CLEVELAND, Ohio — A growing number of Americans, faced with housing costs that have risen far more than wages, struggle with housing instability.
One consequence is a rise in evictions, 2.3 million of which were filed in the U.S. in 2016, for a rate of four per minute, according to the Eviction Lab at Princeton University.
New legislation, introduced in the U.S. Senate in December by Sens. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, and Michael Bennet, a Colorado Democrat, aims to address the root causes of eviction. Housing experts say evictions are not just the result of poverty, but are a cause of it, perpetuating homelessness, joblessness and a host of other negative outcomes.
Portman on Friday delivered the keynote address to a Legal Aid Society of Cleveland event for public officials, where he explained that the intent of the Eviction Crisis Act is to stop preventable evictions from happening, collect and analyze more data on evictions, and mitigate the effect an eviction filing can have on a tenant’s ability to find new housing.
The bill is not a panacea, he said, “but I think it is an important step in solving the systemic problem.”
AFFORDABILITY CRISIS
The U.S. is in the midst of an affordable housing shortage. People across the country are putting more of their paycheck toward housing. The burden is highest for low-income Americans, who spend larger shares of their income on housing.
In the Cleveland-Elyria metro area in 2018, for example, households with an annual income of less than $15,000 spent more than 70% of their income on housing, according to an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.
In Ohio, eviction rates in six cities (Akron, Dayton, Toledo, Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland) rank among the top 100 in the country, according to Eviction Lab.
And in Cuyahoga County, which has an eviction rate of 3.74%, more than 17,000 evictions were filed in 2016.
EVICTION CRISIS ACT
Portman and Bennet’s bill would:
• Create an eviction database, as well as an eviction advisory council of housing experts, at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
• Create a program to fund state and local governments that want to experiment with alternatives to traditional housing courts, such as landlord-tenant community courts that combine a legal process with social services to help both landlords and tenants.
• Create an Emergency Assistance Fund to provide one-time grants to tenants facing an extraordinary financial setback.
• Require consumer reporting agencies to give tenants a copy of their tenant screening report, and require tenant background checks to not mention evictions where the tenant won their case in housing court.
In many eviction cases, tenants owe a relatively modest sum. Eviction Lab data collected from 22 states between 2014 and 2016 puts the median money judgment at $1,253. In many cases, The New York Times recently reported, many tenants owe less than $600.
Under Portman’s legislation, local communities could set up emergency assistance funds that would receive matching contributions from the federal government.
“An unexpected illness. If a car breaks down. If someone has fallen on hard times because of a family emergency. Often there is an eviction that is preventable, but for $300, $400, $500,” Portman said. “That’s what we’re trying to address.”
The bill would not assist renters who are habitually behind on payments.
“People should pay rent. But sometimes people can’t,” Portman said.
Helping out those who may just need a one-time boost is beneficial not just for tenants, but also for landlords who would rather be made whole and not have to incur the cost of filing an eviction, as well as taxpayers who foot the bill for social services, he said.
The bill has been referred to the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and so far Sens. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, and Todd Young, an Indiana Republican, have signed on as co-sponsors. It has the support of dozens of housing, civil rights and homelessness organizations across the country, and according to Portman’s office has not garnered any formal opposition from real-estate or landlord groups.
Still, Portman acknowledged the potential difficulty in getting any traction on the legislation this year. Members of Congress may be more focused on matters such as the presidential election and the coronavirus, for example, than housing affordability.
“Can it get passed this year? Probably not,” he said. “But maybe. Even if they can’t, we want to have hearings, we want to have a mark-up, we want to move the legislation forward.”
RIGHT TO COUNSEL
The legislation was drafted with the help of the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, which is now preparing for another major eviction-prevention effort: Cleveland’s new right-to-counsel law, which is just the fourth of its kind in the country. The ordinance guarantees legal counsel to low-income tenants with children who are facing eviction.
Legal Aid attorneys said Friday the nonprofit organization is in the midst of hiring additional staff to help meet the heavier caseload Legal Aid will have come July, when the legislation goes into effect. Starting then, Legal Aid will send out letters with housing court summonses, informing tenants they may be eligible for legal representation.
Read more:
What stories about eviction should we be telling? Calling All Readers
New home-repair loan becomes available in NE Ohio, but advocates urge stronger consumer protections
A criminal record is 'a never-ending sentence’ for Cuyahoga County housing applicants, report says
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