Click here for a quick and easy “Know Your Rights” reference card (in English and Spanish, updated 10/2020) with COVID-19 legal info related to housing, employment, money, benefits, immigration, education and family issues.

Need a volume of these info cards?  Call 216-861-5889 to request some for use in community distribution of food boxes, home school packets and for use with other outreach.

Click here for a quick and easy reference (in English and Spanish, updated 10/2020) with how to ask questions or get legal help during the coronavirus pandemic.

This flyer is printable for use by community partners in food boxes, home school packets and for use with other outreach.

Every Worker has Rights at Work, Including Undocumented Workers

Minimum Wage: Most workers have the right to be paid the current minimum wage in Ohio. For the current rate, check: https://www.dol.gov/whd/minwage/america.htm

If you make tips at work, the amount you make in tips plus the amount you make per hour must add up to at least the minimum wage rate.

Overtime Pay: Most workers have the right to overtime pay when they work over 40 hours in a workweek. The overtime rate is one and one-half (1½) times your rate of pay. For example, a $10/ hour regular rate would be a $15/hour overtime rate ($10 x 1.5 = $15).

Discrimination and Sexual Harassment: You have the right to a workplace that is free from sexual harassment and discrimination based on your race, color, sex (including pregnancy), religion, disability, national origin, ancestry, military status and age.

You also have the right to participate in any claim or investigation about these issues.

Organizing: You have the right to organize a union at work and talk about unionizing during nonwork hours (breaks). You also have the right to talk to your supervisor about problems at work that affect you or your coworkers.

Safety: You have the right to a safe workplace. Your work must provide and require the use of proper safety gear and safeguards. You cannot be forced to enter any workplace that is unsafe. You cannot be forced to perform work without proper safety gear or safeguards.

How to Protect Yourself

Document! Keep your own records of (1) what days you worked; (2) how many hours you worked each day; and (3) whether you took any breaks and how long.  Always compare your pay rate on your paystub to what you were actually paid and document any difference between the two.

Know Who You Are Working For!  Know the address and phone number for your workplace and the name of your supervisor.

Get Help! Get help as soon as you can when you believe that something may be wrong.

What to Do if Your Employer Owes You Pay

Call Legal Aid at 888.817.3777 or 216.687.1900.

File a complaint with the State of Ohio Bureau of Wage and Hour Administration at 614.644.2239.

Call the U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division at 866.487.9243 or 216.357.5400.

File a lawsuit in Small Claims Court for up to $6,000 in unpaid wages, plus interest and costs.

What to Do if You Were Discriminated Against or You Were Punished for Speaking Up About Your Rights

Call Legal Aid at 888.817.3777 or 216.687.1900.

If you were discriminated against, file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) at 800.669.4000 or the Ohio Civil Rights Commission (OCRC) at 216.787.3150.

If your right to organize was violated, file a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) at 216.522.3715.

What to Do if Your Workplace is Unsafe

Notify your supervisor or the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) at 216.447.4194.

Ask OSHA to inspect your workplace.

If you were discriminated against or punished because you filed a safety complaint with OSHA, you have 30 days to inform OSHA of the discrimination or retaliation by filing an additional complaint.

Request copies of your medical records from your doctor and collect other records that document your exposure to toxic or harmful chemicals.

What to Do if You Were Hurt on the Job

As soon as you are hurt:

1. 1. Get medical help;
   2. Tell your work you have been hurt. Let your supervisor know you have been hurt and ask if you need to fill out an accident report;
   3. Tell your doctor or emergency room the name of your health care organization that handles workers’ compensation claims. If you don’t know, find out from your workplace. This helps ensure your injury is counted as work related;
   4. Tell your pharmacist that any prescriptions you receive are related to treatment for an Ohio Worker’s Compensation claim;
   5. File a Workers’ Compensation claim with the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation.

What more info?

More information is available in this brochure published by Legal Aid: Employment Law

Learn about Ohio Landlord-Tenant Law through this new brochure published by Legal Aid.  Click here to see a PDF of the brochure.

In Ohio a Landlord has a duty to:

1. Keep the property in livable condition.
2. Keep the common areas clean and safe.
3. Comply with building, housing, health, and safety codes.
4. Keep in good working order all electrical, plumbing, heating, and ventilation equipment.
5. Maintain all appliances and equipment supplied by the landlord.
6. Provide running water, hot water and heat (unless the hot water and heat are controlled entirely by the tenant and supplied by a direct public utility hook-up).
7. Provide garbage cans and trash removal (if the landlord owns four or more residential units in the same building).
8. Give at least 24 hours notice, unless it is an emergency, before entering a tenant’s unit, and enter only at reasonable times and in a reasonable manner.
9. Evict the tenant when informed by a law enforcement officer of drug activity by the tenant, a member of the tenant’s household, or a guest of the tenant occurring in or otherwise connected with the tenant’s premises.

In Ohio a Tenant has a duty to:

1. Keep the property clean and safe.
2. Dispose of rubbish in the proper manner.
3. Keep the plumbing fixtures as clean as their condition permits.
4. Use electrical and plumbing fixtures properly.
5. Comply with housing, health, and safety codes that apply to tenants.
6. Refrain from damaging the property and keep guests from causing damage.
7. Maintain appliances supplied by the landlord in good working order.
8. Conduct yourself in a manner that does not disturb any neighbors and require guests to do the same.
9. Permit landlord to enter the dwelling unit if the request is reasonable and proper notice is given.
10. Comply with state or municipal drug laws in connection with the property and require household members and guests to do the same.

Are you recently unemployed? You can receive unemployment compensation benefits if you are unemployed (1) due to lack of work (laid off), (2) you were discharged without just cause, or (3) you quit  with just cause. This brochure outlines how to apply for unemployment benefits, what a Determination is, and how you can appeal an unfavorable Determination. Also included is information on what happens after a Redetermination is issued and steps you must take to continue receiving unemployment benefits after you apply. For more information and to apply for benefits online, you can visit https://unemployment.ohio.gov.

More information is available in this brochure published by Legal Aid: What You Need to Know About Unemployment Benefits

This brochure is also available in Spanish at: Lo que usted debe Conocer Acerca del Beneficio de Desempleo

Lost your job and your former employer will not give you your last paycheck? Here are some steps you can take. This brochure explains what you should do if you cannot get your last paycheck. (1) Remember to give back all company property, (2) wait until your regular payday has passed, and (3) make a request for your paycheck in writing if your payday has passed. If that  doesn’t  work, you may file a complaint with the Ohio Wage and Hour Bureau, call Legal Aid, or go to Small Claims Court.  Contact information is  included.

More information is available in this brochure published by Legal Aid: Can’t Get Your Last Pay Check?

Are you the victim of domestic abuse or violence? This brochure describes what domestic violence is, provides the numbers of local and national domestic violence hotlines, and outlines steps to take if you are a victim of abuse. It explains the importance of a Criminal Temporary Protection Order (TPO) and Civil Protection Order (CPO), the differences between the two, and how to file for each. The brochure also describes how to press for criminal charges and what to do if charges are filed and the abuser is convicted.

More information is available in this brochure published by Legal Aid: Domestic Violence: What Is It? What Can You Do About It?

This brochure is also available in Spanish at: Violencia Doméstica:  ¿Qué es?  ¿Qué puede hacer usted acerca de esto?

Ohio is now vaccinating adults age 65 and older and other select groups.  See eligible populations at  https://coronavirus.ohio.gov/static/vaccine/general_fact_sheet.pdf

Are you looking for information on accessing COVID-19 vaccines? Please visit the appropriate health department for your residency to learn more.

• Ashtabula County Health Department
• Cleveland Department of Health
• Cuyahoga County Board of Health
  • Question about COVID? Call MetroHealth’s COVID-19 hotline at 440-592-6843.
• Geauga County Public Health
• Lake County General Health District
• Lorain County Public Health

For information about where you can get a vaccine, visit https://vaccine.coronavirus.ohio.gov/

Is there help available to pay my mortgage in Cuyahoga County?

Yes, the Cuyahoga County Mortgage Assistance Program (MAP) provides one-time mortgage assistance to Cuyahoga County homeowners who meet the HUD income eligibility guidelines and who have difficulty paying their mortgages because of the financial impact of Covid-19.

The mortgage assistance funds are available for homeowners in most Cuyahoga County communities, but not Brecksville, Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, East Cleveland, Euclid, Hunting Valley, Lakewood or Parma.  Individuals who live in these communities and in counties other than Cuyahoga should call 2-1-1 to request referrals for foreclosure prevention/mortgage payment assistance.

How much mortgage assistance money is available?

Up to $2,000 per homeowner or per co-owners if property is jointly owned.

Will I have to pay the mortgage assistance money back?

Homeowners approved for mortgage assistance will sign a Note and Mortgage with Cuyahoga County for a 0% interest, deferred loan.  The homeowner will be required to pay off the loan upon transfer or sale of the property.  Homeowners will not be required to make monthly payments to pay off the mortgage assistance.

Am I eligible for this mortgage assistance?

To eligible for the Mortgage Assistance Program:

1. The property must be in Cuyahoga County, but not Brecksville, Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, East Cleveland, Euclid, Hunting Valley, Lakewood or Parma.
2. The homeowner must have a mortgage and must have missed one or more mortgage payments due to COVID.
3. The house must have no more than 2 units, and one must be the homeowner’s primary residence.
4. The homeowner’s income must be enough to cover mortgage payments after receipt of the mortgage assistance.
5. The household income must be under these income limits:

6. Homeowners with adjustable rate mortgages can only be assisted if their rate can be converted to a fixed rate as part of the workout, or the counseling agency determines that the homeowner can afford the highest possible rate under the existing loan terms.
7. Property taxes and insurance must be escrowed by the mortgage lender (if not currently escrowed, taxes/insurance must start being escrowed to receive mortgage assistance).
8. The homeowner must agree to attend one counseling session per quarter in the year following the execution of the County Note & Mortgage

How do I apply for the mortgage assistance program?

There are four housing counseling agencies that are processing applications for the Cuyahoga County mortgage assistance program and providing the financial counseling sessions.  Homeowners should contact one of the programs listed here:

CHN Housing Partners

216-881-8443

https://chnhousingpartners.org/

ESOP

216-361-0718

https://www.esop-cleveland.org/

Community Housing Solutions

216-231-5815

https://yourchs.org/

Breaking Chains, Inc.

216-464-0699

Financial Literacy & Housing Counseling Agency in Cleveland Ohio

How long will the program be available for?

The program started on 1/1/2021 and will end when funding runs out (no later than 12/21/2022).

Can I pay my property taxes through this program?

The payments are only for mortgage payments, not for direct property tax payments to the Cuyahoga County Treasurer’s Office.  If your property taxes are paid through an escrow account by your mortgage lender, the money can be used for that purpose.

I lost my job due to Covid-19 and am having trouble paying my bills. Am I eligible for rent assistance?

Do I qualify for utility assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Do I qualify for property tax payment assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic?

I have not received my Economic Impact Payment yet. Can I still receive it?

Am I eligible for the Prevention, Retention, Contingency (PRC) program benefits?

Is there help available to pay my mortgage in Cuyahoga County?

Food Access

The federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act of 2020 created the temporary food benefit program called Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) that will be issued through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) is partnering with the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) to ensure that families with children in kindergarten through twelfth grade receive the benefit. All school-age children that are eligible for free and reduced-price meals will receive P-EBT benefits. Each child is eligible for $5.70 for each day a school is closed due to COVID-19. For more information about the P-EBT benefits, see this flyer.  For questions about benefits, contact the ODJFS customer service line at 1.866.244.0071.

The Greater Cleveland Food Bank continues to provide food assistance to families in need throughout northeast Ohio.  Call the Help Center at 216.738.2067 if you need food assistance, Monday – Friday, 7 am – 6 pm.

Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) will continue meal service to all students during the shutdown of Ohio schools. Meals are free for all children in the city of Cleveland 18 and younger. Click here for a flyer with school meal pickup sites and shuttle information.

Aramark will provide emergency meals for Lorain City School District (LCSD) Monday through Friday at various sites.  For more information and to see a list of the meal sites, visit the Lorain City School District website.

Many other school districts continue distributing free meals to families.  Visit your district’s website for information about times and locations to pick up meals.

Phone & Internet Access

Free and low-cost internet access is available from Charter Communications and Comcast.  Households with school-aged children are eligible for free services.  To enroll in free internet during the COVID 19 pandemic, call 1-844-488-8395.  Other households may qualify for low-cost service.  For more information, visit Spectrum Internet Assist.

Innovate Ohio has compiled a list of public hotspot locations that Ohioans can use in areas where they may not otherwise have access. For a list of Ohio wi-fi hotspot locations, click here.

Mental Health Services

The ADAMHS Board of Cuyahoga County has provided resources to support mental health during this stressful time. If you are experiencing stress or anxiety, you can call the Cuyahoga County Warmline at 440.886.5950 to talk with a peer. The warmline operates daily from 9am-1am. You can also text “4hope” to 741741, the Crisis Test Line. If you are in crisis, please call the 24-hour Suicide Prevention, Mental Health/Addiction Crisis, Information and Referral Hotline at 216.623.6888.

Signature Health is providing telemedicine services for mental and behavioral health to patients on Medicare, Medicaid and those without any health insurance. New patients of Signature Health can call 440.578.8200 to schedule a telemedicine appointment.  For more information regarding telehealth services at Signature Health, click here.

Shelter and Utilities

Lorain County residents may qualify for rental, water, and mortgage assistance being administered by the Lorain County Community Action Agency (LCCAA). For mortgage assistance, the LCCAA is giving priority to homeowners who have or have had a COVID-19 related forbearance granted from their lender since April 1, 2020. The home must be the applicant’s primary residence. Click here to learn more and apply for mortgage assistance. LCCAA will began offering 2021 COVID Water Assistance on January 4, 2021. Assistance is limited to up to three consecutive months of arrearages and some fees back to April 1, 2020. To learn more and apply, click here. LCCAA began offering 2021 COVID Rental Assistance on January 4, 2021. Rental assistance is limited to up to three consecutive months of rental arrears and some fees back to April 1, 2020. To learn more and apply, click here.

Ashtabula County Community Action Agency announces changes to the application process for their Energy Assistance programs during the state of emergency. Ashtabula County Residents who are enrolling in the Percentage of Income Payment Plan (PIPP) for the first time, applying for the Home Energy Assistance Winter Crisis Program, or with incomes at or below 30% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines, are no longer required to visit the Ashtabula County Community Action Agency in order to complete an application. In person appointments have been suspended but clients must still call to make their appointments at 440.997.5957 or 866.223.1471. Clients may submit their documentation online here or by dropping documents off at 6920 Austinburg Road, Ashtabula, Ohio 44004. For more information, visit ACCAA’s website.

The Lorain Metropolitan Housing Authority will be accepting applications for the Housing Choice Voucher Program waiting list. Applicants must complete the pre-application and send it to LMHAHCVP-WL PO Box 1009 Lorain, Ohio 44055. The envelope must be postmarked by May 29, 2020 to be eligible. For more information about next steps and how to apply, click here.

Emergency Financial Assistance

Some counties are expanding Prevention, Retention, Contingency (PRC) benefits to cover certain needs related to COVID 19. Contact the Department of Job and Family Service in your county for more information. In Cuyahoga County, visit: https://cjfs.cuyahogacounty.us/en-US/PRC.aspx. To apply for PRC, call United Way at (216) 436-2000 or Ohio Benefits at 844-640-6446.

UCAN has emergency financial assistance for rent, utilities and other emergency basic needs. Individuals do not need an agency referral and do not need to be working to apply.  Visit  www.ucanapply.org for more information and to apply.

Reentry Resources

The Cuyahoga County Office of Reentry in partnership with the North Star Neighborhood Reentry Resource Center is providing walk up and drive-thru supply distribution for those directly impacted by incarceration during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Visitors can receive vouchers for birth certificates, 2 bus tickets with new modified bus routes, Dave’s gift card, non-perishable food items, soap, hand sanitizer, and a list of open resources. These distributions will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays through June from 11:00 am – 1:00 pm at North Star Reentry Resource Center at 1834 E. 55th Street, Cleveland, OH 44103. For more information, contact the Cuyahoga County Office of Reentry at crystal.bryant@jfs.ohio.gov or call Marcus Bell of NRRC at 216.881.5440.

Other Community Resources

There will be a COVID-19 PPE kit distribution  at the May Dugan Center (4115 Bridge Ave Cleveland, Ohio 44113) on Saturday, June 27th from 12-4 pm (while supplies last). There is a limit of one kit per household and a max of two kits per vehicle. Participants must stay in their vehicles. In observance of social distancing measures, supplies will be place directly into vehicle trunks. For more information, contact Andy Trares at 216.631.5800 ext. 300 or atrares@maydugancenter.org.

Read more about Legal Aid’s procedures related to COVID-19 here: www.lasclev.org/COVID19

Legal Aid is also closely monitoring updates from local courts and agencies.  Here is a summary of quick links to webpages, updated as of May 6th, 2020:

FEDERAL

Courts

• United States Supreme Court: https://www.supremecourt.gov/announcements/COVID-19.aspx

Agencies

• Social Security: https://www.ssa.gov/coronavirus/
• Veterans Affairs: https://www.va.gov/

STATE

Courts

• The Supreme Court of Ohio (for a list of amended Ohio court procedures by county): http://sc.ohio.gov/coronavirus/courts/default.aspx 
• Eighth District Court of Appeals: https://appeals.cuyahogacounty.us/
• Ninth District Court of Appeals: http://www.ninth.courts.state.oh.us/index.htm
• Eleventh District Court of Appeals: http://www.11thcourt.co.trumbull.oh.us/ed_announcements.html

Agencies

• Public Utilities Commission of Ohio: https://www.puco.ohio.gov/

LOCAL

Ashtabula County

Courts

• Ashtabula Municipal Court: http://www.ashtabulamunicourt.com/wordpress/
• Conneaut Municipal Court: http://www.conneautohio.gov/alert_detail.php

Agencies

• Children Services: http://help-a-child.com/

Cuyahoga County

Courts

• Bedford Municipal Court: https://www.bedfordmuni.org/
• Berea Municipal Court: http://www.bereamunicipalcourt.org/
• Cleveland Heights Municipal Court: http://www.clevelandheightscourt.com/
• Cleveland Municipal Court: https://clevelandmunicipalcourt.org/
• Cleveland Municipal Housing Court: https://clevelandmunicipalcourt.org/housingcourt
• Cleveland Law Library: https://clevelandlawlibrary.org/
• Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court: https://cp.cuyahogacounty.us/court-information/covid-19/
• Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court: http://domestic.cuyahogacounty.us/en-US/home.aspx
• Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court: http://juvenile.cuyahogacounty.us/
• Cuyahoga County Probate Court: http://probate.cuyahogacounty.us/Default.aspx
• Cuyahoga County Public Defenders: http://publicdefender.cuyahogacounty.us/
• East Cleveland Municipal Court: http://www.eccourt.com/
• Euclid Municipal Court: http://www.cityofeuclid.com/community/court
• Garfield Hts. Municipal Court: https://www.ghmc.org/
• Lakewood Municipal Court: http://www.lakewoodcourtoh.com/index.html
• Lyndhurst Municipal Court: http://www.lyndhurstmunicipalcourt.org/
• Parma Municipal Court: http://parmamunicourt.org/
• Rocky River Municipal Court: http://rrcourt.net/
• Shaker Hts. Municipal Court: http://www.shakerheightscourt.org/home/
• South Euclid Municipal Court: http://southeuclidcourt.com/
• U.S. District Court Northern District: https://www.ohnd.uscourts.gov/
• U.S. Bankruptcy Court Northern District: https://www.ohnb.uscourts.gov/

Agencies

• All Cuyahoga County buildings are closed to the public, but services available online and by phone: https://cuyahogacounty.us/
  • Children and Family Services: https://cuyahogacounty.us/online-services#cfs
  • Child Support Services: https://cuyahogacounty.us/online-services#ocss
  • Job and Family Services: https://cuyahogacounty.us/online-services#cjfs
  • Senior and Adult Services: https://cuyahogacounty.us/online-services#dsas
  • Veterans Service Commission: http://cuyahogavets.org/
• City of Cleveland will temporarily cease shutoffs and restore connections to public water and power in light of COVID-19 pandemic: https://www.cleveland.com/news/2020/03/city-of-cleveland-will-temporary-cease-shutoffs-and-restore-connections-to-public-water-power-in-light-of-coronavirus-pandemic.html

Geauga County

Courts

• Geauga County Court of Common Pleas: https://www.co.geauga.oh.us/commonpleas/Clerk-Of-Courts
• Chardon Municipal Court: https://www.co.geauga.oh.us/municourt/

Agencies

• Department on Aging: https://www.co.geauga.oh.us/Departments/Aging
• Job and Family Services: https://www.geaugajfs.org/
• Veterans Services: https://vets.co.geauga.oh.us/

Lake County

Courts

• Lake County Court of Common Pleas: https://www.lakecountyohio.gov/cpcgd/
• Lake County Probate Court: https://www.lakecountyohio.gov/probatelco/COVID-19-Information

Agencies

• All Lake County buildings are closed to the public, but services available online and by phone: https://www.lakecountyohio.gov/
  • Council on Aging: https://www.lccoa.org/
  • Job and Family Services: https://www.lakecountyohio.gov/lcojfs/
  • Veterans Service Center: https://www.lakecountyohio.gov/veterans

Lorain County

Courts

• Elyria Municipal Court: https://elyriamunicourt.org/
• Lorain County Court of Common Pleas: http://cp.onlinedockets.com/LorainCP/index.aspx
• Lorain County Domestic Relations/Juvenile Court: https://www.loraincounty.com/domesticrelations/

Agencies

• Department of Job and Family Services: http://www.lcdjfs.com/latest-news–updates
• Veterans Service Commission: https://www.loraincountyveterans.com/

Consumer Protections and Scams: What Should I Know to Avoid Scams Related to COVID-19?

Consumer Protections and Scams: What Should I Know about Stimulus Check Scams and Collection by Creditors or Banks?

Consumer Protections and Scams: What Should I Know about the Economic Impact Payment or Stimulus Check if I Do NOT Regularly File Taxes (Non-filer)?

Consumer Protections and Scams: What Should I Know about the Economic Impact Payment or Stimulus Check if I Regularly File Taxes?

As COVID-19 vaccine distribution begins, here are signs of potential scams:

• You are asked to pay out of pocket to get the vaccine.
• You are asked to pay to put your name on a vaccine waiting list or to get early access.
• Advertisement for vaccines through social media platforms, email, telephone calls, online, or from unsolicited/unknown sources.
• Marketers offering to sell or ship doses of  the vaccine for payment.

If you believe you have been the victim of COVID-19 fraud, immediately report it to:

• HHG-OIG Hotline: 1-800-HHS-TIPs | tips.hhs.gov
• FBI Hotline: 1-800-CALL-FBI | ic3.gov
• CMS/Medicare Hotline: 1-800-Medicare

Click here to download an informative JPG with this information. 

