Is Rent Court Fair?

Each year, more than six thousand Baltimore renters are evicted. Landlords can start eviction proceedings the day the rent is overdue, and landlords take about a hundred and fifty thousand tenants to court. Tenant advocates say the system favors landlords and creates a “frictionless” path toward eviction. Representatives of property owners argue the process is already slowed by the volume of cases, and that slowing it further would place an unfair burden on landlords. Jessica Lewis, of the Right to Housing Alliance, and Kathy Kelly Howard, of Maryland Multi-Housing Association, take us through the eviction process, from both points of view, and to debate the merits of reforms proposed in the General Assembly.