Posted June 12, 20231:11 pm
By Colleen Cotter, Executive Director of The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland
Thriving communities are built on residents' access to stability and opportunity, especially with regard to housing. The justice system's role in ensuring that stability cannot be overstated.
But Ohio's lack of unification of its court system presents an obstacle to stable housing: In Cuyahoga County alone, there are 13 separate municipal courts that have jurisdiction over the thousands of eviction cases filed each year. This means that landlords and tenants navigate up to 13 divergent sets of rules, fees and norms. These differences increase complexity and reduce predictability for all parties, hindering those seeking justice: It is bad for landlords' business, bad for communities and even worse for tenants facing homelessness.
Counties have an innate interest in remedying this problem. Stable home occupancy (whether by ownership or tenancy) generates benefits that flow through the entire community. Eviction diversion efforts promote stability, enabling both landlords and renters to do business and obtain housing in a coherent regulatory space.
Ultimately, eviction diversion is foundational to consistent income and county property tax collection. And eviction diversion lowers health and human services costs faced by the county. But no individual municipality is able to create the uniformity and stability that would allow these benefits to be fully realized — only the county has the broad reach necessary to do this. Only the county realizes the full return on investment with eviction diversion.
How can Cuyahoga County implement changes that would mitigate the effects of our fragmentary, ununified court system? It can be a leader by using the power of the pocketbook to incentivize municipalities to follow that path to a more just system. In 1984, America established the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. Unable to demand that states establish 21 years old as their drinking age, the federal government used this act to reduce non-compliant states' highway funding by 8% — a life-saving measure that saw a 16% median decline in motor vehicle crashes.
Following that example, Cuyahoga County can take the lead and set aside funds to create grant-based programs to incentivize the 13 municipal courts to participate in an eviction diversion program and create other procedural changes that would increase efficiencies and realization of justice.
In Cuyahoga County, we are fortunate that we are not starting from scratch. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, local housing advocates encouraged Cuyahoga County to explore eviction diversion incentives to mitigate the damage to communities and housing markets caused by the pandemic.
A grant program from Cuyahoga County can incentivize standard outreach and procedural efficiencies across all 13 municipal courts. And, local courts would need this support— as effective eviction diversion efforts require investment and staffing.
Outreach efforts ahead of an eviction filing ensure that parties know their rights and responsibilities, helping them understand that options like rent assistance and mediation can bring parties together to find solutions that don't involve the expense and detrimental effects of an eviction filing.
By connecting parties to critical resources within the community — like Legal Aid — outreach can ensure parties explore all potential options for resolution before an eviction is filed.
This model of incentives through grants could be used even in cases where evictions are filed. For example, the county can encourage via a grant program the implementation of procedural changes that increase efficiencies, reduce the burden on the parties involved and realize justice.
Court processes can increase the number of tenants who are able to obtain representation, which is not guaranteed in most municipalities' eviction cases (to the detriment of renters and the community). The county can also incentivize courts to separate claims for eviction filings and monetary damages, ensuring courts and parties focus on the most critical issue: eviction and housing stability. This innovative change has already been put in place in the Bedford and Lyndhurst municipal courts.
The county has a vested interest in keeping people housed, but housing stability is often dictated by a court process outside the county's control. An incentive grant from the county to municipal courts can help unify our courts and create a fair playing field for all.
Published in Crain's Cleveland Business: Cuyahoga County can create housing stability with eviction diversion