Education: What Do I Need to Know About School During COVID-19?

Education: What Are Schools Doing for Students with Disabilities During COVID-19?

What are some common questions about Living Wills and Health Care Powers of Attorney?

Are Wills Really That Important?

Immigration Rules: What Do Immigrants Need to Know about Unemployment Compensation?

Immigration Rules: How is the Public Charge Rule Affected by COVID-19?

Immigration: What is Happening at Immigration Agencies (EOIR, USCIS, an ICE) during COVID-19?

Immigration: What Should Immigrants Know about Publicly Available Assistance during COVID-19?

Nonprofits and Small Businesses: What programs can Help Nonprofits and Small Businesses during COVID-19?

Are the offices of Job and Family Services open?

Jobs and Family Services (JFS) lobbies are closed to the public. For information or to apply, call Ohio Benefits at 1-844-640-OHIO or visit benefits.ohio.gov. For Cuyahoga County residents: To drop off documents, use the drop boxes at the Virgil E Brown, Jane Edna Hunter, Quincy, Old Brooklyn, or Westshore locations. Verifications may also be mailed to the Agency. JFS will mail you a postage paid envelope if you call and ask for one.

What happens to my cash benefits if I can’t work, attend training/education, or look for a job right now?

At this time, most Ohio counties are not requiring recipients of Ohio Works First (OWF) cash assistance benefits to participate in work activities because of the Governor’s Stay at Home order.  The federal government has not removed work requirements, but told states to be flexible and use “good cause” exemptions when possible.  For more information, see: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ofa/resource/tanf-acf-pi-2020-01

How do I maintain health care during the COVID 19 pandemic?

Health insurers must allow employers to continue covering employees, even if the employee would otherwise become ineligible because of a decrease in hours worked per week. Employees may be working a significantly reduced schedule right now, through no fault of their own.

Those who do lose insurance coverage, are eligible for a special enrollment period to gain new coverage. Premium subsidies may be available for those who qualify by purchasing plans on the federal exchange.

Click here for the Ohio Department of Insurance’s official bulletin on this topic.

I’m a parent without childcare and I work an essential job. What benefits can I access? 

Parents whose jobs are deemed essential should apply immediately for emergency childcare.  Most jobs in health and safety fields are considered essential. For more information, go here: http://jfs.ohio.gov/cdc/CoronavirusAndChildcareForFamilies/

Are childcare facilities still allowed to operate?

Childcare facilities must have a pandemic license in order to operate now through April 30, 2020. For more information, go here: http://jfs.ohio.gov/cdc/CoronavirusAndChildcareForFamilies/

Can I receive financial assistance to help pay my bills? 

Some counties are expanding their Prevention, Retention, Contingency (PRC) benefits to cover certain needs related to COVID 19.  You must have a child living in your household or be pregnant to be eligible for this program.   You must also be below a certain income level.  This financial assistance is limited to food assistance, rental assistance and essential supplies such as cleaning products, infant care items, and cleaning products.

You can contact the Department of Job and Family Service in your county for more information.

In Cuyahoga County, visit: https://cjfs.cuyahogacounty.us/en-US/PRC.aspx and click on the COVID-19 Emergency Response link for information about PRC.   Applications can be submitted to any of the JFS Neighborhood Family Service Center drop boxes, via email at Cuy-PRC-Application@jfs.ohio.gov,  or by fax at (216) 987-8655.  For questions, call the PRC Information Line at (216) 987-7392 and leave a message and allow 48 hours for a response.  You can also apply for PRC by calling the United Way at (216) 436-2000 or Ohio Benefits at 844-640-6446.

I’m a veteran with a VA overpayment and/or medical debt which I have to repay or is being deducted from my VA benefits and/or Social Security benefits.  Can I ask the VA to stop collection of this debt? 

As of April 3rd, the VA has suspended collection of debts which are currently being deducted from benefits by the Treasury Department, including any deductions made from your Social Security benefits for medical or VA benefit debts.   You should not have to ask that the collection cease.  The VA is also suspending collection or extending repayment terms for all VA benefit debts collected through the VA’s Debt Management Center.   You should contact the VA Debt Management Center at 1-800-827-0648 to ask that the debt be suspended or for a lower monthly payment.  For health care debts, Veterans can contact the Health Resource Center at 1-888-827-4817 to ask that collection be suspended or for lower monthly payments.

For more information on Public Benefits during COVID-19, please see these related FAQs:

Public Benefits: What Should I Know about Medicaid during COVID 19?

Public Benefits: What Should I Know about SNAP (food stamp) Benefits during COVID-19?

Public Benefits: What Should I Know about Social Security Benefits during COVID-19?

Public Benefits: What Should I Know about the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program?

What are my rights as a tenant during the COVID-19 pandemic?

What is the CDC Eviction Moratorium?

I lost my job due to COVID-19 and am having trouble paying my bills. Am I eligible for rent assistance?

Do I have the right to an attorney in my eviction case?

What can I do if my water is off or if I have a shut off notice during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Effective immediately, during the time of the COVID-19 emergency in Ohio, a public water system shall not disconnect customers’ water due to nonpayment of fees or charges. Customers whose service was disconnected for nonpayment after January 1, 2020 should request reconnection and the public water system shall restore drinking water service as quickly as possible. The customer may not be charged reconnection fees but may be billed for actual usage. This order ends when the emergency ends or on December 1, 2020, whichever is sooner. See the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Order.

Cleveland Water and Cleveland Public Power (CPP) have temporarily stopped disconnection of residential services for non-payment. If you have recently been disconnected for non-payment, please call Cleveland Water at 216.664.3130 or CPP at 216.664.4600.

How do I get home heating assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Ohio has received an extension of the Winter Crisis Program through May 1, and the Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) through June 1. The Winter Crisis Program helps income-eligible Ohioans maintain their utility service, while HEAP provides eligible Ohioans assistance with home energy bills through a one-time benefit applied directly to their bill.

You can now apply for these programs over the phone.  Visit EnergyHelp.Ohio.gov for more information or call 1 (800) 282-0880 to begin your application.

Is the PUCO Winter Reconnect Order going to be extended during the COVID-19 pandemic?

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) extended its winter reconnect order through May 1, 2020. The Winter Reconnect Order helps Ohioans reconnect or maintain electric and natural gas service during the heating season between October 14, 2019 and May 1, 2020. The Commission also noted that PUCO-regulated utilities should review their policies and identify where it may be prudent to suspend, the duration of the emergency, any policies that would impose a service restoration hardship or create an unnecessary risk of human contact. Utility customers who have questions or concerns regarding their utility service are encouraged to contact the PUCO online.

Has unemployment eligibility expanded during COVID-19?

Unemployment eligibility has expanded during COVID-19. Workers who lose employment as a result of COVID 19 may qualify for benefits immediately.  See details about the expanded eligibility at here.  You can apply online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at http://unemployment.ohio.gov. Click here for FAQs about unemployment insurance benefits from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Has there been an expansion of sick/medical leave during COVID-19?

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act goes into effect on April 2, 2020 and ends on December 31, 2020. The act includes an Emergency Expansion of the Family Medical Leave Act (EEFMLA), Emergency Unemployment Insurance Stabilization and Access Act, and the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act (PSLA). To read a summary of the key provisions, click here. To read the full act, click here.

For more information on Worker Rights and Benefits during COVID-19, please see these related FAQs:

Worker Rights and Benefits (Unemployment): What are the New Rules for Unemployment Compensation Benefits Related to COVID-19?

Worker Rights and Benefits: What Benefits Does the Families First Coronavirus Response Act Provide?

Worker Rights and Benefits: What Help Can I Get from the Emergency Expansion Family Medical Leave Act?

Worker Rights and Benefits: What Help Can I Get from the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act?

Worker Rights and Benefits: What Does the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act Do for Unemployment Compensation (UC) Benefits (including Pandemic UC)?

Worker Rights and Benefits: What do I need to know about remote schooling and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA)?

Worker Rights and Benefits: What is Lost Wages Assistance (LWA)?

Starting March 17, Legal Aid will only do new client intake online and via phone.

Those needing civil legal assistance can apply online 24/7 at www.lasclev.org or weekdays by calling 888-817-3777.  Those with non-legal questions related to landlord-tenant and other rental issues can also call our Tenant Information Line at 216-861-5955 (Cuyahoga) or 440-210-4533 (Ashtabula, Geauga, Lake, Lorain Counties).

Offices in Cleveland, Elyria, Painesville and Jefferson are closed and walk-in intake is suspended until further notice.  All Legal Aid staff will be working remotely to help our clients in need.  Current clients should continue to work with their attorneys and anticipate handling matters by phone and electronically to the extent possible.

Legal Aid will keep the public updated about changes to intake and other activities and events via www.lasclev.org and social media channels – including Facebook and Twitter.

The coronavirus pandemic expanded Legal Aid’s client-eligible population literally overnight.  Legal Aid’s 52 staff attorneys need the help of private lawyer volunteers during this time of great need.

Are you an attorney and want to volunteer right away?  Click here to see a list of current, available cases for you to handle.

Are you interested in helping with future “virtual clinics,” brief advice over the phone, or with other projects?  Please click here to fill out a form and show your interest.

As always, Legal Aid attorneys will provide full support for volunteers – including, but not limited to, malpractice insurance, litigation support, mentoring, and training.

Written by Sia Nyorkor in Cleveland 19 News on 02/24/2021

59-year-old Valerie Freeman has been living in a building on 81st and Madison in Cleveland since September and hasn’t had hot water or heat for months.

She says her landlord, Desmond Buchanonn, said he would fix the furnace, but it’s been sitting behind her building for more than a month.

“I wanna know why it’s out here and not up there for me to stay warm. I keep asking him; he keeps texting me and telling me he’ll get it fixed,” said Freeman.

No one should have to live in deplorable conditions, says Barbara Reitzloff. She’s a senior attorney with the non-profit, Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, which advocates for renters.

“The landlord is getting his rent; there’s absolutely no excuse for it,” she said.

Freeman used her stove to warm her apartment and was hospitalized with carbon monoxide poisoning.

She’s sick and tired and wants her landlord to do the right thing and fix the problems.

Reitzloff says she has rights as a tenant.

“That’s appalling, particularly given the dangers of heating a house with your stove; we saw the people in Texas who passed away from the cold and exposure. That’s really appalling,” she said.

19 News spoke with Freeman’s landlord Desmond Buchanonn, and he said he offered to reimburse Valerie for a hotel stay. But Valerie tells 19 News she doesn’t have the money to front it.

Reitzloff says just because he offered a hotel doesn’t mean he’s off the hook.

“I think landlords sometimes get frustrated with eviction laws and decide to shut off the heat, but it sounds like this is just a landlord who’s not living up to his obligation,” she said.

In the meantime, Valerie is just trying to make it.

Click here to read the full article in Cleveland 19 News. 

Written by Drew Scofield in News 5 Cleveland on 02/20/2021

The Cleveland Municipal Housing Court will hold a virtual tenant information clinic on Saturday where residents can watch online to learn more about tenant rights, rental assistance and other programs.

The event will cover the following topics:

• Tenant rights
• CDC moratorium on evictions
• COVID-19 rental assistance
• Rent deposit
• Cleveland’s right to counsel law
• Navigating virtual housing court
• State/local tenant laws

According to the court, “attendees can anticipate hearing directly from Judge Scott, The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland and CHN Housing Partners regarding their rights as tenants.”

“There are ways to prevent evictions during COVID-19” said Scott. “Housing Court remains a transparent community based court and we’re hoping to continue educating residents during this informative event.”

Click here to read the full article in News 5 Cleveland. 

Written by Meg Shaw in News 5 Cleveland on 02/18/2021

Six months ago the United Way of Greater Cleveland teamed up with the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland and developed a program to keep renters in their homes avoiding eviction.

The United Way said the program was badly needed because in Cuyahoga County there are 76,000 households at risk of eviction without programs like the Right-to-Counsel and an extension on eviction moratoriums.

In just six months, the Right-To-Counsel program has represented 323 households and helped keep 133 children in their homes.

Andrew Katusin is the Director of Basic Needs with the United Way. He said the while the vaccine rollout is giving people hope and providing a light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, it does not mean economic factors are going to disappear.

“There’s still going to be this balloon payment of rent for folks that comes due at the end of the moratorium,” he said. “If you haven’t been working because you’ve been laid off or your hours have been cut, a vaccine doesn’t fix that piece of this.”

Hazel Remesch is a supervising attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland. She said 93% of the clients they represented, along with the United Way, avoided eviction or displacement in the first month of the program’s launch.

“We’ve seen how critical it is in the middle of a pandemic and how important it is for people to be able to stay housed as we’re facing stay-at-home orders or a spike in numbers or people are ill and losing their income,” she said.

Heather Malone and her son were just one of the many families who received help. She was served an eviction notice by her landlord last fall just two weeks after she moved in. “I just had gave him like full month rent and deposit which was $1,500,” Malone said.

Malone said she turned to the program and it changed her life.

“The Legal Aid people helped me out so much, if it wasn’t for them honestly I’m not sure what we would have done.”

Her advice to others who may be struggling with rent payments or possible eviction: “Do not just lay down and let a landlord basically, straight take over you because, you know, a lot of us don’t know our rights.”

The Right-to-Counsel program has two eligibility requirements:

• Must be at or below 100% of the federal poverty rate
• Must have children living in the home

If you would like to see more resources on how to make ends meet, click here to go to our Rebound section.

Click here to read the full article in News 5 Cleveland.

Written by Taylor Haggerty and Conor Morris in WKSU on 02/15/2021

Willoughby resident Sandy Naffah lost both of her jobs — at a school and a beauty salon — when the pandemic-related shutdowns went into effect last year. Not long after, she fell behind on rent.

Naffah said she struggled to get help from local agencies, including money to cover rent, because she said her landlord did not submit the proper paperwork. She says after about three months of missed payments, her property manager began calling and harassing her, despite a promise to forgive her back rent due to the pandemic.

“They started texting, emailing, leaving voicemails on my phone, demanding that I make some sort of payment,” she said. “And I saw the writing on the wall that I’m going to end up getting evicted.”

Naffah decided to break her lease and left her apartment to avoid having an eviction on her record, which would make it harder for her to rent again.

Housing advocates say tenants like Naffah need more time to access assistance or find further employment to cover their rent. City councils in Lakewood, South Euclid and Cleveland Heights are considering one option that might help, called “pay to stay.”

Similar legislation was already approved in Toledo and Yellow Springs in 2020. Reem Subei, an attorney with Advocates for Basic Legal Equity (ABLE), said pay to stay is meant to “enshrine a protection for tenants” who have had an eviction filed against them in court for non-payment of rent.

Having these laws on the books would mean tenants behind on their rent are granted the right to stay in their home if they come up with the rent (and any late fees) they owe before the eviction is granted by the court.

“It’s based on a very simple concept – if you pay your rent, you should be able to stay in your home,” Subei said. “ I know that doesn’t sound controversial. However, the (current) law does not give tenants even that basic right.”

A growing group of advocacy organizations, including the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH), Black Lives Matter Cleveland and the YWCA of Cleveland, are also advocating for pay-to-stay measures to be adopted in our area. Cleveland City Councilman Tony Brancatelli said some city council members have discussed the concept, but no ordinance has been proposed.

NEOCH argues in a factsheet on its website that pay-to-stay measures are needed because Ohio is one of only five states in the U.S. that allow landlords to file for an eviction as soon as a rent payment is missed, without offering the tenant extra time to come up with the money (although there is a three-day notice period where the tenant can move out before the case is filed). In Arizona, for example, tenants have 10 days to come up with their rent before the eviction can be filed in court.

Note: The Cleveland Street Chronicle, which is supported by NEOCH, is a member of NEOSOJO.

Naffah is a member of NEOCH’s working group that is advocating for pay-to-stay ordinances in the region. She said she thinks she wouldn’t have had to have broken her lease if she’d had pay to stay as a guarantee, because she would have had more time to come up with the rent she owed.

“It’s horrible; tenants really are at the mercy of the property managers and they wield too much power,” Naffah said. “So if you have that ordinance in place the tenant has some recourse.”

Mike Unger, a Cleveland Heights City Council member, said he’s exploring introducing a pay-to-stay ordinance because, as the past president of the board of the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, he recognizes the “destabilizing” impacts evictions can have on families.

Unger and Subei both noted that people of color see increased rates of evictions filed against them, especially single mothers. According to a 2019 Case Western Reserve University study of 2013-2016 Cleveland Housing Court data, 78% of the evictions filed during that time were against a woman head of the household. About 77% were filed against an African-American, 60% were filed against people with children.

Pay-to-stay legislation seems like a way to “level the playing field” for those tenants, said Sally Martin, housing manager for the City of South Euclid, especially with the challenges presented by the pandemic.

“We know we’ve had just a tremendous number of evictions, even just here in South Euclid over the past five years,” Martin said. “Eviction docket day is a crowded room, and so anything we can do to keep that from happening is a good thing.”

The city began considering a pay-to-stay proposal as part of an effort to minimize the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on housing, Martin said.

“You’re not filing a foreclosure on somebody who’s one day late on their mortgage,” Martin said. “There’s a sort of grace period there. But there isn’t such a grace period for tenants, which isn’t fair.”

One important caveat is that pay-to-stay measures only help if the tenant is able to come up with the money to pay their landlord. This is easier to do now with more rental assistance available for tenants impacted by the pandemic, but there’s only so much of that money available. Subei also noted that pay-to-stay is only a defense against evictions filed for not paying rent; landlords can still file evictions for other reasons.

Ralph McGreevy, executive vice president for the Northeast Ohio Apartment Association, said his group is opposed to pay-to-stay measures. He said it’s not fair to force landlords to accept late rent payments at the “11th hour” because that would force landlords to keep on tenants who are unreliable with their rent payments.

“The past predicts the future,” McGreevy said. “When you’re running a business of housing, the banks don’t allow you to be unpredictable.The predictability is what gets you your mortgage, and that’s what keeps people in their unit: they commit to a certain payment on a certain date.”

Subei noted that so far in Ohio, each municipality has structured their pay-to-stay ordinances differently. In Yellow Springs, their ordinance is temporary – only for a year, to test out the practice. In Toledo, the ordinance doesn’t grant somebody the full right to stay in their rental upon payment of rent, it just codifies it as an “equity defense” that the tenant can use under Ohio law, Subei said. That means there’s still a chance the tenant could be evicted if the landlord doesn’t want to accept the money.

Subei said she has brought up the pay-to-stay ordinance in cases with landlords in Toledo, and knows some others have too. Toledo Municipal Court Magistrate Alan Michalak said he believes fewer evictions are being granted against tenants since Toledo’s pay-to-stay ordinance was implemented, although he didn’t have hard data to back that up.

Meanwhile, Marianne McQueen, vice president of Yellow Springs Village Council, said her village, near Dayton, is unsure how much its ordinance has been used.

Click here to read the full article on WKSU

Written by Taylor Haggerty and Conor Morris in ideastream on 02/15/2021

Willoughby resident Sandy Naffah lost both of her jobs – at a school and a beauty salon – when the pandemic-related shutdowns went into effect last year. Not long after, she fell behind on rent.

Naffah said she struggled to get help from local agencies, including money to cover rent, because her landlord did not submit the proper paperwork. After about three months of missed payments, she said, her property manager began calling and harassing her, despite a promise to forgive her back rent due to the pandemic.

“They started texting, emailing, leaving voicemails on my phone, demanding that I make some sort of payment,” she said. “And I saw the writing on the wall that I’m going to end up getting evicted.”

Naffah decided to break her lease and left her apartment to avoid having an eviction on her record, which would make it harder for her to rent again.

Housing advocates say tenants like Naffah need more time to access assistance or find further employment to cover their rent. City councils in Lakewood, South Euclid and Cleveland Heights are considering one option that might help, called “pay to stay” laws.

Similar legislation was already approved in Toledo and Yellow Springs in 2020. Reem Subei, an attorney with Advocates for Basic Legal Equity (ABLE), said pay to stay is meant to “enshrine a protection for tenants” who have had an eviction filed against them in court for non-payment of rent.

Having these laws on the books would mean tenants behind on their rent are granted the right to stay in their home if they come up with the rent (and any late fees) they owe before the eviction is granted by the court.

“It’s based on a very simple concept: if you pay your rent, you should be able to stay in your home,” Subei said. “I know that doesn’t sound controversial. However, the [current] law does not give tenants even that basic right.”

A growing group of advocacy organizations, including the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH), Black Lives Matter Cleveland and the YWCA of Cleveland, are also advocating for pay-to-stay measures to be adopted in our area. Cleveland City Councilman Tony Brancatelli said some city council members have discussed the concept, but no ordinance has been proposed.

NEOCH argues in a factsheet on its website that pay-to-stay measures are needed because Ohio is one of only five states that allow landlords to file for an eviction as soon as a rent payment is missed, without offering the tenant extra time to come up with the money – although there is a three-day notice period where the tenant can move out before the case is filed. In Arizona, for example, tenants have 10 days to come up with their rent before the eviction can be filed in court. [Note: The Cleveland Street Chronicle, which is supported by NEOCH, is a NEOSOJO member.]

Naffah is a member of NEOCH’s working group that is advocating for pay-to-stay ordinances in the region. She thinks she wouldn’t have had to break her lease if she’d had pay to stay as a guarantee, because she would have had more time to come up with the rent she owed.

“It’s horrible; tenants really are at the mercy of the property managers and they wield too much power,” Naffah said. “So if you have that ordinance in place the tenant has some recourse.”

Mike Unger, a Cleveland Heights City Council member, said he’s exploring introducing a pay-to-stay ordinance because, as the past president of the board of the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, he recognizes the “destabilizing” impacts evictions can have on families.

Unger and Subei both noted that people of color see increased rates of evictions filed against them, especially single mothers. According to a 2019 Case Western Reserve University study of 2013-2016 Cleveland Housing Court data, 78 percent of the evictions filed during that time were against a woman head of the household. About 77 percent were filed against African American tenants and 60 percent were filed against people with children.

Pay-to-stay legislation seems like a way to “level the playing field” for those tenants, said Sally Martin, housing manager for the City of South Euclid, especially with the challenges presented by the pandemic.

“We know we’ve had just a tremendous number of evictions, even just here in South Euclid over the past five years,” Martin said. “Eviction docket day is a crowded room, and so anything we can do to keep that from happening is a good thing.”

The city began considering a pay-to-stay proposal as part of an effort to minimize the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on housing security, Martin said.

“You’re not filing a foreclosure on somebody who’s one day late on their mortgage,” Martin said. “There’s a sort of grace period there. But there isn’t such a grace period for tenants, which isn’t fair.”

One important caveat is that pay-to-stay measures only help if the tenant is able to come up with the money to pay their landlord. That is easier to do now with more rental assistance available for tenants impacted by the pandemic, but there’s only so much of that money available. Subei also noted that pay-to-stay is only a defense against evictions filed for not paying rent; landlords can still file evictions for other reasons.

