Landlords, Tenants Flood Eviction Court : Recession: As the economy puts the squeeze on everyone, rent disputes that might once have been settled over coffee are going before a judge.

Hard times have driven a record number of people to the city’s housing court, where hundreds of tenants line up each Thursday to battle landlords trying to evict them.

The court heard 4,937 eviction cases in the 12 months ending in June, a 26% rise over the previous year and the most in the 20 years it has kept records.

“We’ve had jumps before, but never like this,” said Harvey Chopp, executive secretary of the Housing Court Department.

And Boston isn’t unique. Nationwide, as the economy puts the squeeze on tenants and landlords alike, rent disputes that might once have been settled over coffee are going to court.

“It sounds almost stupid because it’s self-evident, but the poverty level has increased and the number of affordable housing units has decreased,” said Steven Banks, coordinating attorney for the Legal Aid Society’s Homeless Family Rights Project in New York.

Other experts agreed with Banks’ assessment, but said there are no nationally compiled figures for evictions.

Boston’s busy housing court hears eviction cases only on Thursdays. A few years ago it might have handled 120 cases a day. Now, 200 or more people line up at 9 a.m. sharp to wait their turn.

Jerniono McFadden came to face off with his landlord over the most common eviction issues--rent and repairs.

McFadden complained that his two-bedroom apartment in the city’s Roxbury section was infested with cockroaches and had a ramshackle door that allowed thieves to break in.

But McFadden admitted that he had fallen three months behind on his $380 monthly rent after being laid off.

“I know the man needs his money,” McFadden said, “but I offered to pay him what I could. He’s just trying to get us evicted.”

Things aren’t much easier for many landlords. Steve Thomas said he was in housing court to fight a tenant who hadn’t paid rent in 19 months.

Thomas said when he began eviction procedures, the tenant claimed the apartment was in disrepair. Thomas said when he tried to perform repairs, the tenant changed the apartment’s locks.

The last straw came, Thomas said, when the tenant assaulted him and his wife with a knife. Since then, Thomas said he has been in and out of court, spending $4,000 in legal fees at a time when he is hurting financially.

The experience has left him bitter.

“It used to be, if the rent was two weeks late, no sweat,” Thomas said. “Those days are gone.”

Bank foreclosures, spurred by the weakened real estate market, are also driving up evictions, leading the state’s highest court to rule recently that people whose homes are foreclosed upon can’t immediately be evicted.

Drugs are another reason. About four tenants a week are evicted in Boston for drug-related crimes--the second most common reason for evictions after non-payment of rent.

Whatever the causes, evictions take a human toll when evicted tenants end up on the streets, or landlords are left in financial ruin.

“This isn’t Pennzoil vs. Texaco,” said Allen Feinstein, a Boston attorney who handles many eviction cases, referring to a celebrated corporate takeover battle of the 1980s. “It’s the lives of two people.”