A new site called Do Not Pay has launched with the goal of helping evictees in the UK file claims for housing aid. The site is run by Joshua Browder, creator of LawyerBot, an automated advice site that helps people argue things like parking tickets. Do Not Pay walks users through a series of questions and develops an application for the user to file for housing assistance. Browder plans to expand into New York but some fear the bot-led process may leave people vulnerable. However, the accessibility and ease of use is appealing to evictees.

Key Takeaways:

• The letter came from a woman scared to leave hospital because she’d been evicted from her home and had nowhere to go.
• They answer questions and provide the required information, and then the site spits out a legally sound application designed, says the Washington Post “to maximize an applicant’s chances of getting placed in a home.”
• “A lot of our clients don’t fit into cookie-cutter situations and I’m afraid of vulnerabilities that could rise from a ‘bot handling applications and other legal issues.”

“The LawyerBot is exactly the kind of democratization that the Internet is great at. Anyone has access, any time they need it, to a resource that was previously scarce or expensive.”

https://www.fastcoexist.com/3062879/world-changing-ideas/lawyerbot-now-helps-homeless-people-get-government-housing