Ralph McGreevy, executive vice president for the Northeast Ohio Apartment Association, said his group is opposed to pay-to-stay measures. He said it’s not fair to force landlords to accept late rent payments at the “11th hour” because that would force landlords to keep on tenants who are unreliable with their rent payments.

“The past predicts the future,” McGreevy said. “When you’re running a business of housing, the banks don’t allow you to be unpredictable. The predictability is what gets you your mortgage, and that’s what keeps people in their unit: they commit to a certain payment on a certain date.”

Subei noted that so far in Ohio, each municipality has structured its pay-to-stay ordinances differently. In Yellow Springs, the ordinance is temporary – only for a year, to test out the practice. In Toledo, the ordinance doesn’t grant somebody the full right to stay in their rental upon payment of rent, it just codifies it as an “equity defense” that the tenant can use under Ohio law, Subei said. That means there’s still a chance the tenant could be evicted if the landlord doesn’t want to accept the money.

Subei said she has brought up the pay-to-stay ordinance in cases with landlords in Toledo, and knows some others have too. Toledo Municipal Court Magistrate Alan Michalak said he believes fewer evictions are being granted against tenants since Toledo’s pay-to-stay ordinance was implemented, although he didn’t have hard data to back that up.

Meanwhile, Marianne McQueen, vice president of Yellow Springs Village Council, said her village, near Dayton, is unsure how much its ordinance has been used.

Click here to read the full article on ideastream.

Written by Sheena Holland Dolan in The News-Herald on 02/12/2021

Richmond Heights Councilwoman Kim Thomas will be hosting a virtual community-wide forum on affordable housing assistance at 5:30p.m., Feb. 15.

Thomas said the goal of this forum will be to provide residents with resources they may not have known about in order to reduce the stress of housing uncertainty amid financial hardships.

“As we navigate through 2021, we are still feeling the effects of COVID-19,” Thomas said. “Making sure people have affordable housing is essential to safe living. No one should have to worry about food or housing in a rich nation.”

Thomas said the forum’s three guest speakers will help shed some light on some housing resources for those in need of assistance.

Kate Carden, director of CHN Housing Partners located in Cleveland, will be sharing the process on how to access rental assistance through their program– which additionally screens all applicants to see if they qualify for other assistance programs for gas, electric, water and sewer bills.

“CHN Housing Partners is the entry point to accessing rental assistance,” Thomas said. “If one qualifies, the landlord may receive up to three months of back rent.”

Thomas said that Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Shontel Brown will be discussing how the county has earmarked $2 million of federal CARES Act funding to assist families who have been impacted by COVID-19 and are struggling with their mortgages.

According to Thomas, Brown said that six percent of homeowners in Cuyahoga County are 90 days or more delinquent in their mortgage payments, and her goal is continue to protect those most vulnerable amid the pandemic.

The third speaker will be Melanie Shakarian, director of development and communications for The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, who will highlight the ways Legal Aid can help when one’s housing is at risk.

“Due to job loss, many residents have found themselves in eviction court,” Thomas said. “However, Legal Aid is a nonprofit and a great community partner that helps people resolve legal problems related to money, education, benefits, employment, housing, and other civil legal issues.”

Thomas said the need to provide these resources to anyone who may be struggling with housing is a personal matter to her.

“Growing up, my mother worked hard, encountered financial struggles, but was always able to keep a roof over our heads, as well as the head of anyone who had a temporary need for housing,” she said. “In her own way, she was a social safety net for many. And I want to give a similar safety net to others through this programming.”

Click here to read the full article in The News-Herald

Click here to view a PDF image of this article in The News-Herald

Written in United Way of Greater Cleveland on 02/10/2021

United Way and Legal Aid announced that Right to Counsel Cleveland’s (RTC) early results show 93% of those at risk of eviction and represented in Cleveland Housing Court by a Legal Aid attorney avoided an eviction or involuntary move between July – December 2020. In addition, more than $3.8 million of rent relief was distributed by CHN Housing Partners within Cleveland as a result of legal assistance provided to tenants, preserving landlords’ income.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, approximately 9,000 evictions were filed annually in Cleveland Housing Court, with the majority of evictions involving Black, female head of households with minor children. As the pandemic continues, eviction filings are expected to dramatically rise among households with similar demographics when rental assistance is depleted, and various tenant protections expire on March 31st. The result is a looming eviction crisis in Cleveland on top of the city’s already existing poverty crisis. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Cleveland ranked one of the nation’s most impoverished cities with the worst poverty rate for children at 50.5 percent and the second worst poverty rates for working adults and seniors among all major U.S. cities.

“Cleveland is facing an eviction tsunami with devastating consequences if more is not done to provide necessary, ongoing relief to those in need of help, but the team at Right to Counsel Cleveland is working tirelessly to aid families who remain at risk today – a number that continues to rise during the pandemic,” said Augie Napoli, president and CEO of United Way of Greater Cleveland and lead partner organization for the RTC program. “A stable home is a basic human right and in its first six months, RTC has shown what is possible when the public and private sector come together to advocate for low-income families at risk of eviction and landlords seeking equitable solutions.”

A 2021 report prepared by United Way and Legal Aid for the City of Cleveland marks the first six months of RTC in Cleveland’s Housing Court with the following history and highlights:

• In 2019, Cleveland City Council passed Cleveland’s Right to Counsel Ordinance with a recognition that “a lack of legal counsel for low-income tenants with minor children during eviction cases is a violation of a basic human right.”  Through Cleveland Codified Ordinance 375.12, the city became the first in the Midwest to provide such a right.
• Since July 1, 2020, RTC has provided free legal representation pursuant to the ordinance. This right is delivered to eligible households through a unique public-private sector partnership among the City of Cleveland, United Way and Legal Aid.
• United Way and Legal Aid have developed a model that provides comprehensive access to high-quality legal representation and other supportive services.  Tenants eligible for RTC can access services through:
  • Legal Aid’s online and phone intake as in person intake has been suspended temporarily due to COVID-19,
  • The RTC program website at www.FreeEvictionHelp.org,
  • Referrals from United Way’s 2-1-1 HelpLink or other community partners, and,
  • The Housing Court prior to or during the eviction hearing.

“Civil legal services are a crucial to solving issues of housing stability,” said Colleen Cotter, Executive Director of Legal Aid Society of Cleveland. “We are proud to work with United Way on Right to Counsel Cleveland, and we look forward to providing future reports to the City.  This initial success is impressive, and we believe this early effectiveness will translate into long-term results for Cleveland and our region.”

Without additional resources focused on legal representation in Cleveland Housing Court, the ripple effects of evictions can devastate affected Cleveland families for decades and include wage and job loss, homelessness and student absenteeism. Ongoing fundraising efforts and long-term government support remain crucial for the sustained success of the program.

According to CHN Housing, nearly 14,000 Cuyahoga County residents who applied for rental assistance have lost more than $203 million in combined annual income as of February 3, 2021.

The initial six-months of RTC data sheds light on the importance of long-term government investment to stabilize housing and neighborhoods across Cleveland. This report details the progress already made by RTC to bridge the justice gap for tenants facing displacement from their homes and neighborhoods.

Beyond free legal representation in Cleveland Housing Court by Legal Aid, RTC provides families with additional resources, including rental assistance and other legal aid.  RTC also connects clients to 2-1-1 HelpLink, United Way’s free and confidential 24/7 service which assists callers with other needs, including food, shelter, employment and more.

Families can find out if they qualify for RTC by visiting www.FreeEvictionHelp.org or calling (216) 687-1900 or 2-1-1.

Click here to read the full article on United Way. 

Written by Alex Stokes in Fox News 8 on 02/10/2021

When dad Mario Hughes found himself in a difficult situation with his landlord, he turned to the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, qualifying for the Right to Counsel program.

“The legal counsel gave me a chance to breathe and have options,” he said. “I feel like there are a lot of folks that are being taken advantage of or put in situations like mine and not knowing the way out.”

Supervising Attorney Hazel Remesch underscored the importance of having professional help for tenants.

“The attorney’s ability to navigate that system is really critical,” she said.

Launched in July, a recent report shows that in the first six months 93 percent of nearly 70 cases were able to avoid eviction or an involuntary move.

“This isn’t a normal year, so the fact that we’re having that much of an impact given everybody’s current circumstances is huge,” said Remesch.

Out of 1,600 who reached out, 323 households, which included 700 children, were eligible for assistance.

Run jointly by Legal Aid and United Way of Greater Cleveland, people at or below the federal poverty level and who have at least one child living with them are eligible for a lawyer at no cost.

“The good thing is that we have this legislation in place and the citizens of the city of Cleveland do have this right, it’s not a favor, it’s a right in our community,” said Augie Napoli, CEO and President of UWGC.

Hughes has an 8-year-old son and says without the program he would just now be settling his family into a new life somewhere else. “Not only would I be evicted, I would be illegally evicted and not knowing.”

Legal Aid says aside from the help of an attorney, rental assistance has been an important part of the puzzle.

According to CHN Housing Partners, nearly 14,000 people have applied for rental assistance — with a combined loss of 203 million dollars in annual income as of Feb. 3.

The report says right now, Right to Counsel only covers 38 percent of people facing eviction.

“It’s just a matter of time once those moratoriums are lifted there will be a tsunami of people facing evictions,” Napoli said of what they are bracing for as the response to the pandemic changes.

The current moratorium issued by the CDC ends on March 31.

The report also calls for additional funding to reach more people.

Hughes hopes more people will learn about the program. “I think this is one of the best programs because it helps folks out like me who did not know and now that I do know I want everybody to know,” he said.

For more information, you can go to Free Eviction Help, call United Way’s helpline 2-1-1, or contact the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland by phone or online.

Click here to read the full article in Fox News 8. 

Written by Drew Maziasz in ideastream on 02/09/2021

Millions of Americans were facing eviction before COVID-19 upended everything, but the pandemic has only made the housing crisis worse, with many bracing for a so-called, “eviction tsunami” once federal emergency rental assistance depletes and the federal eviction moritorium ends on March 31st.

It was supposed to expire at the end of January, but was extended by President Joe Biden. Experts predict between 30 and 40 million americans are at risk of losing their homes.

But there are some bright spots that are helping halt evictions across the country, and here in Cleveland. Right to Counsel programs guarantee legal representation to eligible residents facing eviction, leveling the playing field against landlords and the complex housing court system.

Cleveland’s Right to Counsel ordinance, passed by Cleveland City Council in October 2019, has been active since July, and at the end of last month, released a report on its first 6 months of cases.

It found that of cases closed, 93% of clients that were seeking to avoid an eviction or involuntary move were successful. And  83% of clients that were seeking more time to move were successful.

But the number of people Legal Aid can help through the ordinance is limited — it only applies to tenants living at or below 100% of the federal poverty level (thats around $21 thousand dollars a year for a family of three) with at least one minor child in the house.

Today we’re going to talk about Right to Counsel 6 months in and where the program could go to give more access to those in need.

Later in the show, we’ll discuss a new ‘zine’ from the Ohio Progressive Asian Women’s Leadership organization.

It’s titled “2020 Pandemic Stories”, and it uses an array of art forms to tell the stories of women and their experiences over the course of the pandemic; from frontline health care workers, to those who have been the victims of racist attacks during this time.

Click here to read the full article in ideastream. 

Written by Sameer Rao in Law 360 on 02/07/2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has both emphasized the importance of more widespread legal aid and made administering such support more difficult, according to legal professionals, including state supreme court justices, speaking at a recent conference.

A trio of back-to-back online webinars on Thursday was organized and moderated by the Legal Services Corporation, a congressionally created nonprofit entity that supports legal aid organizations and efforts across the country. There, legal professionals with a front row to COVID-19’s impact on local courts discussed eviction moratoria, remote hearings, staff safety and other concerns affecting Americans’ access to equitable justice.

“COVID-19 has led to significant increases in the need for civil legal aid, as everybody here knows,” U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, the new co-chair of the Congressional Access to Legal Aid Caucus, said during opening remarks. “[It is] most especially [so] for low-income families facing job losses, financial burdens and innumerable other issues stemming from this crisis.”

Near the top of these issues sat the eviction crisis. The LSC’s press release noted that its grantees reported a 95% increase in eviction cases, which panelists said their own judiciaries and organizations were dealing with in a variety of ways.

For instance, during a panel with various state supreme court justices, Nevada’s Justice Kristina Pickering highlighted the state bar’s eviction mediation program, which brought several groups together to develop eviction mediation protocol and reduce the judiciary caseload. Another speaker, Brad Lewis of the Nevada Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission, elaborated that about half of the cases seen through the program ended in agreement between the two sides.

“Whether it’ll work or not, long-term, I don’t know,” Justice Pickering said. “But it’s an evolving process, and everybody’s working together.”

Another panel with legal service providers’ directors illustrated how inconsistent laws can both open and close doors for those facing evictions. Colleen Cotter, executive director of The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, noted that the city’s right-to-counsel program helped her group advocate for clients left vulnerable by Ohio’s lack of a statewide eviction moratorium. That said, she also described the “mess” of differing and confusing eviction hearing rules in the organization’s service areas outside of Cleveland.

“We’re going to have so much better housing stability in the city of Cleveland than in the suburbs and other counties,” Cotter said. “We don’t have the resources to represent everybody, and people are getting evicted left and right in spite of the CDC moratorium.”

Panelists also addressed the technological pivots they have made during the pandemic, as well as their limits. Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht highlighted the increased turnout for remote proceedings and programs to give people mobile broadband access while admitting that this presented challenges for rural districts outside of broadband networks.

During the third panel, Rita H. Blandino, director of the D.C. Courts’ Domestic Violence Division, observed that adapting to shifting circumstances was challenging enough. Despite that, she said that concerted collaboration with stakeholders helped her branch navigate these conditions.

“We actually leaned on each other in March, when this all started, and huddled and said, ‘How do we continue to do what we’ve been doing virtually?'” she recounted. “That’s part of the reason we’ve been able to sustain these operations.”

Among the other topics addressed were the potential exposure risk for employees who had to report to offices, potential additional issues for underresourced tribal courts, entrenched bureaucratic processes and the resources needed to tackle these problems, particularly when the pandemic clears and these issues remain.

As several speakers noted, Thursday’s panels took place in lieu of what would have been the Legal Services Corporation’s annual convention, which was set to take place in Las Vegas. Other prominent panelists and speakers included Rep. Fitzpatrick’s co-chair, U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania, and vice chair Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota.

Click here to read the full article in Law 360. 

But it also said the program, paid for by money from the city budget, grants and donations from the philanthropic community, still misses large segments of the population who continue to live under the threat of losing their homes.

“Now that we know that it’s working in COVID, I can’t wait to see, as things return to or move to whatever a new typical is, how it continues to work and impact this community,” United Way’s Director of Basic Needs Andrew Katusin said.

Cleveland City Council established the program in 2019, providing a lawyer at no cost to people facing eviction if they are at or below the federal poverty level – $21,720 annually for a family to three – and have at least one child living with them. Legal Aid hired more attorneys and contracted with others for the program, according to the report.

The report said the lawyers helped tenants in 323 Cleveland Housing Court cases through the program between July 1 and Dec. 31. That’s out of 1,600 who reached out to inquire about the right-to-counsel program.

Of those, Legal Aid said it helped 63 clients who wanted to avoid an eviction on their record or a forced removal from a home to achieve that. That’s 93% of the clients who wanted that outcome, according to the report. Another 33 clients seeking 30 days or more to move received that as well, according to the report.

The program formed before the coronavirus pandemic led millions of people in Cleveland and the rest of the country to lose their jobs and forced the courts and other organizations to conduct work virtually instead of person.

It also created new responsibilities for the lawyers. The federal government enacted a moratorium on evictions for people who can’t pay rent due to the pandemic and allocated money for rental assistance for struggling tenants to pay their landlords. CHN Housing Partners and Eden Inc. run those programs in Cuyahoga County, and the report said more than 11,000 people in the county who claimed to have lost an aggregated $148 million in income applied for assistance as of December.

The report said attorneys have helped Cleveland clients file affidavits attesting to their eligibility for the moratorium and helped get more than $3.8 million worth of rental assistance.

All of these programs helped lessen the number of people who faced eviction. The Housing Court usually hears about 9,000 eviction cases a year – mostly against people of color in the majority-Black Cleveland – but the report estimated that the court saw 2,800 filed between June 1 and Dec. 31.

“In this COVID-19 era, (the right-to-counsel program), together with rental assistance and various new tenant protections have ‘flattened the curve’ – on a mounting eviction crisis,” the report said.

Housing Court Judge W. Moná Scott said she was surprised by the number of people the report said the program helped. While information about the program is included in the envelope tenants facing eviction receive with a summons, she said the number of tenants who show up for hearings remains low.

She said she spoke with Legal Aid staff about concerns regarding the volunteers who go door to door to reach people about the program, and said having people of color participate might help.

“If you’re sending white adults out and it’s predominantly African-Americans, the chance of responding is going to be low,” she said.

Despite the numbers, the report said the program only covers 38% of people facing eviction and that city lawmakers should consider expanding the program. Currently, Clevelanders who are at 200% of the federal poverty level and families with adult children still living at home because of a disability or other reason do not qualify for a free housing lawyer.

That would cost more money, though. As it stands, the budget built with the current requirements, calculated before the pandemic, has Legal Aid and United Way needing an estimated $505,000 for the current year. The city has committed $300,000 annually to a program estimated to cost $2.4 million annually.

Click here to read the full article in Cleveland.com

Written  by Taylor Azi Zachary in Columbus Alive on 02/03/2021

South Korean folklore says for one born with the name Choe, the grass will not grow beneath their feet. They are simply that stubborn.

Susan Choe chooses to interpret her birthright as a prophecy of grit and determination. As the executive director of Ohio Legal Help, a website that provides free legal aid to Ohio residents, Choe manifests the principles in her name through the practice of her leadership.

“Since we have been in operation, we have connected over 86,000 Ohioans to local resources,” Choe says. “We see 50,000 unique visits a month, and we project half a million visits in our second year.”

Through what is known as the “100% Access to Justice Movement,” the decision to design a 24/7 mobile model derives from a commitment to increasing equity in the legal system. Ohio Legal Help focuses its resources on the immediate areas users need most. “To create more equities in the system, the tool that we provide must be equitable and useful to those that have the least. Their feedback is critical,” Choe says.

Ohio Legal Help was founded in 2018 after the Supreme Court of Ohio convened a 12-member task force on access to justice. A primary objective of the task force was to develop recommendations for closing Ohio’s civil justice gap. Former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Yvette McGee Brown chaired the task force.

“Usually, the focus on unmet legal needs is on the criminal justice system,” McGee Brown says. “Many people who have civil justice needs fall through the cracks because legal aid can only manage a certain percentage of cases, and these litigants do not make enough money to hire a lawyer. A lot of them will go online and get legal forms, then show up in court. But judges and their bailiffs end up spending a lot of time helping pro se litigants and walking people through something that should be very simple. That really is the impetus (for the task force).”

Strength in Justice, a 2010 report prepared by the Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation, indicates historically, Ohio led national efforts in legal aid. In 1905, Cleveland birthed Ohio’s first legal aid society. Three years later, a Cincinnati office opened. In 1908, Cincinnati was one of seven national cities providing legal aid services. Throughout the 20th century, regional legal aid networks established a tangible method for resolving civil justice needs.

The report further indicates statewide economic benefits of legal aid activities. In 2010, legal aid activities produced $15.6 million in total tax revenue, $4.9 million in earnings impact, and created or sustained over 700 jobs. Additionally, legal aid activities operated with a total budget of $49.1 million. This $49.1 million generated an additional $56.8 million in economic output statewide. After adjusting these figures relative to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Regional Input-Output Modeling System, the sum of total impact for legal aid activities resulted in $106 million. This was a 115 percent return for each dollar invested.

Launched in the fall of 2019, none of Ohio Legal Help’s founders foresaw Covid-19, of course. Kim Shumate, president of the board of the Ohio Access to Justice Foundation, a key funder and partner for Ohio Legal Help, spoke on the serendipity of the organization’s launch.

“Getting Ohio Legal Help up and running was a key goal in our plan,” she says. “As a board, we were just incredibly focused on accomplishing the goals set out in that plan. None of us could have ever predicted that the need for it would be so immediate and so timely. But how fortunate for Ohio and the citizens of Ohio who need that help.”

The vision of 100 percent access to justice is a goal none expect to experience in their lifetime. That does not deter stakeholders from pursuing it, however.

“All roads lead to equity,” says Ukeme Awakessien Jeter, in-house counsel at Nationwide and an Ohio Legal Help board member.

“We believe it to the core,” says Choe. “I do not know when we will see it, but we will work on it every day until it is a reality.”

Click here to read the full article in Columbus Alive. 

Written by Taylor Haggerty in ideastream on 02/03/2021

In its six months so far, Cleveland’s Right to Counsel initiative – which guarantees legal representation for eligible residents facing eviction – has been successful in 93 percent of cases hoping to halt an eviction and provided renters with assistance in even more cases.

The program guarantees legal representation in eviction cases for tenants with children in households earning below a certain income. Despite the federal moratorium on evictions, cases are still being filed, said Legal Aid Society of Cleveland Executive Director Colleen Cotter, and the program launched in July 2020.

“The thing that’s important to remember about the moratorium is it is not an absolute ban on evictions. It provides a defense for some tenants,” Cotter said. “But landlords are still able to file eviction cases, and they are.”

Volunteers and attorneys with the Legal Aid Society and United Way of Greater Cleveland work with residents to prevent eviction, as well as provide additional time to move, dealt with utility connection problems, and recovering security deposits.

“We really didn’t totally know what to expect in launching this program,” Cotter said. “This is unlike anything we’ve done before, where we’re taking on all cases without any analysis of, is there a ‘defense’ to this?”

Most of the 300 cases the program has taken on so far have involved tenants who lost their jobs due to the pandemic and are struggling to pay rent, Cotter said. But she said there are also cases of retaliatory evictions, as well as situations where a landlord refuses to accept rent payment or rental assistance funds.

Nearly 70 cases sought to halt the eviction or involuntary move. Of those, 93 percent succeeded, Cotter said.

“That’s way more than we had even anticipated,” Cotter said. “It bodes well for the future, for the next six months and the six months after that, which is good because we have a lot ahead of us, given the pandemic.”

When federal moratoriums come to an end March 31, housing advocates are still anticipating a spike in evictions, Cotter said. But the Cleveland program, which includes staff attorneys, contracted attorneys and volunteers, will expand to meet the need, she said.

“We designed the system from the beginning to be flexible, so we can expand the resources we have available as the need increases,” Cotter said.

Pandemic aid, such as rental assistance provided by local and federal government agencies, has helped to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus on housing, Cotter said. Those continued efforts are needed to avoid a “cliff,” she said, so residents are not facing insurmountable bills at the end of the moratorium due to months of accumulating unpaid rent.

“We think the increase is going to be pretty significant, more significant than we anticipated,” Cotter said. “In order to really stabilize the community, we’re hopeful that rental assistance will continue. It’s been critically important for tenants, for landlords, and at the end for communities.”

