The first time I went to court, as a brand new lawyer, I represented a tenant who was being sued for eviction by the local housing authority. My client was not in court with me that day because she had no transportation. I offered her a ride, but she did not show up at my office that morning. As I left the courthouse I was very glad to have a few minutes alone. The judge had ruled against us, in favor of the housing authority, because I had not been allowed to raise any defense on my client’s behalf. As I got in my car, I tried to formulate a way to tell my client that she had twenty-four hours to vacate her apartment.
When I got back to the office, my client was in the waiting room. I sat down beside her and told her that we had lost, that she would need to get out of the apartment immediately. She asked me, “Where will I go?” I had no answer. She had no family, no close friends, not even a car in which to sleep. Eviction from subsidized housing is the deadest of dead-ends.
For me, this was an inauspicious beginning to a legal career that has actually gone fairly well. For the client, on the other hand, it was one long step toward joining the ranks of the homeless. That feeling of utter helplessness has never left me.