Attorneys Volunteer Services To Help Tenants During COVID-19 Crisis

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A lot of people who rent either can't pay their bills or they are having issues with their landlords during the COVID-19 crisis. CBS 2 found attorneys volunteering their time working for Chicago, helping people like one Chicago woman who was just trying to move out.

"I brought my father with me to move all the heavy furniture. When I got to the apartment my landlord was blocking the door from me entering and said that my father was not allowed on the property, he wasn't allowed to stay overnight in my apartment and that I needed to hire movers because they were official," said Amanda Rockwell. "She said that she learned all this information from new coronavirus guidelines.

So Amanda turned to a group called Rentervention. The Lawyers' Committee for Better Housing is providing free legal and supportive services to lower income renters. In partnership with Legal Aid Chicago and DLA Piper and other firms lawyers volunteer twice a month to provide brief advice to tenants in the hallways of Chicago courthouses. As courthouses are shuttered tenants can continue to receive those services over the phone and through Rentervention, which is web-based.

"Having a rental agreement is, you have rights and access to property," said attorney and Lawyers' Committee for Better Housing coordinator Julie Pautsch. "She had a right to move and have guests there. I think everybody is a little scared."

And those are just a few issues the attorneys are seeing. Many have to do with the moratorium on evictions.

"Renters are confused," said Anne Geraghty Helms, DLA Piper director and Counsel of U.S. Pro Bono Programs. "There's this moratorium, but what does that mean for them in the long run? What resources might be available to help them? And that's where I think lawyers can be so powerful."

"We've also seen a lot of tenants be locked out of their apartments," said Pautsch. "That's been kind of rising, so instead of dealing with the court process, evictions and things like that, landlords kind of take it into their own hands."

Amanda has some advice for people who might find themselves in a situation like hers.

"Don't let anyone intimidate you and tell you law is set in stone without researching it yourself," Amanda said.