Landlords also have positive feedback on the program, Cotter said. Getting connected with financial assistance benefits both the tenant and the property owner, she said, and ensures the mortgage gets paid.

“We’ve been able to help the tenant access rental assistance to make the landlord whole,” Cotter said. “They’re willing to work with the tenants. It’s a happy ending for everybody, if the system works.”

As of December 2020, more than 11,000 Cuyahoga County residents had applied for pandemic-related rental assistance, according to the United Way of Greater Cleveland. In an average year, Cuyahoga County sees about 20,000 evictions, said Nancy Mendez, the nonprofit’s vice president of community investment and chief community investment officer, with about 9,000 of them in Cleveland.

“I think that speaks to a long-term conversation we need to have as a community, that this COVID crisis has really highlighted the devastation of eviction,” Mendez said. “When we come back to some kind of normal, after COVID-19, are we going to be okay with 9,000 families continuing to be evicted in Cleveland?”

While federal and local assistance has helped to combat some of the pandemic’s impact, she said, many families are still facing financial uncertainty.

“Right now, we still have 76,000 families at risk for eviction in Cuyahoga County alone,” Mendez said. “We are still dealing with a crisis here that, thankfully, there are programs like Right to Counsel. But also, the moratorium has played a role in keeping this from bubbling out of control.”

Keeping families in their homes is better for mental and physical health, Mendez said, and it’s better to have that stability within the community.

“Because of the health crisis, we understand the importance of a home right now,” Mendez said. “But I would love to have the long-term conversation that this shouldn’t be acceptable at any point.”

Click here to read the full article on ideastream.

Written by Grant Segall in Cleveland Jewish News on 1/31/2021

Early in the pandemic, on the verge of turning 70, Susan Steels lost her longtime job as a chef. Meanwhile, her partner’s business of party planning went the way of most parties, and he had a stroke. The bills began to pile up. The mortgage payments looked unpayable.

So, the South Euclid woman joined the swelling crowd seeking unemployment compensation.

“I tried to get it online, and I tried to call,” she said. “I was on the phone, on the phone, on the phone.”

Then friends told her to call the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland. Someone picked up right away and took her information. Someone else called back within 24 hours.

“I was so upset and crying,” Steels recalled. “They walked me through it. They worked it out. They’re so nice. They’re so understanding.”

A Legal Aid worker noticed that Steels, a childhood immigrant from England, had sent Ohio Jobs and Family Services a copy of just one side of her

long-time green card. So, Steels sent the other side. Then a lawyer reached the notoriously hard-to-reach agency and won benefits for Steels without a hearing. And a colleague told her that she’d qualify for food stamps.

At first, the pandemic forced Legal Aid to close its four offices in the five counties it covers: Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain and Ashtabula. The caseload dipped from its usual rate: 8,000 to 10,000 cases per year, each of which helped roughly two people.

But Legal Aid quickly bought equipment and programs to help clients online. Now cases are surging about layoffs, illnesses, unpaid rent and other nationwide symptoms of the pandemic, especially for the poor. From June to October, employment cases ran 26% higher than in the same period last year, and housing cases 32 percent higher.

Case by case and en masse

Legal Aid tackles problems client by client and systemically. At age 115, the society is believed to be the nation’s fifth oldest organization and Cuyahoga County’s only one giving free representation for civil issues to people with low incomes (up to 200% of the federal poverty line).

Last year, Legal Aid prevented 90% of clients’ threatened evictions and 60% of foreclosures. It removed threats to safety in 92% of relevant cases and barriers to education in all. Clients gained more than $13 million in income, assets and debt reduction.

The society also gives the public materials and workshops about legal rights, newly focusing on problems of the pandemic.

“Knowledge is power,” said Melanie Shakarian, Legal Aid’s director of development and communications.

What’s more, Legal Aid leads the fight for many reforms. It sparked Cleveland Municipal Court, the nation’s first small claims court, Hough Area Development Corporation, and this year’s Right to Counsel program at Cleveland Housing Court, among other innovations. Now Legal Aid is working with other Ohio groups to fight racial injustice and unclog Ohio Jobs.

When COVID-19 began to spread, Legal Aid happened already to be expanding. The society is now in the third of five years of a campaign to raise $15 million, mostly for services.

Since 2018, Legal Aid’s budget has soared from $8.9 million to $12.2 million. Leaders have expanded the staff from about 80 to 107 and hope for more next year. They also rely on about 800 volunteers per year, not all of them lawyers.

“We are growing to meet the increased need,” said Colleen Cotter, Legal Aid’s executive director for the past 15 years. “But it’s still outpacing our resources.”

Last year, Legal Aid turned away more than half the people seeking its help. It prioritizes cases likely to benefit clients the most. It refers other people to organizations that might help in other ways. And it partners with many other groups.

Legal Aid keeps office hours at the main campuses of MetroHealth, University Hospitals and St. Vincent, all in Cleveland, to help hospital clients with financial coverage and with outside problems hurting their health, from child custody to infested homes. It fights for the educational rights of Cleveland public school families through the district’s Say Yes to Education program, which is spreading to all schools. It coordinates the Right to Counsel program with United Way Services, which handles all the outreach. Legal Aid is also the only agency to be funded by the United Way throughout its 101 years of grant making.

Poor need law

The law, like most institutions, is slanted toward the rich. They hire top lawyers and lobbyists. They donate to campaigns for judges and lately for a U.S. Supreme Court nominee.

But Cotter said the poor need the law just as much, especially during the pandemic. They tend to have worse health and healthcare. They lack the kinds of jobs and technology to work from home. And they’re already living on the edge, with few savings, skills and connections to survive yet one more challenge.

Cotter says we could all use lawyers more often than we might think.

“It’s very easy to realize, if I get served with a summons, that maybe I should call a lawyer,” she said. “It’s harder to identify that so many problems in everyday life can be resolved by a lawyer. Lawyering is not just litigation. It’s about problem solving.”

For instance, Legal Aid lawyer Jennifer Kinsley persuaded Medicaid to cover heart and dental work for client Aaliyah Najieb at St. Vincent Charity Medical Center. As often happens with society clients, Kinsley discovered and met other needs of Najieb’s: sealing seal her criminal record, getting benefits for utilities, working out a repayment plan for excess Social Security disability benefits, renewing her disability pass with the Regional Transit Authority, and more.

Najieb said of Kinsley, “That’s my girl. She helped me so much. I didn’t know that legal stuff. I didn’t know I had rights.”

Or take Roy Miller. Early in the pandemic, a new owner fired Miller as manager of a mobile home park. Legal Aid urged him to contact the governor’s office, which got him a hearing at the swamped Ohio Jobs. The agency found his dismissal to be wrongful and gave him compensation and back pay.

Said Miller, “Legal Aid made things a lot easier for me.”

Legal Aid has made things easier for many others. Early in the pandemic, it helped thaw a woman’s mysteriously frozen Social Security account so she could keep living in a home promoting sober lifestyles. It helped correct a false report of a man’s criminal past that was denying him housing. It persuaded a landlord to exterminate bedbugs that had infested a cancer patient’s chemotherapy bag.

Many changes

When the pandemic began, Legal Aid went as virtual as possible. It bought laptops and programs for long-distance services, such as hearings and notarizations. It helped clients get hotspots or hosted them at society offices.

In 2019, Cleveland City Council reportedly became the Midwest’s first council and the nation’s fourth to give defendants in housing court the right to counsel. Legal Aid and United Way opened the $2-million-per-year program last July. Legal Aid lawyers attended each Cleveland eviction hearing and represent any client in poverty by federal standards with at least one minor child at home.

Laying out for lawyering

About 20% of Legal Aid’s budget comes the federal Legal Services Corp.

Legal Aid also gets money from other government agencies, plus foundations, law firms, businesses and individual donors. It stages a Jam for Justice fundraiser every fall, featuring musical lawyers. Last year’s Jam went virtual and grossed a typical $75,000, with fewer expenses.

To seek help, donate or volunteer, contact Legal Aid at lasclev.org or 888-817-3777.

Click here to read the full article in Cleveland Jewish News. 

Written by Jason Hawk in The Chronicle on 01/27/2021

Volunteer tax preparers would help 2,000 local families get $2 million in refunds in a normal year.

But this is anything but a normal year, said Matt Brady, who organizes the efforts of the Lorain County Free Tax Prep Coalition on behalf of the United Way.

With the challenges of the pandemic in mind, he’s marshaling a small army to help low-income families file.

“These are people who really, really need the help and can’t afford to go to a paid preparer,” he said.

Households that ask for coalition volunteers’ help have an average adjusted gross income of just $23,280.

Brady said they rely on tax refunds to make ends meet, and most use the money to pay bills.

Accountant Emily Rhoad, who used to run the program and continues to volunteer, said one client’s story has stayed in her mind for years.

Rhoad was on duty at Riverview Plaza in downtown Elyria on a slow day one tax season.

“This young woman walked in and she looked like she was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders,” Rhoad recalled.

The woman thumped a stack of papers on the desk and said she hadn’t filed taxes in seven years. She was carrying an immense sense of guilt, said Rhoad, especially because she owed back child support.

Going through the woman’s paperwork, it became apparent that she was due a refund for every year she hadn’t filed. Rhoad said that client left walking tall, her child support debt completely wiped out.

Brady said the volunteer tax prep program was launched years ago to help working families living in poverty claim the earned income tax credit.

United Way volunteers discovered a lot of families were eligible but weren’t claiming the “extremely beneficial” credit, he said.

With the help of community partners such as the Elyria and Lorain public library systems, tax volunteers have righted that issue for thousands of households.

Jennifer Harmon, marketing and program coordinator for the Elyria Public Library System, said tax assistance fits into the library’s mission of providing timely and accurate information to the community.

Susan Spivey, main branch manager for the Lorain Public Library, said it makes sense to help, since librarians have been providing tax forms to residents for decades.

Phones have been ringing off the hook in recent weeks, with callers asking when tax-filing assistance will become available, she said.

Appointments begin Tuesday, Feb. 2. Call 211 or (800) 275-6106.

Because of the pandemic, masks and social distancing will be required this year.

Clients will be allowed to drop off paperwork or set up in-person appointments.

Click here to read the full article in The Chronicle. 

Written by Dan Polletta in Freshwater Cleveland on 01/27/2021

Shaunta Sanchez was working a full-time job as a housekeeper in March 2020 when her phone rang. It was her employer, laying her off due to COVID-19.

The Slavic Village mother, with four children at home, was told to file for unemployment.

Sanchez started worrying about the rent.

A national eviction moratorium, extended through March 31 by the Biden administration, is intended to keep renters in their homes through the hardship of the coronavirus pandemic. The numerous rent assistance programs, bolstered by federal dollars, are also in place to prevent evictions.

But in most cases, the help is short-term and comes with strings attached.

Tenants have already faced many obstacles—loss of jobs, unexpected expenses, and bureaucratic red tape when trying to collect benefits—that put them in arrears.

In Slavic Village, about 300 residents behind on their rent were able to stave off eviction with the help of the nonprofit Slavic Village Development, which drew on $20,000 it received from the Cleveland Foundation COVID-19 Rapid Relief Fund.

Sanchez was one of them.

“It’s been kind of overwhelming for people like me who were in a good position,” she says. “Before this started, I wasn’t behind on the rent, I wasn’t behind on my bills, there was food on the table, everything was perfect. Then COVID came, and then everything was gone in the blink of an eye.”

Slavic Village Development was able to cut through some of the restrictions that have been most stress-inducing for low-income residents— burdensome paperwork requirements and housing inspections.

“It was sobering to learn that people were being denied aid, not because they didn’t need it, but because they were the properties they lived in couldn’t pass a cursory inspection to prove it was ‘warm safe and dry,’” says Lynn Rodemann, who is in charge of housing support services for Slavic Village Development.

The catch-22 is an example, Rodemann says, of how the pandemic has magnified the issues Slavic Village residents were already struggling with—including income inequality, housing instability, and health disparities.

Scrambling for help
After she was laid off, Sanchez found herself embroiled in a dispute with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services over her unemployment claim. The agency said she had quit her job. But Sanchez says she provided the department with the proper paperwork from her former employer, but she was still denied.

By October, she found herself with an eviction notice on her front door. Sanchez was able to avoid eviction for a short time with money from the CARES Act through the Coronavirus Relief Fund, which provides payments to state and local governments to help them deal with the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. But the money didn’t last.

Next, she turned to the Salvation Army of Greater Cleveland, which helped Sanchez with rent. But again, it was only temporary.

Like Sanchez, other Slavic Village residents—as well as other Clevelanders in need of assistance—have found themselves being denied aid because they were unable to assemble the proper paperwork. Renters have found it difficult to track down social security cards, birth certificates, and other documents.

The paperwork problem returned for Sanchez when she turned to the Northeast Ohio nonprofit EDEN Inc., which helps those who have fallen behind on rent and face eviction. Sanchez was unable to provide EDEN with the documentation they requested regarding her unemployment in ample time, so they were unable to help.

With eviction hanging over their heads, Sanchez was discussing the family’s plight with her oldest son Christopher, who volunteers for Slavic Village Stewards, a neighborhood assistance group.

“Son, I don’t know what to do, we’re going to have to move,” Sanchez recalls telling Christopher. “I don’t know where to go, we have an eviction over me.”

Christopher reached out to Rodemann to ask if she could make a rental recommendation, in case the family did get evicted.

After hearing the story, Rodemann and Slavic Village Development were able to help her with money from the Cleveland Foundation Covid-19 Rapid Response Fund to pay the $1,500 dollars in rent that Sanchez owed.

Slavic Village Development uses the dollars from the Cleveland Foundation to provide relief for renters who didn’t qualify for CARES Act funds, or whose housing didn’t pass inspection.

“I was still in eviction court, so I had to move out by January 1, but with them helping me with this $1,500, my landlord accepted it and I got to stay,” she says. “But that was the only reason why.”

Navigating hurdles to assistance
In addition to receiving funding from the Cleveland Foundation to assist residents behind on their rent, Slavic Village Development has partnered with other organizations that provide relief, including Cleveland Housing Network Partners (CHN) and EDEN. Rodemann says the programs those organizations administer have strict requirements that must be met before aid is given, including income verification and other paperwork about people who live in a household.

“There were a lot of hurdles put in the way to access that funding—it could be digital divide, or access to a printer, or an extra set of hands to help walk someone through,” says Rodemann.  When we were reaching out to the housing networks who were distributing these funds, we would say to them, ‘How can we help to make sure these almost 300 residents were able to connect with the things that they need?'”

Elaine Gimmel, executive director of EDEN, understands and shares the frustration of residents who are stymied by the myriad documents needed to obtain certain forms of aid. Two of the main relief programs that EDEN administers, the Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) program and Home Investment Partnership Program (HOME), require income verification, aswell as an inspection of the rental property before any aid can be approved.

“Because we have to gather more documents with relation to income, in relation to the issue being COVID-related, and having to do an inspection, there has been a lot of barriers, because at this time, people aren’t always able to gather the documents needed in order to be approved, so we have not been helping as many households as we thought we were going to,” Gimmel says.

Gimmel estimates that EDEN has helped around 1,000 households with rent issues since the pandemic began.

Gimmel says EDEN has been in conversations with the city and county with getting some of the money from the recently approved coronavirus relief bill. She said there would be more flexibility in dispersing the funds to those in need, as opposed to the ESG and HOME dollars they currently administer.

Helping those in need
Many Clevelanders who owe back rent have turned to CHN for help.

Since July 2020, CHN—which administers COVID-19 rental assistance for Cuyahoga County—has received over 13,000 applications for help. To date, the non-profit has been able to assist roughly 4,000 unique households, according to Kate Carden, CHN’s director of financial mobility programs

Carden understands that gathering all the paperwork to get help can be a daunting task, so CHN has tried to make their application for assistance as “user friendly” as possible.

The application is smart phone friendly, so a computer isn’t needed to apply. If an applicant doesn’t have access to a smartphone or a computer, that person must call CHN to complete the application over the phone. CHN will accept a self-certification of income, as well as the COVID-19 related hardship for the rental assistance application. If an applicant is only applying for rental assistance, the documentation requirements include proof of citizenship and household size.

Carden says anyone who has experienced a COVID-19 related hardship since March 2020 might be eligible for aid with rent. CHN looks at income guidelines and household size to determine if they can provide assistance. Those income limits may vary depending on the type of funding being used for each case. In many cases, people who are at 80% or below area median income are eligible for some sort of help with rent arrears.

CHN is also approached by residents who need assistance in paying back rent, but whose financial distress wasn’t caused by COVID-19. While CHN is unable to administer CARES Act money in that circumstance, they do have another fund to help those people.

“Wherever we can, we are looking to resolve that situation with the tenant themselves, or we will ask that tenant to call our great partner United Way’s 211 First Call [HelpLink],” Carden says.

EDEN’s Gimmel says her organization has worked closely with CHN, which she described as “the front door for rental assistance.” If those households who have been assisted by CHN are still in need of help after a four-month period, then they can turn to EDEN, which uses money from ESG and HOME to help pay for up to nine months of rent assistance.

EDEN’s income limit for assistance is at 50% or below area median income ($25,183), although other sources of aid EDEN can call on have even more restrictions.

Long term help
While cutting through the mound of paperwork and creating lower barriers, like Slavic Village Development did, can help when people are in crisis, more long-term fixes are needed. That includes an examination of the required inspection process, Rodemann says.

“If the property you are renting doesn’t pass a ‘safe, warm, and dry’ inspection, then you don’t qualify for that long-term funding.” she says. “We’re working closely with the agencies to put pressure on them [landlords] to comply, but some of them are refusing to comply.”

Much of the funding EDEN administers is long-term rent relief. Gimmel says some landlords are reluctant to take part in the programs because the gathering of the needed documents is a hindrance; others aren’t trusting of the system; while still others are having their own financial problems and can’t afford to make the necessary repairs.

While CHN’s Carden has found that most of the landlords are willing to work with tenants, if needed CHN will turn to their partners at Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, as well as staff at the housing courts who have been willing to step in to provide mediation services.

Rodemann, a landlord herself, understands that some people who own rental property are facing their own financial hardships due to COVID-19 and can’t make all the necessary repairs to pass inspection. She thinks a different approach to the process could benefit landlords and tenants alike.

“If their property doesn’t pass inspection, what we should do, if this is a program designed to prevent homelessness, we should catch them up and hold them accountable, after everyone has got the money they are owed, to make those repairs in a timely manner,” says Rodemann. “There should be some nuance to it, but there was not.”

Rodemann, Gimmel, and Carden all have high hopes that the incoming Biden administration will be able to pass a new COVID-19 relief package, so that fewer people will be looking at eviction notices in 2021.

Click here to read the full article in Freshwater Cleveland. 

Written by Jade Jarvis in News 5 Cleveland on 01/22/2021

President Joe’s Biden administration extended a moratorium on evictions for those affected by the coronavirus pandemic until at least the end of March.

Housing advocates said it’s much needed, but renters still need more help.

President Biden called on several federal departments and agencies to extend their eviction and foreclosure bans, including the CDC eviction moratorium which first went into effect in September.

Community Legal Aid managing attorney John Petit said the moratorium requires tenants to write a declaration to their landlords that they can’t pay rent because of hardship brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“You’ve lost some household income and you would be homeless in essence, or having to live with, you know, a close relative room sharing those types of things which are not healthy during a pandemic,” Petit said.

Petit is hoping for more guidance from the federal government to streamline the way the moratorium is put into practice across the country.

“Some courts are saying that the landlord has a right to question you on that. Some courts will set up hearings through that, other courts to do it virtually,” Petit said. “And then other courts are doing it in a way I think it was intended, which is that it is a moratorium, that you should not go forward on an eviction. And so we’ve certainly been challenged by different courts treating people differently, kind of depending on where they live.”

Despite the challenges, Petit said the extension is much needed.

“And probably further extensions because there’s a lot of rental assistance available in the community,” Petit said.
The latest stimulus package passed in December provided $25 billion in rent relief, but he said not all of that money has been distributed yet.

“It does take time because the infrastructure isn’t always there to get that out quickly. And so that’s where the moratoriums are just so vital because we’ve had many cases where landlords avoid the moratorium,” Petit said. “They still go forward trying to evict people and still want to get the rental assistance money and have the person put out on the street. And that’s just not it’s not good for the community.”

Moratoriums a good start, but just the first step to solving the eviction crisis

Abigail Staudt, managing attorney for the housing group at the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, said this latest extension is a good start to keep people in their homes, but it’s only part of the solution.

“We’re relieved,” Staudt said. “There needs to be additional rent assistance and mortgage assistance as well in order for people to pay the back rent and be able to stay in place.”

Staudt said the number of people facing eviction is much greater than before, but evictions haven’t been filed for a couple of reasons.

“First, our rental assistance has been effective. So those who have not been able to pay their rent, many of them have been able to access that rental assistance,” Staudt said.

Staudt said the second reason is because of the various eviction moratoriums that have gone into effect over the course of the pandemic.

“We saw a lot of landlords just not file because it was going to be a waste of their money to file at this point because of nonpayment of rent and really the better thing to do is to work with a tenant and help them in obtaining the rental assistance,” Staudt said.

Staudt said eviction filings started to increase at the end of 2020, as landlords anticipated the Dec. 31 deadline of the CDC moratorium. However, that deadline was extended to Jan. 31, and now again to Mar. 31.

“What’s happening is they’re the cases are getting halted for the time being first until the end of January, and now we’ll start seeing through at least the end of March,” Staudt said.

President Biden is pushing lawmakers to approve another stimulus package with $35 billion in additional rent, utilities, and homeless relief.

Staudt hopes these developments help people in more ways than one.

“I’m hoping that aside from the sort of more measurable changes that this moratorium extension is causing, there’s also a sense of relief and worry that is lifted from many, many people,” Staudt said.

Landlords also affected by eviction crisis

Staudt said some communities still have CARES Act funding available for rental assistance, but others do not. She said more federal assistance will not only help renters, but also landlords who rely on rental income to make ends meet.

“We have a large number of small business owners – and these are landlords – people who are relying on rental income in order to make their bills and meet their own family’s needs,” Staudt said. “And so making sure that rent assistance becomes available for tenants in order to pay their landlords who are also in need of that assistance, really will help resolve this instability that we’re facing and a potential eviction crisis.”

“We have seen a number of landlords work with their tenants, but this pandemic has gone on for so long that it has often meant that now tenants are three months, four months, five months behind,” Staudt said.

Dana Blair and his wife own four investment properties in Lakewood. He said they haven’t had any issues with rent payments because most of their tenants were able to keep their jobs and work from home.

He disagreed with some landlords sending out blanket statements to their tenants about prompt rent payments. Instead, he said he handles those issues on a case-by-case basis.

“Everyone has a different situation. So if anything were to come up, we’d address that individually,” Blair said.

Blair said the eviction moratorium had to be extended for the foreseeable future to assist people who are unable to work because of the pandemic. Going forward, he said there needs to be compassion on all sides from landlords, tenants, and the government.

