Did you know that as of June 2021, 7 million households are delinquent in rent payments[1]?

After attending the American Library Association Conference 2021 session Government Documents Round Table (GODORT) Chair’s Program: The Evictions Crisis & the Role Libraries Can Play I began to think about what my law library can do to help prevent Riverside County residents from being evicted. I also thought about what long-term preventative resources can the library offer. 

The first panelist, Deborah Thrope, Deputy Director of National Housing Law Project shared a PowerPoint presentation with an overview of evictions in the United States currently.  One statistic shared stated that nationally 1 out of 4 people spend more than ½ their income on housing.

Sharon, the second panelist, is the Executive Director of Greater Syracuse Tenants Network. She discussed the digital divide citing resources that are available online are not accessible to people who lack access to internet or broadband. She cited libraries as playing a role to offer access to computers to reach online resources.

The panel concluded with a Kim Morrell, staff attorney from Legal Assistance of Western New York in Ithaca, New York. She pointed out that federal and state moratoriums are not blanket stoppages on evictions. If you fill out the eviction protection declaration, you still must qualify.

How We can Help

Aside from referring patrons to local legal aid organizations, the Riverside County Law Library has resources to help you in your eviction or landlord/tenant issue.

• We have free, remote and in-person access to NOLO legal books on our EbscoHost database. Some titles include: Renter’s Rights Basics and Every Tenant’s Legal Guide. EbscoHost houses complete digital copies of NOLO titles and when using the database you can email sections of the title to yourself or if you’re in the library you can print off  the sections you need. 
• We have access to CEB print materials in-person and digitally on the CEB database on one of our public computers. CEB guides are separated by legal topic, with landlord/tenant found in Real Property. The guides offer detailed legal procedure in easy to understand terms.
• We have six public computers accessible for up to one hour along with a public copier/printer. The computers provide internet access, Microsoft Office access, pleading paper templates and connections to all our legal databases. Printing is .15 cents a page for black and white and color is .30 cents a page.
• We have Reference Librarians that can search for legal information for your case and instruct you in searching for information on your own. Fill out a reference request here. 

Online Resources from the ALA session:

• National Low Income Housing Coalition has a listing of local programs that are disbursing rental assistance funds
• Eviction Lab for stats like which cities have the highest eviction rate (Riverside ranks #122) and ranks policies that your state provides (California rates 1.5 stars out of 5).
• National Law Housing Project which has a covid-19 resources page 
• CDC Eviction Protection Declaration is a form from the Centers for Disease Control and for Prevention that is for protection against evictions.
• National Council of State Housing Agencies has a housing assistance page 

We are dedicated to providing free and open access to the law to our community, especially on the issue of evictions or landlord/tenant. We hope to mitigate the digital divide by providing free computer and Wi-Fi access to our patrons and assist our patrons in locating legal information helpful to their situation.

[1] https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2021/demo/hhp/hhp33.html

Written by: Jenna Pontious, Public Services Librarian