviction records thus create a sort of blacklist that leaves a lasting mark on tenants that have experience of the eviction process,” she said.

Since earlier this week, @_ONEDC has been mounting an online campaign demanding Racine challenge the ruling by Judge Anthony Epstein.