“I think just everyone needs to understand that from a landlord perspective, from a tenant perspective, from just a personal perspective, this has never happened before in our lifetime. So I think just working with each other would go a long way,” Blair said.

What to do if you can’t pay your rent

Staudt said the first step for tenants who are unable to pay their rent is to notify their landlord.

“Tell them what’s going on with your situation. Tell them the steps that you’re going to take and see if you can make a partial payment. Ask them if you can pay half your rent, if you can afford it,” Staudt said.

Then, Staudt said tenants should sign a declaration stating that they are unable to pay rent and immediately apply for rent assistance.

“Right now, you only owe one month’s rent. You might be able to get two month’s rent covered and you’ll have that application completed and a file with the rent assistance program. And so if you need a third, fourth, fifth month’s rent, you’ll be able to go back for it,” Staudt said.

Tenants facing eviction should call the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, Community Legal Aid, or their local Legal Aid.

“Cleveland passed an ordinance that gave a right to an attorney, to tenants who are very low income and who have at least one child in the household. So it’s very important to contact legal aid as soon as they get those eviction papers so we can assess whether or not we can represent you,” Staudt said.

Tenants in need of rental assistance should visit NEORentHelp.org. They can also call the United Way’s 211 hotline. Community Legal Aid also hosts a Zoom clinic every Tuesday where they discuss available assistance.

Click here to read the full article in News 5 Cleveland. 

Written by Rodneya Ross in Spectrum News 1 on 01/22/2021.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues, many people are still without jobs or are making less money than before. This in turn is causing people to not be able to pay rent and possibly face eviction.

Nearly two weeks before a moratorium on evictions was set to expire, President Joe Biden signed an executive order for it to be extended until March 31.

“This moratorium basically gives the protection to tenants who have been impacted by COVID, and by a reduction in their financial situation, to be able to stay in place and not have to be displaced, potentially homeless or doubling up with another household,” said Abigail Staudt, managing attorney at the housing group at the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland.

Rochelle Walensky, director for the CDC, agreed to extend the moratorium which is designed to temporarily stop the evictions of tenants due to an inability to pay rent because of the pandemic.

However, Staudt said it’s important for people to know that there are still evictions taking place.

“The moratorium halts evictions that are based on nonpayment of a housing related payment,” Staudt said. “And so it does leave open the ability for a landlord to evict someone for criminal activity some other lease violation that is a non-housing payment related issue.”

Anyone having trouble paying rent and fear they could be evicted may contact the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland.

“Right now in Cleveland there is an ordinance that entitles families with at least one child in the household, who are low income, to an attorney at their eviction,” Staudt said. “The sooner we’re able to get that family an attorney and begin representing that family, the better off that family.”

And while the moratorium pauses evictions, it doesn’t mean that rent is forgiven. Tenants are still responsible to pay any back rent and current rent to landlords, but there are options available if help is needed.

“The rent is still owed,” Staudt said. “That obligation doesn’t change. And, you know what I’m hoping and what has already started happening is that there’s also financial assistance that’s being made available to tenants to be able to make those payments, the back payments, to their rent.”

There is a declaration people need to fill out, sign, and give to their landlord if they are not able to pay rent and need protection under the moratorium.

The form may be found here.

For more information on rental assistance, visit the Legal Aid Offices website.

Click here to read the full article in Spectrum News 1.

Written by Danilo Powell-Lima in The Lakewood Observer on 01/20/2021

A new year is a good time to make a fresh start – and right now, there’s good news for Ohioans who want to reinstate their driver’s license and get back on the road. As of December 13, 2020, a new program from The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) can help people who have had their license suspended obtain a reinstatement. The program, called the Reinstatement Fee Debt Reduction and Amnesty Program, allows eligible individuals to pay reduced reinstatement fees or receive a complete fee waiver, depending on their income.

The BMV automatically screens everyone with a suspended license for the program and sends an email or letter to those who meet eligibility criteria. Thus, there is no need to apply – but you must have a working email address or current mailing address on file with the BMV in order to be notified. To activate the program and reinstatement fee payment plan, you also must provide proof of insurance.

Program requirements are as follows:

• A driver’s license or permit has been suspended for one or more eligible offenses
• At least 18 months have passed since the end of the suspension period for at least one of the person’s eligible offenses
• The driver owes reinstatement fees
• The driver was not enrolled previously in the program

To qualify for a complete waiver, a driver must participate in one of the following programs and submit proper documentation:

• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
• Medicaid
• Ohio Works First
• Supplemental Security Income
• The Us Department of Affairs pension Benefit Program

Drivers are eligible for a reduction in reinstatement fees even if they are not participants in the above programs.

Those receiving a reduction must pay 50% of the reinstatement fee owed. If reinstatement fees are owed for multiple offenses, the driver must pay either the lowest reinstatement fee owed or 10% of the total amount – whichever is greater. Any payment must be at least $25 per month.

This BMV program is being implemented in two phases:1) license suspensions that occurred prior to 9/15/2020, and 2) those that occurred on or after 9/15/2020. The program only applies to a driver’s license or permit suspension. It does not apply to a commercial driver’s license or permit.

Need to find out more? Call 1-844-644-6268, or find additional information at bmv.ohio.gov

Do you need legal help related to your license suspension? Legal Aid may be able to assist you. Visit lasclev.org/contact to learn more.

Click here to read the full article in The Lakewood Observer. 

Written by Anne Sweeney in Crain’s Cleveland Business on 01/16/2021.

COVID-19 continues to kill thousands of people across the United States and devastate families, with its enormous impact on Black and Brown communities. People of color are infected and dying at  higher rates than white individuals. Unemployment soars for Black communities, while it is starting to fall for white individuals. A study from Brown and Harvard universities shows, as a result of the pandemic, Black children are further behind in school compared to white children. The pandemic continues to lay bare how pervasively racism has infected every aspect of this country: health care, employment, education, housing, wealth, and the legal systems. Lawyers have a special responsibility for these systems.

On May 25, 2020 George Floyd’s murder rattled our collective consciousness. The confluence of COVID-19 disproportionately harming people of color, with a heightened awareness of murders, like Mr. Floyd’s, implores change and compels action. Lawyers have a special responsibility for these systems and a role to play in changing them.

Structural racism was created intentionally, it is perpetuated deliberately, and it persists because of action and inaction. For example, although in 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court help “separate but equal” schools unconstitutional, and in 1991 the Ohio Supreme Court found the state’s system of funding schools through property taxes  violates the Ohio constitution, the Ohio Legislature has failed to comply.

This country needs a period of “deconstruction” to end discriminatory policies. The urgency is different than in the past. Yet the enormity of the task – dismantling four centuries of racist laws, policies, and practices – still threatens to paralyze white people. Lawyers must resist the path of denial, avoidance and accommodation, and embrace racial justice now.

Racial profiling, drug laws, sentencing policies, implicit bias, prosecutorial discretion, and socioeconomic inequity contribute to racial disparities at every level of the criminal justice system. People of color make up 37% of the U.S. population but 67% of the prison population. The Sentencing Project has found that even though Black people are no more likely to commit a crime than white people, Black people are more likely than white people to be arrested. Once arrested,  they are more likely to be convicted, and once convicted, they are more likely to face stiff sentences. A racist “justice” system suffocates Black people through incarceration and collateral consequences. Black people who are unfairly trapped by the “justice” system face health threats, lost opportunities, and denials and rejections based on criminal background. A person convicted of a misdemeanor for possession of marijuana faces up to 227 collateral consequences. Despite seeking employment at rates higher than the general population, formerly incarcerated individuals are half as likely to get a job and face unemployment rates five times the national average.

Upon release, a person is poor in income, health and opportunity. And yet each person released must secure  housing and employment, care for family, finish their education, and avoid the police. Policies and practices that discriminate against applicants based on their criminal record make achieving these goals a Herculean task and disproportionately affect Black people, despite being no more likely to commit a crime than whites. Lawyers must do more to remove barriers for those returning to the community. To avoid these barriers, some people start their own businesses. People of color face inequity in the process such as limited access to capital because of low appraisal values and credit scores. The Economic Injury Disaster Loans created in the pandemic relief legislation should be responsive  to these realities. Instead, small business owners who have been convicted of a felony in the last five years, are currently incarcerated, are on probation or parole, or are under criminal indictment are excluded. Lawyers should challenge such discriminatory legislation that punishes people who have been targets of a biased system.

As Bryan Stevenson said in The New Yorker, and reiterated in a recent event hosted  by Cleveland Public Library “The great evil of American slavery wasn’t the involuntary servitude; it was the fiction that Black people aren’t as good as white people, and aren’t the equals of white people, and are less evolved, less human, less capable, less worthy, less deserving than white people. … You can’t understand these present-day issues without understanding the persistent refusal to acknowledge Black people as equals…. The police are an extension of our larger society, and when we try to disconnect them from the justice system and the lawmakers and the policy makers, we don’t accurately get at it.”

Click here to read the full article in Crain’s Cleveland Business.

Mortgage assistance is now available through the Cuyahoga County Mortgage Assistance Program. To apply for the Cuyahoga County Mortgage Assistance Program, call 216-600-2814.

To be eligible for the Mortgage Assistance the borrower must meet the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban development income guidelines, have missed one or more mortgage payments due to COVID-19 and the house must be the borrower’s primary residence, among other criteria.

Loans are available for homeowners in all Cuyahoga County municipalities other than Cleveland, Brecksville, East Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, Euclid, Hunting Valley, Lakewood, and Parma.  Residents not supported by the County Federal Funding can contact The Council For Economic Opportunities in Greater Cleveland at:

• http://www.ceogc.org/
• Or by calling 216-696-9077.

Cleveland, East Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, Euclid, Lakewood, and Parma homeowners are excluded from the program because their cities received their own money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for mortgage assistance. Brecksville and Hunting Valley do not participate in the agreement that makes the rest of the county’s communities eligible for the federal aid.

Assistance is available while funds last.

Written by Alexis Oatman in Cleveland.com on 01/06/2021

Stimulus checks arriving in bank accounts are a lifeline to Americans financially struggling with the effects of the coronavirus. But those whose personal finances have not taken a hit might want to donate to charities bearing the brunt of the pandemic.

If you don’t need the stimulus money and you want to give where you can do the most good, experts recommend donating to nonprofit organizations or, if you want to spend, ordering take-out from locally-owned restaurants or buying from small stores.

The Greater Cleveland COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund has been working since March to send money to small nonprofits on the frontlines in Northeast Ohio, said Dale Anglin, program director for Youth, Health & Human Services for the Cleveland Foundation.

“We completely understand at our foundation that everyone is hurting from this both health and economic pandemic,” says Anglin. “The most impacted — that’s people of color, low income, seniors, homeless populations, people that need the safety net normally and especially during a time like this.”

Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington D.C., understands that plenty of people feeling the economic weight from the pandemic. Gould says stimulating the economy is definitely always important, but spending must be done safely.

“There’s plenty of people hurting. You could be donating some of that money to people to don’t have enough to put food on their plates,” says Gould. ”We want to stimulate the economy, but we want to keep people safe, so I think it’s really important we keep that second part in mind, and people are going to spend their money, let’s have it be things that don’t require in-person risk.”

Hunger Network CEO Julie M. Johnson says many supporters have already generously donated.

“The pandemic brought extraordinary challenges, but our Cleveland community came together and did what we do best — feed our people,” Johnson said. “Our heartfelt gratitude goes to each and every individual who chooses to support our mission during this crisis,” says Johnson.

Augie Napoli, President & CEO for the United Way of Greater Cleveland, says there have already been people expressing interest in donating their stimulus checks.

“We know there are people who received stimulus checks as part of the second coronavirus relief package with an expressed interest in giving the money to those less fortunate than themselves,” Napoli said. “For those who feel the funds can best be utilized by the children and families who are struggling during the ongoing pandemic, they can support local area nonprofits whose work is essential to helping those who remain in the deepest need across our community.”

Napoli says the need for support, including shelter, utility, and food assistance has never been greater.

Here are additional nonprofit organizations that you can donate to:

MedWish International, headquartered in Cleveland, collects and provides local health institutions with personal protective equipment and ventilators.

Providence House is a crisis nursery committed to child abuse prevention and family preservation based in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood.

Domestic violence experts, like Cleveland’s Domestic Violence and Child Advocacy Center, fear a spike in abuse while people shelter at home

The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland can help people facing eviction.

The Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless works to provide emergency housing for some of the most vulnerable people during the pandemic.

Organizations like the Hunger Network and the Children’s Hunger Alliance are dedicated to feeding families in need. The Greater Cleveland Food Bank has been stretched for many months.

The Senior Transportation Connection provides coordinated, efficient, and affordable transportation to seniors and adults with disabilities throughout Cuyahoga County.

The Centers for Families and Children provides access to healthcare, job training, and educational services for thousands of Northeast Ohio families each year.

Click here to read the full article in Cleveland.com

Written by Campbell Robertson in The New York Times on 01/02/2021.

Legal Aid lawyers in Cleveland say many of their clients had not even heard about the eviction moratorium, some only learning of it after being evicted. One client, a 30-year-old mother of four, showed up to plead her case at rent court only to be turned away because new pandemic protocols, which she had never heard about, forbade children on courtroom floors. The places where many would ordinarily have gone to learn about new benefits and new rules — where they might have access to a decent internet connection, for example — are now closed.

“Our library is not open anymore, our Boys Club is not open anymore,” said Tony Brancatelli, a member of the City Council whose ward includes Slavic Village, once a neighborhood of mostly Polish, Czech and Slovak immigrants that is now roughly half African-American. But, he said, “when you can’t do basic engagement with families and residents, and social and civic organizations are shut down, it really tears at the fabric of the neighborhood.”

A decade ago, during the foreclosure crisis, when parts of Mr. Brancatelli’s ward were among the hardest-hit places in the country, more people at least kept their jobs. They had friends and relatives they could move in with or turn to for financial support. Today, with parts of Slavic Village above 30 percent unemployment and a virus that preys on small gatherings, those supports are not there. People are largely on their own.

And the virus continues to rage. Cleveland has been spared the catastrophic case totals of cities like Detroit or New Orleans but has nonetheless just endured its worst two-month stretch. As December came to a close, four out of five critical care beds in Cuyahoga County hospitals were being used.

The neighborhoods on the east side of town had begun to show some progress after decade of laborious rebuilding, Mr. Brancatelli and others said. This past year swiftly pushed things to the brink of collapse.

The police reports from his ward corroborate this: more violence, more harrowing details about the way people are now surviving. A man living with his son in an abandoned house was beaten and shot by thieves; an Amazon delivery truck was carjacked and abandoned. House burglaries are down across the city while the number of shootings has exploded. As in Cincinnati, Wichita, Kan., and several other U.S. cities, 2020 was the worst year for murders in Cleveland in decades.

Mr. Gibson, the pastor, has buried victims of sickness and gunfire alike in the past few months. Overlooking a neighborhood checkered with deserted houses, his church, Elizabeth Baptist, is one of the few trusted institutions in a place where mistrust of institutions runs deep.

The church gym now houses a Covid-19 testing center, and across the parking lot sits a building where parents drop off schoolchildren for remote learning. A huge food bank sets up in the lot every other Saturday; Narcan is also handed out there. A church-affiliated homeless shelter sits across the lawn. There are also the individual pleas for help. A man recently came to the church asking for five blankets, the pastor said, his family preferring to stay together in their car than split up in gender-segregated homeless shelters.

People at the church and other local support institutions have been working through exhaustion and even sickness for the past 10 months, and they all say similar things: the scale of need is immense; a lot of requests come from those who have never needed this kind of help before; what was already fragile seems to be cracking.

Five minutes south of the church is Neighborhood Pets, a bright nonprofit storefront that opened up four years ago in Slavic Village. It is busy these days. Becca Britton, the founder, says that many of the people who come in have no family, no social network and no support system. “Their dog or their cat, that’s all they have,” she said. But even these bonds are in jeopardy.

Every day people call in because they can no longer afford dog or cat food, she said. Some call panicked because they are not allowed to keep a pet in a homeless shelter. Other calls are much grimmer. One of her customers, an older man whom she thought of as especially kindhearted, is now in jail, accused of killing a woman in his neighborhood after an argument about his dog.

Not far away sit the offices of University Settlement, a 94-year-old social service institution in Slavic Village, which before the pandemic would host a weekly sit-down dinner for anyone in the community. This has changed to takeout. And while food is in more demand than ever — in March the organization prepared more meals than it had over any month in its history — social connections are coming apart. Some of the people whom the organization routinely checked up on seem to have just disappeared, no longer answering phones or knocks at the door.

“The community felt frayed and forgotten anyway,” Earl Pike, the executive director of University Settlement, said. “It’s beginning to feel a little ‘Mad Max’-y.”

He recalled a day in early December when Cleveland was hit by the first blizzard of the season. It was a one-day storm but it knocked the power out, kept much of the staff from coming in and triggered a flurry of frantic messages from people in the neighborhood asking about food.

“Everything broke and everybody needed help,” Mr. Pike said, seeing in that day a foretaste of what awaits as resources dwindle. “It’s the combination of increased need and diminished capacity to meet that need.”

This was a common sentiment: As bad as things were, they could always get worse — and in the near term most likely would.

Few understand this better than Mariama Jalloh, 40, a mother of two who these days works at Elizabeth Baptist helping with the schoolchildren. Growing up in Gambia and Sierra Leone, Ms. Jalloh and everyone she knew pictured America as “just close to heaven,” where the government took care of people and life was smooth, “like glass.”

She found a coarser reality when she arrived six years ago. But as 2020 began, in her first full year as an American citizen, Ms. Jalloh had managed some stability, taking classes to become a nurse and living with her children in a neatly kept house on a quiet street, among mostly older neighbors.

Now she returns to a changed neighborhood. She has not seen some of her neighbors for months, though she has seen ambulances come and go. There are more strangers on the street. The house she rents might soon be sold at auction, her landlord informed her, though she is unsure what that would mean for her.

In the meantime, her children have learned a new drill: running down into the basement at the first sound of gunfire. The family does this two or three evenings a week now, she said, sometimes twice a night on weekends. She learned drills like this during her own youth in the middle of a civil war.

“I’ve seen people killed in front of me,” Ms. Jalloh said of her childhood. “I’ve seen all kinds of things.”

Her children did not know these kinds of terrible things and she had hoped, living in America, that they never would. But these days, as she finds herself huddling with them in the damp basement, it is clear that the country she now calls home is not the country she once thought it was.

Click here to read the full article in The New York Times.

Written by Marc Ramirez, Sarah Taddeo, and Tiffany Cusaac-Smith in USA Today on 12/24/2020.

It’s safe to say that Shayla Black’s life is not what she imagined when she left her job in the magazine industry in January, feeling like she needed a change.

Before long, her quest for new opportunities was upended by massive job losses driven by the COVID-19 crisis. As Black’s finances started to dwindle and the rent continued to accrue at her second-story Harlem apartment, the 28-year-old found herself having to make some difficult choices.

“You’re just told in a society, like, you pay your rent by any means necessary,” Black said. “I was ready to pay my very last to pay my rent. But how would I pay my electric? How would I get food?”

This fall, her landlord slipped a notice under her door: Either pay thousands in back rent or risk eviction, it said – despite a national moratorium prohibiting evictions for non-payment of rent.

“No one should ever have to experience the threat of being pushed out of their home,” Black said. “Especially in the middle of a pandemic.”

Black is one of millions on the verge of being evicted with the federal eviction moratorium set to expire at the end of January, unleashing what advocates say could be a housing catastrophe of historic proportions: Without federal intervention, they fear, as many as 40 million people could be displaced amid an ongoing and still worsening pandemic.

“We’re facing potentially the worst housing and homelessness crisis in our country’s history,” said Diane Yentel, CEO and president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition in Washington, D.C.

The eviction moratorium approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was originally set to end Dec. 31. It was expected to be extended through January by Congress under a $900 billion COVID-19 relief package that also includes offering $25 billion in emergency rental assistance – the figure requested by the National Low Income Housing Coalition in a letter submitted last week to the CDC and co-signed by 1,500 housing advocacy organizations.

“The least the federal government can do during a once-in-a-century pandemic is assure each of us that we’re not going to lose our homes in the middle of it,” Yentel said. The $25 billlon, she said, was not nearly enough to meet the actual need, but it was a step in the right direction.

Black, Latino renters hit hard by COVID crisis

A study by global investment firm Stout estimates up to 14 million households could already be close to eviction, with a rental shortfall of more than $24 billion – a number compounded by the economic fallout of the pandemic, which has put many out of work and at risk of displacement for the first time in their lives. The situation has been particularly dire for Black and Latino households, which are disproportionately affected by job loss and infection rates.

“The vulnerability is much greater, and that’s the real issue,” said Abigail Staudt, managing attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland’s housing law practice. “We have an unprecedented number of people who are housing-unstable.”

The CDC eviction moratorium was supposed to protect these Americans so long as they met certain conditions. But critics say the order’s vague wording has led to inconsistent implementation and allowed determined landlords to find loopholes.

Moreover, tenants often aren’t aware of the order, and without legal representation, many aren’t equipped to follow through in court.

Since spring, 43 states, along with the District of Columbia, issued their own temporary moratoriums, but as of this week, only 14 were still in place with another handful also set to run out at year’s end.

For Christopher Green of Rochester, New York, the moratorium has been a mirage.

“It’s not helping a lot of people that actually need it,” he said.

Rats and squirrels have left gaping holes in the walls of the apartment where Green, 24, is spending the holidays on edge with his two brothers, unsure whether they’ll still have a place to call home in coming weeks.

What started as a plea to address the rodent issues – and to fix jagged window frames that have left his own and his daughter’s hands cut – has instead turned into a back-and-forth with the landlord over Green’s ability to pay rent after losing his jobs as a line cook and seasonal delivery worker due to COVID-19.

He said he tried to invoke both state and federal moratoria at a fall court date, but a judge told him he didn’t have enough proof that he’d lost work because of the pandemic, and therefore his situation didn’t apply.

Now, his bags are packed with nowhere to go as he waits to see how his landlord, who could not be reached for comment, will proceed.

“I’m just walking through it day by day, every day,” Green said.

Millions of Americans spend bulk of paycheck on rent

Even before the pandemic, about 21 million renters were already considered “cost-burdened,” according to Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. That is, they were paying more than 30% of their income toward rent. Of those, 11 million spent more than half of their paychecks on housing.

“The situation for renters has been bad for a long time,” said Chris Herbert, the center’s managing director. “The pandemic has compounded an existing problem and really highlighted the weaknesses in our safety net.”

Herbert made the remarks during a panel discussion held last month in conjunction with the release of a center-issued report on the nation’s housing.

States have tackled the problem to varying degrees, with some urging eviction courts to suspend operations except for emergencies while nonetheless allowing landlords to file proceedings short of kicking their tenants out.

That means that once the moratorium does end, said Yentel of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, evictions will happen quickly “because in many cases all the proceedings will have happened, and the only step left to take will be removing the person from their home.”

