Three homeless men recently filed a class action lawsuit against six Washington area eviction companies alleging minimum wage violations.

In the April issue of Street Sense, it was reported that several eviction agencies were recruiting homeless people to facilitate evictions and paying them significantly less than the area minimum wage laws indicate. This article prompted the lawsuit, according to Lee Berger, who is the lead attorney on the case and an associate of the law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton.

Berger said that he was outraged when he read the article and decided to look into the matter further. After four months of research and dozens of interviews, he determined that this practice is similar among all area eviction companies, is widespread around the D.C. area and its suburbs, and has been going on for more than a decade.

"If you add it up over the years, tens of thousands of individuals were violated," Berger said. "The scope of the problem is much larger than I originally thought."

The suit, which was filed on Sept. 1 with the help of the National Coalition of the Homeless, claims that the companies paid the plaintiffs in the case between $1.67 and $2.50 per hour. This is in violation of D.C.'s minimum wage of $7 an hour, and Maryland and Virginia's minimum wage of $6.15 an hour.

The suit also alleges that the eviction companies committed violations of antitrust trust laws in these jurisdictions since all of the companies were paying the same, equally low wage, with no exceptions.

"Apparently all of companies were paying the same amount, which was $5 for an eviction," Berger said. "This parallel conduct does not happen in a fair market. Paying identical wages in equal violation of law requires some conspiracy."

The plaintiffs in the case, Kirk Green, Anthony Forte, and Jake Ashford, who is a Street Sense vendor, would not comment on the case. However, Allen Jones, a Street Sense vendor who performed evictions in the past said he was pleased that action has been taken against the eviction companies.

"The wages are unjust and its unfair they are using people like that," Jones said. "And the only way to get there attention is through legal matters and I hope this changes the system."

Many homeless people reported that multiple eviction agencies have been recruiting at locations throughout the Washington area. These locations include the homeless assistance organization So Others May Eat (SOME) located on North Capitol Street and near the vicinity of the Center for Creative Non-Violence Shelter located near Judiciary Square. (Neither service provider is a part of the suit, but both organizations have been working with the attorneys in the case.)

For each eviction, 10 to 25 workers were needed and each worker was paid an average of $5, with each job usually lasting an hour, not including travel time. Additionally, dozens of homeless people reported that, if an eviction got canceled, they were paid nothing even it they had spent hours waiting.

According to the lawsuit, on Aug. 1, one of the plaintiffs, Kirk Green, was picked up outside of SOME at around 8:30 a.m., and participated in three evictions, one in Prince George's County and two in Northwest D.C. He was paid $5 for each eviction, which took about three-and-a-half hours to complete with about two-and-a-half hours of travel time, equaling $2.50 per hour.

A man who identified himself as the manager of Butch Enterprises, Inc., a metro area eviction agency, said that all he could say was that "it isn't true," when asked about these practices.

None of the other agencies listed as defendants in the suit, including All American Eviction and East Coast Express Eviction, which were both mentioned in the April Street Sense article, returned calls.

Berger and other attorneys at his firm attempted to contact the eviction companies prior to filing the case and received no responses. Minimum wage laws require that the companies maintain payroll records showing each employee's name, rate of pay, hours worked and total wages paid in a pay period. Berger said that these documents have the potential to clear up the controversy, but that none of the companies listed as defendants have made them available.

The attorneys in the case are still attempting to serve all of the eviction companies involved with notice of the complaint. Once they receive the complaint they have 20 days to respond.

While these alleged violations have potentially affected thousands of people, Berger said finding homeless people who agree to be named as plaintiffs is difficult due to their fear of being blacklisted. They interviewed about two dozen people until they came up with their lead three.

Jane Hamilton, an attorney with Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, said that the plaintiffs were aware that they were being taken advantage of but thought there was nothing they could do about it.

"The named plaintiffs were outraged by it, as they should be," Hamilton said. "My sense is that they went on with it because they needed work at any pay, and they didn't know what recourse they had."

Michael Stoops, acting director for NCH, said that he sees this lawsuit having not only an effect on eviction companies' practices but also on the way day laborers are paid in general.

"I see it having a far-reaching impact on how day laborers are treated in the city," Stoops said, adding that NCH is considering bringing day laborer reform legislation to the city council.

Stoops is encouraging more homeless people that have been involved in these evictions to come forward, as more testimony and plaintiffs would make the case even stronger.

If you have been hired to perform evictions in the past four years, the statue of limitations in the court case, and would like to discuss your experience and possibly be part of the suit, please contact the National Coalition for the Homeless at (202) 462-4822.