Few people realize that even if you win a court case against your landlord, its very existence will continue to haunt you. It could be that you didn’t pay rent for legitimate reasons, like having no heat or water. But tenants are still getting blackballed from future rentals, as if even asserting your rights against a landlord is offensive.

“It’s wildly unfair,” Jessica Kitson of Volunteer Lawyers for Justice says. “We have clients living without heat, without hot water. They can’t find a new place. They have an eviction filing on their record that is being used against them.”