Many might opt to leave before evictions proceed, fearful of damaging their long-term credit.

“An eviction can have a long-lasting effect on people’s housing histories and access to credit moving forward,” said Martha Galvez, a senior research associate for the Urban Institute’s Metropolitan Housing & Communities Policy Center. “It can take people a long time to dig out from under that.”

In Cleveland, Legal Aid’s Staudt said that before the pandemic, 90% of evictions were for non-payment of rent, with tenants an average two months behind. Nearly 80% of those evicted were women, 78% were Black, and more than half of those households included children.

Last year, her agency worked with the city and the local United Way to pass a right-to-counsel ordinance that provides free legal representation for low-income tenants facing eviction with children in the home. The ordinance took effect in July.

As a result, about 10% of tenants facing eviction now have court representation, compared to roughly 2% in a typical year. “It’s been a game-changer,” Staudt said.

In addition to familiarity with the legal process, lawyers also bring working relationships with opposing counsel that can facilitate deals and offer credibility for landlords seeking assurance that they’ll eventually get paid.

In Texas, both Austin and Dallas this spring instituted temporary grace-period protections for renters, requiring landlords to provide a “notice of proposed eviction” up to 60 days before actual filing and allowing tenants to negotiate payment agreements.

But when housing advocates then attempted to push a similar measure in Houston in August, Mayor Sylvester Turner refused to even put it on the council agenda, opting instead to offer rental assistance funds.

“There’s a very clear resistance to providing protections to tenants in these parts,” said managing attorney Dana Karni of Houston’s Lone Star Legal Aid. “This is not a matter of tenants being deadbeats or preferring to use their money to buy large-screen televisions. This is a matter of tenants being down for the count because of a deadly virus.”

As a result, Houston has seen more than 16,000 eviction filings since March, compared to about 700 in Austin.

“We see people being evicted for one month’s rent, or even part of one month,” said Zoe Middleton, Southeast Texas co-director for Texas Housers, a non-profit that advocates for low-income people.

Evicted tenants have five days to appeal, but with few having legal representation, “we see people doubling up, and so there’s excess COVID infection,” Middleton said. “I’m seeing people sleeping in parks where I’ve never seen people sleeping before.”

Yentel said that’s why, in addition to pressuring Congress to act, her coalition has urged governors and mayors to likewise move to protect their citizens.

“Frankly, their reluctance is baffling to me,” she said, “because it’s their own people in their own states and cities who will be evicted. And those governors and mayors will have to respond to the homelessness crisis.”

Low-income Americans struggle to figure out how moratoriums work 

Housing activists insist federal lawmakers must do more to help Americans facing eviction.

Senior research associate Martha Galvez of the Urban Institute’s Metropolitan Housing & Communities Policy Center said that while states and cities have been remarkably creative in adapting existing programs to help those at risk, “there’s only so much that local dollars can do. When the moratorium lifts and the surge in evictions begins to happen, there’s not going to be enough to meet the need.”

Another issue is that many renters – especially those in marginalized communities, like immigrants or seniors without internet access – have been unaware of the moratorium or how to get protection under it, housing activists said.

In addition, critics say the order is written so vaguely that it allows judges to interpret it in a variety of ways, and some landlords claim to have never received the proper paperwork from tenants. And because the order only bans evictions for non-payment of rent, Yentel added, “we’re seeing landlords get creative and find other reasons to evict.”

Many courts are now hearing eviction proceedings virtually – a barrier for those without access to dependable Wi-Fi or devices, or who are simply without technological know-how.

“People are stressed out,” said Middleton of Texas Housers.

With eviction hearings now streamed, she recounted watching last week as a Houston mom attending a Zoom hearing on her phone was threatened with eviction while holding her crying baby.

“The landlord was supposed to send her a copy of the CDC declaration, but it doesn’t seem like that happened, so the judge coached her through it and reset the hearing for a future date,” Middleton said.

Ensuring that landlords get paid is the best way to relieve stress on everyone and provide security going forward, Cleveland’s Staudt said, and ideas have abounded about how to get that done, including direct payments from the government.

“Personally, I don’t care how it happens,” Staudt said. “I just want people to feel more comfortable and safe in their homes, knowing that they’re able to weather without thinking they might have to double up with another family or go to shelter because neither of those are going to help curb the pandemic.”

In New York, Black recently found a job that allowed her to pay off her back rent, but she is worried about other renters in her building who need renovations and may be displaced if they can’t pay what’s due.

“It’s a scary prospect to see that someone’s trying to take your home away from you in the middle of a pandemic,” Black said.

Click here to read the full article in USA Today. 

WKSU, in partnership with the Plain Dealer, created a guide for people facing eviction.  The content was developed in partnership with The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland and Community Legal Aid services.

Check it out here –

Written by Joe Pagonakis in News 5 Cleveland on 12/15/2020

The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland reported landlord-tenant issues are on the rise, with more tenants dealing with heating problems as we head closer to the official start of the winter season on Dec. 21.

A growing number of tenants like Cindy Kindzi and Betty Brown of Cleveland are turning to News 5 for help, reporting they have been dealing with no heat or hot water for several weeks.

Brown told News 5 her landlord has been promising to repair a broken furnace and hot water tank since early November after the gas company “red-tagged” the heating equipment as unsafe.

She said she’s been paying her rent at her Cleveland rental home but she’s had to use space heaters and boil water to keep her three young children warm and clean.

“I have to boil three pots just to wash my kids up to bathe them for school,” Brown said.

“Then I boil water just so we can wash our hands so we can use the toilet.”

“I didn’t really think that some would take advantage of me and my three kids.”

“It’s too cold, it’s going to start snowing really bad soon and it’s going to be freezing in here. I have six space heaters that are running.”

It is the same story for Kindzi, who is trying to take care of her nine-month-old granddaughter. Kindzi said heating has been shut down at her Cleveland apartment for several weeks due to a serious gas leak.

“It was leaking first of all, and then for Dominion to come and try to turn it on, and they said no, there is a big leak,” Kindzi said.

“You would think that the owner or management would know something like this before they would accept my first month’s rent and deposit.”

“I ran out of the house immediately, there was gas in the hallway, I didn’t even make it into my home, I was so scared.”

“And I haven’t heard anything from the contractor, or the building manager, or the owner at all.”

“I’m supposed to be in this cold house, me and my grandbaby? I mean I don’t know what to do, pay my rent, and still sit in the cold?”

Attorney Jennifer Sheehe with the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland told News 5 tenants should not withhold rent on their own to try and force furnace repairs by the owner or landlord.

Sheehe said tenants should contact legal aid or Cleveland Housing Court specialists to walk them through the process of contacting their landlord and setting up an escrow account with the court if a landlord doesn’t start repairs in a timely manner.

“They’re not allowed to shut-off heat simply because someone has not paid the rent, they must go through the correct process,” Sheehe said.

“Let their landlord know, we always recommend in writing, that there is an issue with the furnace. And then they have to give the landlord a reasonable amount of time to get that fixed.”

“In the winter, a few days is probably reasonable if the landlord is not making any steps to get that fixed, and then they can deposit the rent with the court.”

“If you are not in Cleveland, but in Cuyahoga County or any other county, call your building department or your health department, depending on the issue, so they can come in and they can write-up violations.”

News 5 contacted both landlords involved in this story. We’re not naming the landlords as yet, to give them another week to make heating repairs at both renal units. News 5 will follow-up on both cases.

Click here to read the full article in News 5 Cleveland.

Written by Dr. Toby Cosgrove in Crain’s Cleveland Business on 12/13/2020

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to upend our world and make it crystal clear just how fragile our health, social and economic prosperity are. It’s undeniable that complicated, deeply rooted inequities exist in our nation as people of color suffer disproportionately from this virus and its many ripple effects. The result is a looming housing crisis upon an already existing poverty crisis within our city.

Housing instability is one ripple effect — most notably due to evictions. This is a threat our city and our nation must work quickly to solve. COVID-19 has caused thousands of Clevelanders to lose their jobs through no fault of their own. As a result of those job losses, families and individuals affected who are unable to secure work often face eviction, with Black and brown communities disproportionately impacted.

Nearly 9,000 evictions were filed in Cleveland in 2016, according to a study by Case Western Reserve University. About 80% of those households were led by women of color, and 60% had at least one child in the home. Evictions are traumatic experiences that destabilize families and their opportunities for prosperity — often for generations to come. Consider this:

• Working renters who experience an eviction are up to 20% more likely to lose their jobs. (Social Problems, Housing and Employment Insecurity among the Working Poor, 2016)
• Once an eviction is on a credit report, finding healthy housing is significantly harder to do. These renters then end up in more resource-scarce neighborhoods and tend to rate their health lower than those individuals living in higher-income neighborhoods. (U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion)
• Resource-scarce neighborhoods tend to be less conveniently located to job hubs, leading to absenteeism and poor performance in the workplace — two of the top factors that lead directly to job loss. (Social Problems, Housing and Employment Insecurity among the Working Poor, 2016)
• Children who move more frequently tend to miss more school, have lower third-grade reading scores and are up to 30% more likely to drop out of school. (Fordham Institute, 2011) We know these milestones set young people up for future success, and without them, poverty persists for generations.

The domino effects of eviction require a coordinated response now more than ever as we prepare for an eviction tsunami in our city from the economic consequence of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. According to global, independent data analysis firm Stout Risius Ross, as of November 2020, there are 76,000 Cuyahoga County renters at risk for eviction, and we could see five times the number of evictions in 2021 compared to 2016. With such dramatic scale, innovation and partnership become even more essential.

In 2019, Cleveland City Council passed legislation making an attorney in eviction cases a right for low-income families renting in Cleveland. This led to the creation of Right to Counsel — Cleveland (RTC), a partnership led by United Way of Greater Cleveland with the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland and CHN Housing Partners. The program provides free legal representation and rental assistance to those eligible under the legislation. This work within United Way’s Impact Institute identifies innovative solutions and empowers our partners to implement them.

I commend the city of Cleveland and Cleveland City Council for their important roles in this work. In 2020, not only did they declare racism a public health crisis but also allocated $11.3 million in CARES funding for rental assistance. Our partners in the public sector recognize the importance of helping our renters — and thereby our landlords — stay current with their rent.

While a single, major investment does help, it will not turn the tide of the situation alone. Others must also join this effort. According to CHN Housing Partners, Cuyahoga County residents who inquired about rental assistance have lost a combined $128 million in income this year. Rental assistance is expected to be exhausted by the holiday season, nearly the same time the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s eviction moratorium will expire. At that point, RTC will be inundated with eligible clients seeking assistance to remain in their homes. Without the support of RTC, families’ risk of eviction increases, as does their risk of becoming homeless during the cold winter months.

The acute crisis we’re facing does not have to become a chronic condition for thousands of Clevelanders. Nonprofits, foundations and government agencies alike are banding together and holding one another accountable as we work toward a common goal — to find solutions that improve the future for all Clevelanders. We’re unraveling and rebuilding systems, policies and programs that were intentionally designed to target and exclude specific groups of people from collective prosperity.

There has never been a more critical time for action, nor has the need for additional resources and funding been greater. This is a time that requires ongoing leadership, collaboration and common agendas. We welcome the involvement and support of every business leader, legislator and community-minded citizen who wants to join us in this fight. It’s a fight we can and will win — together.

Click here to read the full article in Crain’s Cleveland Business. 

McConnell said if consumers are considering an on-line lender they shouldn’t give out personal information or money for up-front fees until they check with the Better Business Bureau to make sure it’s a legitimate company.

“It’s very important that you understand what this loan is costing you, what the terms are, how long do you have to pay it back, what is the interest rate,” McConnell said.

“They’re not allowed to loan money in Ohio as a payday lender unless they’re physically located in Ohio, and they have to be licensed in Ohio, even if they’re not located in Ohio.

“We’ve talked to consumers who have borrowed money from friends and relatives to pay the upfront fee, to get a loan that turns out to be non-existent.”

Click here to read the full article in News 5 Cleveland.

for immediate release

The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation Approves $1 Million for Legal Aid’s COVID-19 Relief Efforts

The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation has committed $1 million to The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, the only civil legal services provider in Northeast Ohio serving people and families with low incomes. Specifically, this investment will support Legal Aid’s work to secure housing and economic stability for those who have been negatively impacted by COVID-19.

The Mandel Foundation’s gift will impact thousands of people across Northeast Ohio through Legal Aid’s representation, outreach, and advocacy work. Legal Aid’s high-quality civil legal counsel is provided at no cost to low-income clients, thanks in large part to philanthropic support from foundations such as Mandel.

“We believe this investment will go far to help those in need gain stability and hope during this difficult time,” said Mandel Foundation Board Chair Stephen H. Hoffman. “Communities of low-income people and communities of color have been particularly hard-hit by the pandemic and the pandemic’s economic impact. Legal Aid’s clients will experience an increased need in legal assistance to protect shelter, safety, and economic security.”

Mandel Foundation President and CEO Jehuda Reinharz stated, “Legal Aid’s work perfectly aligns with the mission of the Mandel Foundation: to improve the lives of our community members and create more just, inclusive, compassionate, and democratic societies.”

In 2019, Legal Aid impacted 16,710 people through 7,297 civil legal cases. In recent months, Legal Aid has seen a significant spike in requests for housing assistance and employment/unemployment issues. From July – September, for instance, intake applications related to housing increased by 39% and intake related to employment increased by 22%.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Legal Aid established a new Worker Information Line to help guide workers and the recently unemployed during the pandemic. The organization also created Virtual Advice Clinics to engage volunteers; held phone banks in partnership with News 5 Cleveland; hired additional staff to implement Cleveland’s new Right to Counsel Law and assist more clients across issue areas; and added timely, relevant, accessible resources to its website – which has seen traffic skyrocket since the pandemic hit, as people seek critical legal information from a trusted source.

Partnership from the Mandel Foundation not only reflects a dedication to advancing equity and opportunity for all, but it is an investment in the overall resilience of the greater Cleveland area during and beyond COVID-19.

“COVID-19 shed a light on existing inequities in our society – then proceeded to exacerbate those issues,” said Colleen Cotter, Executive Director of Legal Aid. “We responded to the crisis with new and innovative service models, expanded programs, and strategic partnerships to ensure we could help as many people as possible. With

Mandel Foundation support, Legal Aid will continue to make our community stronger by addressing the needs of its most vulnerable members and promoting justice for all.”

About The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland

In 1905, The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland became the 5^th civil legal aid organization in the United States. Its mission is to secure justice and resolve fundamental problems for those who are low-income and vulnerable by providing high-quality legal services and working for systemic solutions.  Today, The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland operates multiple offices serving Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Lake, Lorain, and Geauga counties. With a staff of 64 attorneys and 44 administrative/support staff, Legal Aid also boasts a volunteer roster of more than 3,000 attorneys – nearly 600 of whom are engaged in a case or clinic in a given year.

As our community members struggle to keep their jobs, stay in their homes, and provide basic necessities for their families, Legal Aid works to protect their legal rights and open doors to opportunity. This work has become even more essential during COVID-19. The resolution of clients’ legal cases is life-changing: Legal Aid can tip the scales between shelter and homelessness, safety and danger, and economic security and poverty. For more information, please visit www.lasclev.org.

About the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation

Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel founded the Mandel Foundation in 1953 in their hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. The work of the Foundation is grounded in the belief that exceptional leaders, inspired by powerful ideas, are key to improving society and the lives of people around the world. The Mandel Foundation has identified five areas of engagement that influence its decisions for giving, which include: leadership development, management of nonprofits, humanities, Jewish life and urban engagement. For more information, please visit www.mandelfoundation.org.

Contacts:

Melanie A. Shakarian, Esq. (Legal Aid)
melanie.shakarian@lasclev.org or 216-215-0074
or
Mark A. Madeja (Mandel Foundation)
mmadeja@mandelfoundation.org or 440-983-1690

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Click here to read the full article in Lakewood Observer

Written by Jordan Vandenberge in News 5 Cleveland on 12/01/2020

Tuesday marks the end of a temporary halt on utility disconnects for customers of Cleveland Water and Cleveland Public Power. Implemented by Mayor Frank Jackson in mid-March, the moratoriums were designed to defray the financial struggle for thousands of families because of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to numbers released by the city, more than 100,000 customers of both Cleveland Water and Cleveland Public Power were delinquent on their bills as of Nov. 9.

The city said there were 89,470 Cleveland Water customers behind on their utility bills with an average of $481.02 owed. As many as 28,545 Cleveland Public Power customers are behind on their monthly bills with an average amount of $281.39 owed.

The sheer volume of delinquent customers and the end of the moratorium have prompted surges in the number of people calling in to the United Way of Greater Cleveland’s 211 system as well as the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland.

“It’s typical that there is a surge in requests for assistance in the winter months. This year it’s different because of COVID-19. People have higher bills. There is assistance for them but it’s much more difficult for them to get appointments right now,” said attorney Anne Reece, the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland’s utility law expert. “There’s actually been an uptick in the number of calls that we’re seeing for tenant issues. The number two issue for tenants behind rents is whether they can afford to pay their utility bills.”

Although both Cleveland Water and Cleveland Public Power have been offering delinquent customers financial relief by way of extended payment plans, customers have due process rights before utilities are disconnected, Reece said.

“A lot of people don’t know the rights they have. If they have a medical condition, they have a right to request a medical certification,” Reece said. “They have a right to notice. They are supposed to be notified in advance. They have a right to request a hearing before the board so they can bring up the issues. For example, if they have a medical issue and they requested a certification, they can bring that up and request certain payment plans and certain payment waivers for times.”

According to the Legal Aid Society, Cleveland Water is required by city ordinance to send a letter of possible disconnection at least 15 days prior to shutting off service. A utility customer is required to submit a request for a Water Review Board hearing within 10 days of receiving the water shut off notice. There are similar due process rights for Cleveland Public Power customers.

“I would also like [customers] to know there is a lot of assistance right now,” Reece said. “I would tell them to take action. Call 211 or call Cleveland Housing Partners and call them as many times as they have to. I know it’s very difficult to get an appointment right now. You can also apply for their help online.”

Councilman Brian Kazy, who heads the city council’s utility committee, released a statement Tuesday afternoon urging delinquent customers to reach out to Cleveland Public Power and Cleveland Water as soon as possible.

“I know there is much consternation about a December 1st date for shutting off utilities to residents who are behind in payments. Obviously, customers of Cleveland Public Power, which serves a portion of the city, and of the Cleveland Water Department which serves more than 70 communities in Northeast Ohio, who are behind on their bills are very concerned,” Kazy said in a statement. “But recent notices do not mean customers are facing an immediate shut-off. First of all, both CPP and Cleveland Water are working with customers who are behind on their bills. Secondly, Council is working closely with the Jackson administration to ensure that no resident loses electricity or water during the pandemic or during winter months.”

For customers of regulated, investor-owned utilities, there is what’s called a winter reconnect order. For one payment of $175, a customer can establish, maintain, or restore utility service along with a one-time reconnection fee not to exceed $36. According to PUCO, the winter reconnects order, which runs through early April, can be split between regulated utility companies — like water and electric — if both services have been disconnected or are threatened to be disconnected.

Customers requesting new natural gas or electric service, who have no previous balance with their utility, may establish service under the winter reconnect order by paying $175, rather than paying the required security deposit, PUCO said. Such customers may have the remaining balance of the security deposit added to their next month’s bill.

“You can also request assistance to get $175 from applying for HEAP,” Reece said. “Now we have CARES Act funds, which is an additional amount of money that wasn’t available before but it’s only available this year through December 31st.”

The CARES Act assistance is available through CHN Housing Partners and The Council for Economic Opportunities in Greater Cleveland. Additional questions and answers can be found on the Legal Aid Society’s website.

Click here to read the full article in News 5 Cleveland.

Written by Rachel Dissell and Conor Morris in Cleveland Scene on 12/01/2020

The needs of Greater Clevelanders have come in waves during the pandemic, much like the virus itself: first food, then rent, then internet so students could learn from home.

Now, as moratoriums that staved off utility disconnections cascade to an end, some families face a long winter unsure how they will keep the lights, heat and water on. Moratoriums on shut-offs with Cleveland Public Power and the Cleveland Water Department, for example, end Tuesday, Dec. 1.

The utilities, some privately-run and regulated by the state and others operated by municipalities, offer payment plans and programs to help customers with bills, which in some cases have mounted for months.  Those bills are larger than usual for some due to state and local moratoriums, which halted utilities from shutting services off, but did not stop the bills.

However, utility assistance programs are tough for people to negotiate on their own, said Molly Black, community navigation trainer and coach for United Way of Greater Cleveland’s 211 helpline.

Navigators who answer calls to the line spend an extensive amount of time learning the rules of these complex programs, which vary by type of utility, company, season and income.

In some cases, the utility assistance programs have to be used in a certain order, with some considered “last resort” help. Other programs are targeted to help senior citizens, families with children, veterans or individuals with medical conditions.

That’s why the 211 navigators ask a lot of questions, including ones that might seem nosy, Black said. Like:  Did something happen recently that caused you to fall behind on your bill?  Is this the only bill you need help with? Are you a veteran or a senior citizen? Do you have medical issues?

“We want to get a good understanding of that person’s entire situation so that we’re able to provide some very holistic help and not just kind of putting a Band-Aid on a gaping wound,” Black said.

The City of Cleveland provided some data on Nov. 30, the day before the moratorium was set to end, in response to a public records request from the Northeast Ohio Solutions Journalism Collaborative.

For Cleveland’s water department, almost 90,000 customers (of about 1.4 million customers) were behind on payments as of Nov. 9; for Cleveland Public power, about 28,500 customers  (of about 80,000 customers) had a balance “more than 30 days old,” according to public records provided by the city. The average amount owed was $481 for water customers, compared with $281.39 for Cleveland Public Power. All of these numbers were as of Nov. 9; it’s not clear how they’ve changed since then.

Moratoriums end, leaving families to navigate system of aid

As bills come due, local social service providers worry about a bottleneck, as a crush of people apply for federal, state or local assistance to avoid shut-offs. Before the pandemic, customers often had long waits for appointments to get approved for programs like the Percentage of Income Payment Plan (PIPP), which allows people to pay a consistent percentage of their income toward a utility bill each month.

“One of the biggest barriers is just being able to get an appointment because, as you can imagine, especially right now there’s just a whole lot of need,” Black said.

With thousands of people calling the same numbers, some get frustrated.

“We’ll have folks call and say, “‘I’ve been calling for days and I can’t get through,’” Black added.

Most gas companies and private electric companies lifted their moratoriums in late summer or early fall, which aligns with a recent uptick in calls for assistance to 211. In April, the help line has about 1,000 calls for assistance with gas, electric or  water bills. By September,  with Cleveland-own utilities still under a moratorium, the calls had doubled, returning to pre-pandemic levels.

Legal Aid Society of Cleveland also had more calls from tenants who need help navigating tenant rights, large utility bills and disconnection notices, said Anne M. Reese, senior staff attorney. Legal Aid can connect clients with organizations that administer assistance programs and also help with medical waivers, which can prevent disconnection if a health condition requires it.

