Posted May 13, 20203:53 pm
Written by the Editorial Board and The Plain Dealer in Cleveland.com on 05/13/2020
The pandemic economy is squeezing renters as well as low-income homeowners, setting the stage for what many experts fear will be a surge of evictions.
Most housing courts in Ohio followed state Supreme Court guidance to impose a moratorium on regular evictions during the pandemic. But now, some in the Cleveland suburbs have already started hearing regular evictions again, according to the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland. Cleveland Housing Court, which handles by far the largest number of eviction cases locally, is due to start new hearings June 15.
All such courts face not just an evictions backlog, but also the likelihood that eviction caseloads will accelerate, as renters and mortgagees both fall behind in their payments because of lost jobs and income. Affordable housing experts warn of a crisis that could toss families on the streets when the coronavirus is still with us and there are few safe housing options for newly homeless families.
The challenge is to find a good balance that doesn’t create new crises, by trying to minimize unnecessary homelessness for tenants and provide more options for landlords.
What needs to happen?
* Housing courts need to be ready with innovative efforts to help landlords and mortgage companies find middle ground, to keep families in their homes if possible. Among new tools: expanded rental assistance programs and a new right-to-counsel project in Cleveland evictions that launches July 1. Cleveland Housing Court and its partners are also hosting a free virtual workshop May 30 for Cleveland landlords. (To register: https://tinyurl.com/y9ncfw4y)
* Since evictions are “equitable proceedings,” courts can go beyond considering just the law; they can -- and should -- consider how the parties have been impacted by COVID-19.
* Cuyahoga County and other communities should consider using some of their federal coronavirus CARES Act funding to underwrite efforts similar to Cleveland’s to help mitigate evictions in the suburbs.
* Landlords and mortgage holders should show forbearance and draw on new resources, such as rental assistance, to limit evictions, in ways that could benefit all parties. Last week, Sen. Sherrod Brown introduced legislation seeking to create a federal $100 billion emergency rental assistance fund.
* Unused Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) money provides a potential source of state and local funding to help shore up housing security. The Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio has called on Gov. Mike DeWine to free up $35 million in unused TANF money to underwrite its housing program for homeless families. COHHIO estimates that more than 630,000 Ohio renters have been laid off thanks to the pandemic. These jobless men and women “owe a combined total of more than $500 million in rent each month,” it says.
In Cuyahoga County, low-income renters who are at or below 200% of federal poverty guidelines ($52,400 for a family of four) -- and who have a minor child in the home and are in imminent risk of homelessness -- can now apply for emergency TANF money to help clear rent arrears or pay rent, security and utility deposits. The money, provided through COHHIO, is only available until June 30. (Go to edeninc.org.)
In Cleveland, the city’s landmark $7 million three-year public-private effort is about to launch in partnership with Legal Aid and the United Way to provide legal counsel to families facing evictions.
The effort will begin soon after Cleveland Housing Court is due to reopen -- an important and needed confluence of forward-looking public policy with urgent public need.
Provisions of the congressional CARES Act do protect some renters from eviction. However, those provisions only benefit a fraction of renters, the Ohio Poverty Law Center has found: renters in federally assisted rental housing; renters who receive rural housing vouchers; and renters in properties whose property owners have federally backed mortgages.
Some mortgage companies are enjoying coronavirus relief, too -- definitely so, if they have federally guaranteed mortgages, but also, in some cases, for private mortgage holders. In eviction cases, fairness arguments would have to balance such relief against renters’ obligations.
Flexibility in the housing market is sorely needed, for a variety of reasons: to keep courts from being overwhelmed by eviction proceedings; but also to keep landlords from having to choose a no-win option for everyone -- making someone homeless at a time of widespread hardship and unemployment, while needing to find a new tenant at a time when it may be difficult to do so.