Law.com just ran an article about some fallout from a lawsuit by the family of two daughters who were essentially enslaved by a Berkeley, CA landlord. The particular issue from the article – a malpractice dispute over the fees their attorneys are entitled to – is not of so much interest here. But the underlying case that led to this point was pretty horrific.
A landlord named Lakireddy Bali Reddy had brought over these two sisters from India. They spoke only Telegu – no English whatsoever – and they did maintenance work on his apartments. Though people in the community always had a sense there was something not quite right about the arrangement, nothing happened until one tragic day when one of the girls died. They had been living in one of Reddy's apartments with a faulty gas radiator and one of them died of carbon monoxide poisoning. This was discovered when a neighbor saw Reddy's workers struggling with a large carpet roll they were trying to shove into a van, and the other girl crying hysterically on the sidewalk. The neighbor offered help and was told to mind their own business. The neighbor called the police anyway, which led to the whole mess finally being uncovered.
But Mr. Reddy wasn't just any horrible Berkeley landlord – as an undergrad (and a few years thereafter) he was MY horrible Berkeley landlord. He was the kind of landlord who would try to get away with as much as he could from his tenants, who rarely had the resources (particularly in terms of knowledge, time, or money) to fight back. I did fight back, however. When he took me to the rent board to raise my rent, I fought back for overcharges and lack of repairs. The whole thing dragged on for quite some time, but I stuck with it, and eventually he settled with me for a significant amount of money (and from that point on he treated me much better as a tenant, although my neighbors who had not challenged him were still subject to the previous status quo).
I was lucky, though: back then, as a scared, green, young adult, I had the assistance of local public interest organizations to help me navigate the process. I wrote in my application for my upcoming job was that I'm grateful to the community that had once helped me, and I'm glad to be able to finally return the favor.