“I anticipate that we’re going to get an increase in these utility calls soon,” Reese said, pointing to the upcoming expiration of  Cleveland’s moratorium.

Since March, when the city was among the first to announce moratoriums halting disconnections, Cleveland Public Power reconnected 136 customers. The Cleveland Water Department restarted service for 2,390 customers, according to city releases.

With the moratoriums for these utilities ending tomorrow, Dec. 1, collections letters from Cleveland Public Power and Cleveland Water have already started to show up in customer’s mailboxes.

At a Nov. 10 meeting of Cleveland City Council’s utility committee, Councilman Brian Kazy, who chairs the committee, said he was frustrated that no information was shared with council before the announcement was made that collections and shutoffs would resume. Kazy said council members, who fielded calls from constituents, found out the same time the general public did.

Cleveland Director of Public Utilities Robert Davis acknowledged communication could have been better.

“We weathered the storm for as long as we could,” Davis said. “There’s no good time to do this. It’s a balancing act.”

Davis said customers would have ample warning, at least three notices, including a door hanger, before their utility is cut off.

Assistance is here, but how effective will it be?

Financial assistance programs for utility bills are offered to Cuyahoga County residents through the non-profit CHN Housing Partners.

Those include a recently announced $2 million program that will help pay off overdue electric, water, sewer and gas bills.

That program is available to anyone at or below 120% of the median household income of Cuyahoga County (about $91,000 for a family of four)and who has been negatively impacted by COVID-19. Only bills due since March, when the pandemic hit Ohio, are eligible.

The Council for Economic Opportunities in Greater Cleveland is another nonprofit that runs utility assistance programs in Cuyahoga County. It has a $6.8 million fund – financed with federal CARES Act dollars – similarly meant to help people hurt by COVID-19 pay for overdue rent, utility bills and mortgage payments.

People applying for help have to live in Cuyahoga County and qualify based on income that is at or below 200% of the federal poverty line, which is $52,400 for a family of four.  Nearby Summit and Lorain county community action agencies also have CARES Act-funded utility supports available.

Officials with CHN and CEOGC said they’re allowing people to attest— or swear— they have a “hardship due to COVID-19” requirement, like a loss of income, additional childcare needs, illness or other factors,  without providing documentation.

However, unless Congress authorizes an extension of CARES Act federal relief funds, both funds— which were announced in early-to-mid November— will expire on Dec. 31. Since announcing the program in early November, CEOGC has seen almost 2,000 applications for CARES Act-related aid as of Nov. 23.

CHN has also had a steady stream of requests for aid with utility bills,  said Laurie Leverette, CHN’s community resource manager.

“People have either lost their jobs or they’re on furlough,” Leverette said.  “They’ve lost their childcare, which impacts their ability to work. Either they’ve gotten sick, or they’ve stopped work to care for a family member who has gotten sick. It runs the full gamut.”

Before the pandemic hit, there was already a delay, sometimes up to nearly a month, to get an appointment to sign up for PIPP, a program that allows people with lower incomes to pay a set percentage of their wages for utilities each month, Leverette said.

However, families facing an impending disconnection are prioritized with CHN, and typically get an appointment set up within 24 hours, Leverette added.

Currently, CHN can handle 125 appointments a day for the HEAP and PIPP programs, and they are always at capacity, said Laura Boustani, a spokeswoman for CHN (although no appointment is needed for the CARES Act assistance). About 66% of people who have applied for the city and county’s rental assistance program so far also have told the agency they need help with utility bills, Boustani said.

All of the assistance programs require applicants to provide documentation, which frequently includes copies of bills, birth certificates or Social Security cards, and other personal records.

That can be made more difficult with these programs going remote-only, Legal Aid’s Anne Reese said. Most documents can be submitted electronically but that can be a barrier for people who don’t have computers or internet access.

What’s next?

The scope of possible disconnections in the coming months is unclear.

Most privately run utility providers did not respond or declined to share numbers of customers already disconnected or estimates for pending disconnections with the Northeast Ohio Solutions Journalism Collaborative.

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio tracks disconnections for state regulated utilities. Recently-provided commission data showed drastic drops in disconnections compared with last year while the moratoriums were in effect; now, disconnections are on the rise again.

Meanwhile, with winter months approaching, community agencies and churches, like the Iglesia Nueva Vida church on Holmden Avenue, which has a mostly Hispanic congregation, have been helping people get signed up for utility-assistance programs.

There’s always a big need for this help during the winter months for low-income families, Maria Nela, assistant executive director of Nueva Vida, said.

“That’s been like that always,” Nela said. “Now, with COVID, it’s probably worse.”

Nela said it can be difficult for these families to navigate the system of benefits they might be eligible for. Another problem: If they make just a dollar over the income requirements for these programs, they don’t qualify.

Over in Lorain County, Jackie Boehnlein, president and CEO of Lorain County Community Action, said her agency has seen a significant uptick in requests for utility and other aid, especially from people who are new to the system.

These are people who said they would “never dream of being in a food line” before this year, she said.

Click here to read the full article in Cleveland Scene. 

Written  by Patrick O’Donnell in The 74 Million on on 11/30/2020

Teachers gathered outside Lincoln-West High School earlier this month had a flurry of questions for Crystal Butchart as she walked up to the stacks of produce boxes at the edge of the parking lot.

“How many children are under 18?” she was asked about her family. “How many adults over 60? Any other adults?”

Within moments, volunteers at the school’s monthly produce giveaway had tallied her needs and started carrying boxes of bananas, apples, oranges and lettuce to her car. Butchart’s 10th and 12th grade sons would have plenty to eat while shut out of school and taking classes online at home because of COVID-19.

“Getting the produce is healthy for them and it’s so close,” said Butchart, who lives in the neighborhood. “The kids are so big and they’re eating so much out of the house because they have to stay at home.”

The produce handout is part of the Cleveland school district’s attempt to keep its growing work to offer so-called “wraparound” services to students and families alive through the pandemic. In pre-pandemic times, the efforts relied on full-time support staff working in schools to see students every day, learn of the needs of families and connect them to services like health and dental care, mental health supports, tutoring and even legal advice.

The school shutdowns in March and the district’s need to keep schools closed all this fall shut down the chance to see kids every day. But they didn’t stop services.

Service coordinators now reach parents by texts or Zoom. Mobile health clinics have started again. And coordinators are still directing parents to help with rent and tenant rights, and even dropping off items like toothpaste and toilet paper at student homes.

The work has even grown during the shutdown. What started in 2014 with services in 17 schools has now expanded to 52 of the district’s 100 schools, 22 added just this fall.

And many community organizations that used to provide after school programs as part of wraparound efforts are now running daytime learning centers, sometimes called pods or hubs, where students can take online classes while parents work.

“How can we expect kids to perform their best academically if they don’t have enough to eat at home or their families are facing eviction?” asked Norah Leahy, who organizes services for Lincoln-West. “We’re here to work with families and with the school as a team. Our ultimate goal is to support every family in each and every way that family needs.”

Leahy was hired more than a year ago as part of the Say Yes to Education college scholarship program that expanded into Cleveland two years ago. Along with giving scholarships, Say Yes requires schools to provide wraparound supports so students can learn more and be better prepared for college. Jon Benedict, spokesman for the Cleveland chapter of the Say Yes,said that maintaining services during the pandemic and limiting damage from it, is crucial for the city and its students to rebound later.

“Keeping families afloat and keeping kids learning is going to make a difference in the long run,” Benedict said. “It’s the thing that will differentiate Cleveland from a lot of other large economically challenged school districts.”

Cleveland’s use of social supports in schools is partly inspired by the national “community schools” movement, which has seen schools in New York City, Baltimore, Portland and central Florida treat schools as community service hubs for helping struggling families. By eliminating some of the obstacles that distract students from learning, the schools have seen some academic, attendance and behavioral gains.

Such supports are also being viewed as crucial to schools recovering from the pandemic by organizations like the Brookings Institution and the Learning Policy Institute. The latter is run by Linda Darling-Hammond, the Stanford professor who is now president of the California state school board and is leading President-elect Joe Biden’s education transition team.

Wraparound services are also supported by both national teachers unions, the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine put money in the last state budget for such services in schools.

Say Yes to Education, which operated in Syracuse and Buffalo, N.Y., as well as Greensboro, N.C., before launching in Cleveland in 2019, accelerated wraparound efforts here before the pandemic and has stayed focused on continuing them in all of its cities.

Say Yes officials in Buffalo and Greensboro, said they saw no choice but to continue offering services during the pandemic.

“We’re serving the children we were serving before, and more in many cases,” said Say Yes Buffalo Executive Director David Rust. “But I don’t think us or any city has a silver bullet answer to this.”

In a typical year, full-time staff at the schools help organize after school, summer and weekend programs for students, then serve almost as social workers, helping families with food, clothing and housing needs through non-profit and government agencies in the community.

When COVID forced schools to close in March, the daily contact with families was cut off. Afterschool tutoring, chess, soccer, poetry and arts programs were canceled. Summer camps were canceled, with a few exceptions.

Support staff had to adjust quickly.

“The need for our services increased, but the biggest challenge was getting in touch with families,” said Jerrald Goodloe, who organizes services at Michael R. White elementary school. “We knew that we needed to step up. We knew that families needed us. But for a short period of time there was a breakdown in communication. We were so used to having face to face contact.”

Sometimes teachers had phone numbers. Sometimes staff had to search social media or ask other students how to find their friends. Eventually, support specialists learned that parents weren’t often on email. Cleveland has the greatest percentage of families in the nation without internet connections. So calls and texts work better.

Families were losing jobs, Goodloe said, and then losing cars and facing eviction. Though a moratorium on evictions was soon ordered, families needed help understanding it and standing up to landlords, he said, so families were referred to the Legal aid Society of Cleveland, which helps families as part of the wraparound services.

Even this fall, half of Legal Aid’s referrals from the district are about evictions, said Executive Director Colleen Cotter. She expects that to rise when the moratorium ends Jan. 1. Immigration cases are also another constant worry.

There continues to be demand for food and household goods in a city that has the highest child poverty rates in the country, by some measures. Michelle Dowd, who oversees services at Cleveland’s Adlai Stevenson elementary school, has been stopping by a few dozen student homes every Friday to drop off bags of toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo and toilet paper since the spring.

“Even though I am able to help a lot of families, there are 512 kids in our building and I know I’m not nearly touching that many children,” said Dowd. “I’m sure there are so many more families that are in need.”

Click here to read the full article in The 74 Million.org

Written by Conor Morris and Rachel Dissell in Cleveland.com on 11/30/2020

The needs of Greater Clevelanders have come in waves during the pandemic, much like the virus itself: first food, then rent, then internet so students could learn from home.

Now, as moratoriums that staved off utility disconnections cascade to an end, some families face a long winter unsure how they will keep the lights, heat and water on. Moratoriums on shut-offs with Cleveland Public Power and the Cleveland Water Department, for example, ends tomorrow, Tuesday, Dec. 1.

The utilities, some privately-run and regulated by the state and others operated by municipalities, offer payment plans and programs to help customers with bills, which in some cases have mounted for months. Those bills are larger than usual for some due to state and local moratoriums, which halted utilities from shutting services off, but did not stop the bills.

However, utility assistance programs are tough for people to negotiate on their own, said Molly Black, community navigation trainer and coach for United Way of Greater Cleveland’s 211 helpline.

Navigators who answer calls to the line spend an extensive amount of time learning the rules of these complex programs, which vary by type of utility, company, season and income.

In some cases, the utility assistance programs have to be used in a certain order, with some considered “last resort” help. Other programs are targeted to help senior citizens, families with children, veterans or individuals with medical conditions.

That’s why the 211 navigators ask a lot of questions, including ones that might seem nosy, Black said. Like: Did something happen recently that caused you to fall behind on your bill? Is this the only bill you need help with? Are you a veteran or a senior citizen? Do you have medical issues?

“We want to get a good understanding of that person’s entire situation so that we’re able to provide some very holistic help and not just kind of putting a Band-Aid on a gaping wound,” Black said.

The City of Cleveland provided some data on Nov. 30, the day before the moratorium was set to end, in response to a public records request from the Northeast Ohio Solutions Journalism Collaborative.

The City of Cleveland provided some data on Nov. 30, the day before the moratorium was set to end, in response to a public records request from the Northeast Ohio Solutions Journalism Collaborative.

For Cleveland’s water department, almost 90,000 customers (of about 1.4 million customers) were behind on payments as of Nov. 9; for Cleveland Public power, about 28,500 customers  (of about 80,000 customers) had a balance “more than 30 days old,” according to public records provided by the city. The average amount owed was $481 for water customers, compared with $281.39 for Cleveland Public Power. All of these numbers were as of Nov. 9; it’s not clear how they’ve changed since then.

Moratoriums end, leaving families to navigate system of aid

As bills come due, local social service providers worry about a bottleneck, as a crush of people apply for federal, state or local assistance to avoid shut-offs. Before the pandemic, customers often had long waits for appointments to get approved for programs like the Percentage of Income Payment Plan (PIPP), which allows people to pay a consistent percentage of their income toward a utility bill each month.

“One of the biggest barriers is just being able to get an appointment because, as you can imagine, especially right now there’s just a whole lot of need,” Black said.

With thousands of people calling the same numbers, some get frustrated.

“We’ll have folks call and say, “‘I’ve been calling for days and I can’t get through,’” Black added.

Most gas companies and private electric companies lifted their moratoriums in late summer or early fall, which aligns with a recent uptick in calls for assistance to 211. In April, the help line has about 1,000 calls for assistance with gas, electric or water bills. By September, with Cleveland-own utilities still under a moratorium, the calls had doubled, returning to pre-pandemic levels.

Legal Aid Society of Cleveland also had more calls from tenants who need help navigating tenant rights, large utility bills and disconnection notices, said Anne M. Reese, senior staff attorney. Legal Aid can connect clients with organizations that administer assistance programs and also help with medical waivers, which can prevent disconnection if a health condition requires it.

“I anticipate that we’re going to get an increase in these utility calls soon,” Reese said, pointing to the upcoming expiration of Cleveland’s moratorium.

Since March, when the city was among the first to announce moratoriums halting disconnections, Cleveland Public Power reconnected 136 customers. The Cleveland Water Department restarted service for 2,390 customers, according to city releases.

With the moratoriums for these utilities ending tomorrow, Dec. 1, collections letters from Cleveland Public Power and Cleveland Water have already started to show up in customer’s mailboxes.

At a Nov. 10 meeting of Cleveland City Council’s utility committee, Councilman Brian Kazy, who chairs the committee, said he was frustrated that no information was shared with council before the announcement was made that collections and shutoffs would resume. Kazy said council members, who fielded calls from constituents, found out the same time the general public did.

Cleveland Director of Public Utilities Robert Davis acknowledged communication could have been better.

“We weathered the storm for as long as we could,” Davis said. “There’s no good time to do this. It’s a balancing act.”

Davis said customers would have ample warning, at least three notices, including a door hanger, before their utility is cut off.

Assistance is here, but how effective will it be?

Financial assistance programs for utility bills are offered to Cuyahoga County residents through the non-profit CHN Housing Partners.

Those include a recently announced $2 million program that will help pay off overdue electric, water, sewer and gas bills.

That program is available to anyone at or below 120% of the median household income of Cuyahoga County (about $91,000 for a family of four)and who has been negatively impacted by COVID-19. Only bills due since March, when the pandemic hit Ohio, are eligible.

The Council for Economic Opportunities in Greater Cleveland is another nonprofit that runs utility assistance programs in Cuyahoga County. It has a $6.8 million fund – financed with federal CARES Act dollars – similarly meant to help people hurt by COVID-19 pay for overdue rent, utility bills and mortgage payments.

People applying for help have to live in Cuyahoga County and qualify based on income that is at or below 200% of the federal poverty line, which is $52,400 for a family of four. Nearby Summit and Lorain county community action agencies also have CARES Act-funded utility supports available.

Officials with CHN and CEOGC said they’re allowing people to attest — or swear — they have a “hardship due to COVID-19” requirement, like a loss of income, additional childcare needs, illness or other factors, without providing documentation.

However, unless Congress authorizes an extension of CARES Act federal relief funds, both funds – which were announced in early-to-mid November – will expire on Dec. 31. Since announcing the program in early November, CEOGC has seen almost 2,000 applications for CARES Act-related aid as of Nov. 23.

CHN has also had a steady stream of requests for aid with utility bills, said Laurie Leverette, CHN’s community resource manager.

“People have either lost their jobs or they’re on furlough,” Leverette said. “They’ve lost their childcare, which impacts their ability to work. Either they’ve gotten sick, or they’ve stopped work to care for a family member who has gotten sick. It runs the full gamut.”

Before the pandemic hit, there was already a delay, sometimes up to nearly a month, to get an appointment to sign up for PIPP, a program that allows people with lower incomes to pay a set percentage of their wages for utilities each month, Leverette said.

However, families facing an impending disconnection are prioritized with CHN, and typically get an appointment set up within 24 hours, Leverette added.

Currently, CHN can handle 125 appointments a day for the HEAP and PIPP programs, and they are always at capacity, said Laura Boustani, a spokeswoman for CHN (although no appointment is needed for the CARES Act assistance).

All of the assistance programs require applicants to provide documentation, which frequently includes copies of bills, birth certificates or Social Security cards, and other personal records.

That can be made more difficult with these programs going remote-only, Legal Aid’s Anne Reese said. Most documents can be submitted electronically but that can be a barrier for people who don’t have computers or internet access.

What’s next?

The scope of possible disconnections in the coming months is unclear.

Most privately run utility providers and the City of Cleveland did not respond or declined to share numbers of customers already disconnected or estimates for pending disconnections with the Northeast Ohio Solutions Journalism Collaborative.

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio tracks disconnections for state regulated utilities. Recently-provided commission data showed drastic drops in disconnections compared with last year while the moratoriums were in effect; now, disconnections are on the rise again.

Meanwhile, with winter months approaching, community agencies and churches, like the Iglesia Nueva Vida church on Holmden Avenue, which has a mostly Hispanic congregation, have been helping people get signed up for utility-assistance programs.

There’s always a big need for this help during the winter months for low-income families, Maria Nela, assistant executive director of Nueva Vida, said.

“That’s been like that always,” Nela said. “Now, with COVID, it’s probably worse.”

Nela said it can be difficult for these families to navigate the system of benefits they might be eligible for.Another problem: If they make just a dollar over the income requirements for these programs, they don’t qualify.

Over in Lorain County, Jackie Boehnlein, president and CEO of Lorain County Community Action, said her agency has seen a significant uptick in requests for utility and other aid, especially from people who are new to the system.

These are people who said they would “never dream of being in a food line” before this year, she said.

Click here to read the full article in Cleveland.com

This week, Legal Aid and University Hospitals hosted a virtual Town Hall titled “How will COVID-19 affect your holidays?”  The purpose of the event was to address the disproportionate impact of COVID on the African American community and respond to common concerns surrounding COVID-19. Panelists – including our own Anastasia Elder, Esq., and Corinne Huntley, Esq. – provided timely guidance and tips about resources related to housing, employment, public benefits, and more.

Watch the full program below!

On Tuesday, November 17, The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland and University Hospitals will jointly host a virtual town hall to answer questions from the community about concerns related to COVID-19.

The event will focus on the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on the African American Community and will provide a platform for attendees to get legal and medical information from experts at UH and Legal Aid. The event, which will be held via Zoom from 5:30pm – 6:30pm, is designed to address issues of health and safety as well as worker rights, public benefits, and housing stability.

Panelists will include:

• Anastasia Elder, Esq. – Staff Attorney, Legal Aid’s Housing Practice Group
• Corinne Huntley, Esq. – Staff Attorney, Legal Aid’s Economic Justice Practice Group
• Carla Harwell, MD – Medical Director, University Hospitals’ Otis Moss Jr. and Olivet Community Health & Wellness Center
• Keith Armitage, MD – Medical Director, University Hospitals’ Roe Green Center for Travel Medicine & Global Health

The town hall will be moderated by Margaret Larkins-Pettigrew, MD, Chief Diversity Officer at University Hospitals.

Registration is required. There is no cost to attend.

To learn more and register please visit: tinyurl.com/UHandLegalAidTownHall

Any questions? Contact Erin Horan, Development & Communications Associate, 216-861-5415 or email Erin.horan@lasclev.org.

Written by Joe Pagonakis in News 5 Cleveland on 10/23/2020.

On Friday, News 5 teamed-up with the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland and United Way’s 211 HelpLink system to address issues with evictions and unemployment compensation, taking hundreds of calls during a live phone bank.

Attorney Anastasia Elder with the Legal Aid Society of Greater Cleveland said her agency has been fighting back against growing evictions with its “Right-To-Counsel” program.

Elder said the initiative was launched in July and provides free legal representation to tenants who are facing eviction in Cleveland Housing Court.

Elder said tenants must meet a few basic requirements to qualify.

“The goal of right-to-counsel is to avoid homelessness,” Elder said. “Someone should get legal counsel if they have at least one child in the home, meet certain federal poverty guidelines and live in the city of Cleveland.”

Elder said it’s crucial tenants quickly respond to a court summons and communicate with their landlord if they are facing eviction or are having difficulties paying their rent.

“So when a court says that you should show up for something, you should show up. There is a lot at stake, specifically whether or not you’ll have a home tomorrow,” Elder said. “Have open communication with their landlord, or reach out to legal aid for some legal advice, reach out to those rent assistance agencies, because there is help out there.”

Nancy Mendez, V.P. of Community Impact with the United Way of Greater Cleveland, said her agency saw a record number 95,000 calls for help between March and October due to the ongoing pandemic and a high amount of job loss.

There were 5,000 calls for food, another 3,000 extra calls for rental assistance, as well as help with unemployment, Mendez said

“Our calls at some points have tripled,” Mendez said. “A number of folks are very anxious and have no idea how they’re going to be able to pay next month’s rent. We are really worried about the long-term effects this going to have on individuals and in particular their ability to cover basic needs like food and rent.”

Mendez said Cuyahoga County had some 20,000 eviction over the past year, but that could dramatically increase if the federal government doesn’t approve a second COVID-19 stimulus package soon.

“Anywhere from a potential 50,000 to upwards of 80,000 potential evictions in Cuyahoga County, if the government doesn’t intervene,” Mendez said. “So we really do need Washington, or government, to continue to look at funding these programs that are literally keeping people in their homes right now.”

Both the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland and the United Way of Greater Cleveland have multiple resources to help residents facing eviction or unemployment compensation issues.

Click here to read the full article in News 5 Cleveland. 

Written by Joe Pagonakis in News 5 Cleveland on 10/23/2020. 

On Friday, News 5 teamed-up with the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland and United Way’s 211 HelpLink system to address issues with evictions and unemployment compensation, taking hundreds of calls during a live phone bank.

Attorney Anastasia Elder with the Legal Aid Society of Greater Cleveland said her agency has been fighting back against growing evictions with its “Right-To-Counsel” program.

