I assume you'red still a renter, so this stuff still directly affects you? One thing to consider is that moving gets more difficult the more family you've got. I'm not sure a family with two kids could move on a month's notice, especially given that moving also involves finding a new place.

I've had much better experiences with professional landlords than amateur ones, although I've only gone through three landlords at this point. We lost power to half our upstairs, and our landlord took two weeks to fix it. Tenants' rights is supposed to protect people in situations like that. But we couldn't have just up and moved to show the landlord they were doing a bad job — it was during the school year and I was working long hours. And there was a lease and a security deposit to lose. We're also pretty sure our last place was an illegal rental — unlicensed and never inspected. It is my impression that Philadelphia, at least, needs to do a better job of enforcing the regulations they have, and that less regulation would lead to even more abuses by landlords.

It seems really strange to hear somebody talk about tenants' rights like they're a bad thing. I don't think I've ever heard anyone do that before. But then, I've always rented in cities (NY, Philly) with strong tenant protections. What city does your friend who is being evicted live in?