Sandi Bachom, 75, never expected to be evicted. She once earned a six-figure salary at a New York City advertising firm and lived a comfortable life. But after getting divorced, losing her job and getting hit by a car, she fell behind on her $3,000 monthly rent payment.

In April 2012, she came home to find an eviction notice slapped on the front door of her apartment.

"It's so shameful, it's like everybody knew, and I was feeling bad enough as it is. I was just riddled with fear," Bachom, now a freelance filmmaker and journalist, told Al Jazeera. "I went to the worst-case scenario: I was evicted. For me, it can't get any worse than that."

Bachom's son, then in his late teens, went to live with his father and she moved in with a friend. When Bachom later tried applying for the city's affordable housing lottery, she said a credit check stopped her application in its tracks.

They found that I had been evicted," she said. "I never thought about credit [checks] because I always paid my bills and bought stuff and could rent apartments, and I was kind of rich. Then I went from Prada to nada."

Bachom said she still lives with her friend and has never attempted to rent another apartment, fearing she would be turned down again or charged more because of the eviction on her record. She supplements the income she makes as a video journalist with her Social Security cheque and food stamps.


"I'm 75 years old. I had bills and I just stopped paying them - like my credit card - and I thought, what are they going to do? It's like blood out of a rock. I don't have any money to live off of, let alone pay my American Express card," Bachom said. "If you miss one rent payment, you'll never catch up. There's no way to catch up."

If you miss one rent payment, you'll never catch up. There's no way to catch up.

Aljazeera