Sandra Brown is late for eviction court. It’s 9:15 am on Friday, July 13, and after missing two buses, Brown says she lost her balance and hit her knee—hard—on the bus ride downtown. The driver offered to call an ambulance for Brown, who looks to be in her early 60s. She refused.
“I didn’t want to get evicted,” says Brown with a laugh. “I’ll go to the hospital later.”
Dressed in a flowery jumpsuit and clutching a manila folder, she hurriedly limps down the halls of the Multnomah County Courthouse and slips into Room 120, joining the usual congregation of bored-looking landlord lawyers and anxious tenants sitting before Judge Benjamin Johnston.
Like the majority of Portland renters who end up in eviction court, Brown is here because her landlord claims she didn’t pay her rent. The organization serving as Brown’s landlord—Portland’s public housing authority, Home Forward—says she skipped a September 2017 rent payment for her North Portland apartment. Brown refutes the claim. According to her, Home Forward has since refused to accept her last two rent checks. Now Home Forward is asking her to cover the September rent, the past two months’ rent, and a number of late fees, for a bill totaling $475. If she pays, Brown won’t be forced to immediately vacate her studio apartment, which she’s called home for four years. She’ll also avoid getting stuck with an eviction on her rental history record—a damning mark that would likely hurt her chances of renting a home in the future.
But Brown doesn’t have the funds. Usually, this would mean an eviction is certain. Today, however, is an exception to that rule.
