In the overheated U.S. housing market, just complaining about a leaky ceiling can land you on the street.
Randy Dillard was living with five kids in a four-bedroom house in the Bronx when he informed his landlord of a persistent drip. Dillard rented his $1,800-a-month home near the New York Botanical Garden with help from the federal government’s Housing Choice Voucher program. So when his pleas were ignored, the local housing authority administering the vouchers cut off the landlord’s payments. Rather than prompt compliance, the move had the opposite effect: The landlord tried to evict Dillard…
