The story behind a nine-month investigation into the flawed eviction system in D.C. and how false affidavits are impeding renters’ rights.
Josh Kaplan (@js_kaplan) discusses how he went about researching, reporting and writing his blockbuster investigation in the DCist: “Thousands of D.C. Renters are Evicted Every Year. Do They All Know to Show up to Court?” The story also made the Longreads.com best of 2020 list.
Kaplan’s story chronicles how D.C.’s entire eviction system rests on tenants being notified that they need to come to court — yet many are not. After months of investigative shoe-leather reporting, Kaplan found that many sworn affidavits, which serve as the only evidence that tenants were ever told about their eviction hearings, were “demonstrably false.” He observed scores of eviction proceedings in Superior Court, pored over more than 13,000 pages of records, reviewed hours of security camera footage and came to the conclusion that more than 600 eviction cases in two months would’ve likely been dismissed had the judge been aware of an affidavit discrepancy.
This story was featured as one of 2020’s best investigative reports on Longreads.com. Kaplan is a freelance reporter based in Brooklyn. He was previously a senior reporting fellow at ProPublica, and before that, he wrote an investigative column on criminal justice for Washington City Paper.
NYFWA board member and Bloomberg reporter Olivia Carville (@livcarville) moderates.
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