Elder said the initiative was launched in July and provides free legal representation to tenants who are facing eviction in Cleveland Housing Court.

Elder said tenants must meet a few basic requirements to qualify.

“The goal of right-to-counsel is to avoid homelessness,” Elder said. “Someone should get legal counsel if they have at least one child in the home, meet certain federal poverty guidelines and live in the city of Cleveland.”

Elder said it’s crucial tenants quickly respond to a court summons and communicate with their landlord if they are facing eviction or are having difficulties paying their rent.

“So when a court says that you should show up for something, you should show up. There is a lot at stake, specifically whether or not you’ll have a home tomorrow,” Elder said. “Have open communication with their landlord, or reach out to legal aid for some legal advice, reach out to those rent assistance agencies, because there is help out there.”

Nancy Mendez, V.P. of Community Impact with the United Way of Greater Cleveland, said her agency saw a record number 95,000 calls for help between March and October due to the ongoing pandemic and a high amount of job loss.

There were 5,000 calls for food, another 3,000 extra calls for rental assistance, as well as help with unemployment, Mendez said

“Our calls at some points have tripled,” Mendez said. “A number of folks are very anxious and have no idea how they’re going to be able to pay next month’s rent. We are really worried about the long-term effects this going to have on individuals and in particular their ability to cover basic needs like food and rent.”

Mendez said Cuyahoga County had some 20,000 eviction over the past year, but that could dramatically increase if the federal government doesn’t approve a second COVID-19 stimulus package soon.

“Anywhere from a potential 50,000 to upwards of 80,000 potential evictions in Cuyahoga County, if the government doesn’t intervene,” Mendez said. “So we really do need Washington, or government, to continue to look at funding these programs that are literally keeping people in their homes right now.”

Both the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland and the United Way of Greater Cleveland have multiple resources to help residents facing eviction or unemployment compensation issues.

Click here to read the full article in News 5 Cleveland.

Written by Conor Morris in Cleveland.com on 10/20/2020.

Anna Powaski and Chad Falatic walk down the cracked sidewalk of a street in the Kinsman neighborhood, toward a small rental home with a sagging porch and a U-Haul moving truck in the driveway. They strike up a conversation with two men on the porch.

Falatic and Powaski – both wearing masks ­– explain they’re with the Cleveland chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and the reason why they’re there: The landlord has filed an eviction order.

“Are you going to be attending your hearing? You could potentially be hooked up with legal representation for free; either way, you should still probably attend the court date,” Falatic said.

“It’s virtual, right? So I’ll probably do it virtual,” one of the tenants says.

As they talk, Falatic and Powaski learn that the tenants are planning on moving out anyway. The men said they didn’t want to deal with their unresponsive landlord any more; the home’s previous owner had sold the home to a new buyer, and neither owner had fixed glaring issues like a broken front porch step.

Still, Powaski hands them several flyers, warning them that an eviction could make it difficult to find rental housing in the future. The flyers included how to access Cleveland’s Right to Counsel program, a leaflet on Cleveland and Cuyahoga County’s rental-assistance program, and other information on tenant rights in Ohio.

This information is crucial, and the DSA’s work is helping address a real gap: most of the time, tenants have no idea of the assistance that’s available to them. It could help keep these renters in their homes despite the social and economic challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cleveland DSA’s eviction-prevention door-knocking campaign has been happening biweekly for the past two months. As of mid-September, the group had used Cleveland Housing Court records to find, and knock on the doors of, 730 homes where eviction cases had been filed against the tenants.

The results have been hard to quantify so far. Sometimes, tenants aren’t home, or have already moved on. Other times, they’ve already made plans to move out, even though they haven’t attended their hearing yet to try to defend themselves.

Still, there are some success stories. Powaski said that on multiple occasions, tenants have told DSA members they weren’t even aware of an eviction before DSA members stopped by their homes. Plus, some people have been connected to Cleveland’s Right to Counsel program.

“We had a woman (who) qualified for a lawyer through the Right To Counsel program,” said Powaski, who is communications director for the Cleveland DSA. “They hooked her up with an attorney and she attended her hearing via Zoom. She said her landlord got caught lying about her rent payment. She was allowed to stay in the property, and she has until December to pay back the rent for July that she owes.”

The DSA outreach has been very helpful in getting the word out about the Right to Counsel program, said Melanie Shakarian, director of communications for the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland. It’s especially important because, despite the federal moratorium on evictions announced in September, evictions are still happening (see our related story from Oct. 20).

Shakarian said the DSA’s work is one part of a multi-pronged approach to get this information out to tenants.

“It’s one really important element of a totality of outreach that tenants need to get,” Shakarian explained. “Legally, they get the summons. Separately, they get a letter from United Way to follow up on the summons, then, the DSA outreach. There’s other communications we’re doing through the public libraries, through the Food Bank, through social media and other paid advertisements.”

Legal Aid has handled about 150 cases that qualified under the Right to Counsel ordinance since June, Shakarian said. Since Cleveland Housing Court went back into session in June, a total of about 1,700 evictions have been filed in the court, according to records analyzed by the Eviction Lab project housed at Princeton University.

Cleveland’s Right to Counsel program – which is available for anyone under 100% of the poverty line with a child in the house – could provide critical help. A 2015 study from the Institute for Research on Poverty found that an estimated 90% of landlords have legal representation in eviction cases, while only 10% of tenants do.

Meanwhile, Judge W. Moná Scott said the Housing Court recently started asking lawyers from the Legal Aid Society to be present during eviction hearings to ensure that if a tenant does qualify for Right to Counsel, they get representation they need (the lawyers can help them get connected to rental assistance money, too).

Despite the assistance, evictions are still being granted. In September, Scott said 344 eviction cases were filed, with 180 granted; in August, 437 were filed and 164 were granted. At the same time, plenty of cases did get resolved through the court’s mediation program, (almost 80 in August, for example). Typically, tenants agree to move out in those situations while the landlord agrees to drop the case.

Revelations from visiting tenants’ homes

Powaski and Falatic said some common themes have emerged for the Cleveland DSA after going to multiple door-to-door events over the last few months.

Often, these people are essential workers with children, struggling to pay their rent in homes where landlords have long ignored their obligations to fix problems, Falatic said.

“Nobody talks to these people face to face,” Falatic said. “They just get sent papers with a ton of small text information in it. When you’re really exhausted and beaten down… that method of delivery is not good enough.”

From left to right, Cleveland DSA members Anna Powaski and Chad Falatic talk to Cleveland resident Frank Hawkins about the home he was renting and the problems he was having with his landlord back in August.

Judge Scott said she noticed a similar trend in her court, with many tenants simply not showing up to court. She said she feels there’s a “communication gap,” with tenants not knowing about the assistance available to them.

Another commonality: Many don’t know that their hearings with the Housing Court are being heard virtually, Powaski said.

Powaski said the DSA Cleveland group acknowledges that they’re not going to get to every eviction case. The DSA group only has so many members and volunteers, plus, some might worry about potentially spreading COVID-19 while meeting people in-person. However, canvassing is a safe practice so long as everyone is staying distant and wearing masks, said Suzanne Hrusch, an environmental sanitarian at the Cuyahoga County Board of health.

Since the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s eviction moratorium was enacted on September 1, the DSA has begun taking the CDC eviction prevention forms to tenants and even helping them fill it out. That’s important because, Powaski said, tenants they talk to are almost “never” aware of it in the first place. The forms are required for eviction relief.

Frank Hawkins was one of the tenants Falatic and Powaski spoke to during one of their door-to-door campaigns in late August, heading through the Kinsman and Lee-Miles neighborhoods.

Hawkins said he was planning on moving out of his rental housing after his landlord filed an eviction notice against him for non-payment of rent. That’s after he said the property manager refused to renew his lease earlier this year, and refused to pay him for work he did to fix issues in the home. This is while he’s been working long hours at a rubber factory throughout the pandemic.

“I just think they’re trying to push me around,” Hawkins said.

Hawkins said he checked and found he wasn’t eligible for Cleveland’s right to counsel program because he doesn’t have a child in the home. Powaski recommended he still call the Legal Aid Society to get advice on his situation, noting that the DSA couldn’t provide legal advice.

“Even if you don’t get a lawyer, these are some good tips on how to represent yourself,” Powaski said, handing over another flyer on landlord-tenant law.

A few days after the DSA members stopped by, Hawkins represented himself at his virtual eviction hearing, although his efforts were hampered by a spotty internet connection. Ultimately, his landlord’s attorney agreed to drop the case if Hawkins moved.

Several days later, Hawkins moved out of Cleveland altogether. While he wasn’t happy with not being able to defend himself, or having to move so quickly, he was glad the DSA stopped by his home. He said it gave him a chance to feel heard by somebody.

Abigail Staudt, managing attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, said the number of eviction filings in Housing Court represents only a portion of the overall problem of housing instability in Cleveland.

Even outside of formal eviction proceedings, some landlords may be resorting to so-called “self help evictions,” where they illegally change the locks of a rental home, or shut off the utilities in the home, Staudt said. She said her office has only helped with a few of those cases since March, but she is sure more are flying under the radar.

Changing the status quo?

Over in Washington D.C., the Metro D.C. DSA chapter has previously tried a similar door-to-door tactic to try to educate tenants on their rights and prevent evictions. They even have a guide on how to do it.

Evan Spath, an organizer with that group’s “Stomp out Slumlords” campaign, said at the height of its door-to-door canvasses, his group was doing 300-500 door knocks a month, with about one-third of those resulting in conversations with tenants. Tenants who spoke with DSA were 80 percent more likely to show up in court, he said.

“We found that generally, the problem wasn’t that they were getting evicted (after showing up in court),” Spath said. “A lot of them would work out a payment plan with the landlord, go into debt, or just float around to find other properties. It’s just this sort of unsustainable status quo in place of evictions.”

Cleveland DSA member Anna Powaski holds some of the materials the activist group has been handing out to Cleveland tenants at risk of being evicted. The canvases are held twice a month.

Once the pandemic hit, Spath said his group has mostly pivoted away from that tactic, fearing it would put tenants or organizers at risk of contracting COVID-19. In addition, D.C. has a continuing local moratorium on evictions in place.

Instead, Spath said his group has been working with the D.C. Tenants Union to “organize” individual apartment buildings to fight for better living conditions, with tenants using the threat of rent strikes and holding their rent in escrow until the landlords assent to make needed repairs. The group has managed to organize, or is in the process of organizing, 23 buildings so far.

Elsewhere, in places like Minneapolis, tenants have organized to achieve a rare feat: outright buying up the buildings they live in from their landlords.

Back in Cleveland, local DSA chapter members Powaski and Falatic said they hope their door-to-door campaign is a way to build “working class power” in Cleveland.

“This is the only option we as Americans have left because in a lot of ways, our representatives have failed us,” Falatic said.

There’s one thing that the DSA members and Staudt all agreed on in separate interviews: Additional aid from state or federal government needs to be made available to renters (or to their landlords).

“We’re going on six months of no rent paid for many of them (landlords),” Staudt said. “They’ve got mortgages. They’ve got bills to pay, and many of them own just a couple of properties.”

For Powaski and Falatic, these conversations with tenants in hard-off areas of the city has them thinking larger. Falatic hopes some of the people they talk to end up joining the DSA, although anyone can volunteer to help out with the DSA canvassing. Powaski said inviting friends along on the door-to-door campaign has opened their eyes.

“When thinking about a citywide tenants union, about rent striking, about working against a ruling class… this totally changes their perspective and gets them wanting to be more involved,” Powaski said.

Click here to read the full article in Cleveland.com

Written by Conor Morris in Freshwater Cleveland on 10/19/2020. 

Anna Powaski and Chad Falatic walk down the cracked sidewalk of a street in the Kinsman neighborhood, toward a small rental home with a sagging porch and a U-Haul moving truck in the driveway. They strike up a conversation with two men on the porch.

Falatic and Powaski—both wearing masks—explain they’re with the Cleveland chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and the reason why they’re there: The landlord has filed an eviction order.

“Are you going to be attending your hearing? You could potentially be hooked up with legal representation for free; either way, you should still probably attend the court date,” Falatic tells the men.

“It’s virtual, right? So, I’ll probably do it virtual,” one of the tenants says.

As they talk, Falatic and Powaski learn that the tenants are planning to move out anyway. The men said they didn’t want to deal with their unresponsive landlord anymore—the previous owner sold the home to a new buyer. Neither owner had fixed glaring issues like a broken front porch step.

Cleveland DSA members Anna Powaski and Chad Falatic talk to Cleveland resident Frank Hawkins about the home he was renting and the problems he was having with his landlord back in August.
Still, Powaski hands them several flyers, warning them that an eviction could make it difficult to find rental housing in the future. The flyers include how to access Cleveland’s Right to Counsel program, a leaflet on Cleveland and Cuyahoga County’s rental-assistance program, and other information on tenant rights in Ohio.

It’s crucial information that could help keep renters stay in their homes despite the social and economic challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cleveland DSA’s eviction-prevention door-knocking campaign has been happening biweekly for the past two months. As of mid-September, the group had used Cleveland Housing Court records to find, and knock on the doors of, 730 homes where eviction cases had been filed against the tenants.

The results have been hard to quantify so far. Sometimes, tenants aren’t home, or have already moved on. Other times, they’ve already made plans to move out, even though they haven’t yet attended their hearings to try to defend themselves.

But there are some success stories. Powaski says that on multiple occasions tenants have told DSA members they weren’t even aware of an eviction before DSA representatives stopped by. Additionally, some people have been connected to Cleveland’s Right to Counsel program.

“We had a woman [who] qualified for a lawyer through the Right to Counsel program,” says Powaski, who is the Cleveland DSA’s communications director. “They hooked her up with an attorney and she attended her hearing via Zoom. She said her landlord got caught lying about her rent payment. She was allowed to stay in the property, and she has until December to pay back the rent for July that she owes.”

DSA outreach has been very helpful in getting the word out about the Right to Counsel program, says Melanie Shakarian, director of communications for the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland. It’s especially important because, despite the federal moratorium on evictions announced in September, evictions are still happening (see sidebar).

Shakarian says the DSA’s work is one part of a multi-pronged approach to get this information out to tenants.

“It’s one really important element of a totality of outreach that tenants need to get,” explains Shakarian. “Legally, they get the summons. Separately, they get a letter from United Way to follow up on the summons, then, the DSA outreach. There’s other communications we’re doing through the public libraries, through the Food Bank, through social media and other paid advertisements.”

Legal Aid has handled about 150 cases that qualified under the Right to Counsel ordinance since June, Shakarian says. Since Housing Court went back into session in June, a total of about 1,700 evictions have been filed in the court, according to records analyzed by the Eviction Lab project housed at Princeton University.

Cleveland’s Right to Counsel program—which is available for anyone under 100% of the poverty line with a child in the house—could provide critical help. A 2015 study from the Institute for Research on Poverty found that an estimated 90% of landlords have legal representation in eviction cases, while only 10% of tenants do.

Meanwhile, Judge W. Moná Scott says the Housing Court recently started asking lawyers from the Legal Aid Society to be present during eviction hearings to ensure that if a tenant does qualify for Right to Counsel, they get representation they need (the lawyers can help them get connected to rental assistance money, too).

Despite the assistance, evictions are still being granted. In September, Scott said 344 eviction cases were filed, with 180 granted; in August, 437 were filed and 164 were granted. At the same time, plenty of cases did get resolved through the court’s mediation program, (almost 80 in August, for example). Typically, tenants agree to move out in those situations while the landlord agrees to drop the case.

Cleveland DSA member Anna Powaski holds some of the materials the activist group has been handing out to Cleveland tenants at risk of being evicted.

Revelations from visiting tenants’ homes

Powaski and Falatic say some common themes have emerged for the Cleveland DSA after going to multiple door-to-door events over the last few months.

Often, these people are essential workers with children, struggling to pay their rent in homes where landlords have long ignored their obligations to fix problems, Falatic says.

“Nobody talks to these people face to face,” he says. “They just get sent papers with a ton of small text information in it. When you’re really exhausted and beaten down… that method of delivery is not good enough.”

Judge Scott said she noticed a similar trend in her court, with many tenants simply not showing up to court. She says she feels there’s a “communication gap” with tenants not knowing about the assistance available to them.

Another commonality: Many don’t know that their hearings with the Housing Court are being heard virtually, Powaski says.

She says the DSA Cleveland group acknowledges that they’re not going to get to every eviction case. The DSA group only has so many members and volunteers, plus, some might worry about potentially spreading COVID-19 while meeting people in-person. However, canvassing is a safe practice so long as everyone is staying distant and wearing masks, said Suzanne Hrusch, an environmental sanitarian at the Cuyahoga County Board of health.

Since the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) eviction moratorium was enacted on September 1, the DSA has begun taking the CDC eviction prevention forms to tenants and even helping them fill it out. That’s important because, Powaski says, tenants they talk to are almost “never” aware of it in the first place. The forms are required for eviction relief.

Frank Hawkins is one of the tenants Falatic and Powaski spoke to during one of their door-to-door campaigns in late August, heading through the Kinsman and Lee-Miles neighborhoods.

Hawkins says he was planning on moving out of his rental housing after his landlord filed an eviction notice against him for non-payment of rent. That’s after he said the property manager refused to renew his lease earlier this year and refused to pay him for work he did to fix issues in the home. This is while he’s been working long hours at a rubber factory throughout the pandemic.

“I just think they’re trying to push me around,” says Hawkins.

Hawkins says he checked and found he wasn’t eligible for Cleveland’s right to counsel program because he doesn’t have a child in the home. Powaski recommended he still call the Legal Aid Society to get advice on his situation, noting that the DSA couldn’t provide legal advice.

“Even if you don’t get a lawyer, these are some good tips on how to represent yourself,” says Powaski, handing over another flyer on landlord-tenant law.

A few days after the DSA members stopped by Hawkins represented himself at his virtual eviction hearing, although his efforts were hampered by a spotty internet connection. Ultimately, his landlord’s attorney agreed to drop the case if Hawkins moved.

Several days later, Hawkins moved out of Cleveland altogether. While he wasn’t happy with not being able to defend himself, or having to move out so quickly, he was glad the DSA stopped by his home. He said it gave him a chance to feel heard by somebody.

Abigail Staudt, managing attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, says the number of eviction filings in Housing Court represents only a portion of the overall problem of housing instability in Cleveland.

Even outside of formal eviction proceedings, some landlords may be resorting to so-called “self-help evictions,” where they illegally change the locks of a rental home, or shut off the utilities in the home, says Staudt, adding that her office has only helped with a few of those cases since March but she is sure more are flying under the radar.

Cleveland DSA members Anna Powaski and Chad Falatic head toward the home of a local renter who faces an eviction case.
Changing the status quo?

In Washington D.C., the Metro D.C. DSA chapter has previously tried a similar door-to-door tactic to try to educate tenants on their rights and prevent evictions. The office even has a guide on how to do it.

Evan Spath, an organizer with the group’s “Stomp out Slumlords” campaign, says at the height of its door-to-door canvasses, his group was doing 300 to 500 door knocks a month, with about one-third of those resulting in conversations with tenants. Tenants who spoke with DSA were 80% more likely to show up in court, he said.

“We found that generally, the problem wasn’t that they were getting evicted (after showing up in court),” says Spath. “A lot of them would work out a payment plan with the landlord, go into debt, or just float around to find other properties. It’s just this sort of unsustainable status quo in place of evictions.”

Once the pandemic hit, Spath says his group has mostly pivoted away from that tactic, fearing it would put tenants or organizers at risk of contracting COVID-19. In addition, D.C. has a continuing local moratorium on evictions in place.

Instead, Spath says his group has been working with the D.C. Tenants Union to organize tenants in individual apartment buildings to fight for better living conditions—with tenants using the threat of rent strikes and holding their rent in escrow until the landlords assent to make needed repairs. The group has managed to organize, or is in the process of organizing, 23 buildings so far.

Elsewhere, in places like Minneapolis, tenants have organized to achieve a rare feat: outright buying up the buildings they live in from their landlords.

Back in Cleveland, local DSA chapter members Powaski and Falatic say they hope their door-to-door campaign is a way to build “working class power” in Cleveland.

“This is the only option we as Americans have left because in a lot of ways, our representatives have failed us,” says Falatic.

There’s one thing that the DSA members and Staudt all agreed on in separate interviews: Additional aid from state or federal government needs to be made available to renters (or to their landlords).

“We’re going on six months of no rent paid for many of them [landlords],” says Staudt. “They’ve got mortgages. They’ve got bills to pay, and many of them own just a couple of properties.”

For Powaski and Falatic, the conversations with tenants in hard-off areas of the city has them thinking about a larger picture. Falatic says he hopes some of the people they talk to end up joining the DSA, although anyone can volunteer to help with the DSA canvassing. Powaski said inviting friends along on the door-to-door campaign has opened their eyes.

“When thinking about a citywide tenants union, about rent striking, about working against a ruling class, this totally changes their perspective and gets them wanting to be more involved,” says Powaski.

Click here to read the full article in Freshwater Cleveland. 

Written by Conor Morris in ideastream on 10/19/2020. 

Tenants facing eviction in Cleveland Housing Court can access a temporary measure of relief through the current federal moratorium on evictions, and through the city and county’s rental aid programs. But they’re no silver bullet.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) eviction moratorium, which started Sept. 1, was meant to pause pandemic-related eviction cases against tenants, providing a measure of relief during these challenging times.

However, that relief is only available for a tenant – and anyone else who is on their lease – if they sign the CDC’s eviction moratorium form and give it to their landlord.

Meanwhile, of the roughly $18.1 million in rental assistance funds made available by Cleveland and Cuyahoga County on July 1, less than $2 million has gone out so far to landlords to pay for back rent owed.

Cleveland Housing Court Judge W. Moná Scott explained how tenants should get the eviction moratorium form to their landlords during a virtual public meeting on Sept. 29.

“That means you can hand deliver [the form], mail it off to them [landlords], you can email it to them,” Scott said.

The forms can be found on the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland’s website, and are available in multiple languages.

However, the eviction moratorium does not relieve tenants of their obligation to pay all the rent they owe once the moratorium expires, Scott and other officials explained. Plus, there’s no guarantee it will fully protect tenants.

Tenants must sign the document, confirming that they are unable to pay their full rent because of a “substantial loss of household income.” By signing it, tenants also promise they are using “best efforts” to make payments that are as close to their normal rent as possible, Housing Court Chief Magistrate Tracey S. Gonzalez said during the panel. Signing the form also confirms the signer has used “best efforts to obtain all available government assistance for rent or housing.”

Landlords can contest those claims in court – requiring a tenant to prove the things they claimed in the form – and if the landlord is successful, a judge can order an eviction.

Scott said she already requires tenants to be in the process of seeking rental assistance in order for the eviction case against them to be postponed under the moratorium.

In a follow-up interview Oct. 16, Scott said it’s important for tenants to show up for hearings because evictions are still happening. The court now has lawyers from the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland present during most eviction hearings to respond immediately if the tenant qualifies for the city’s Right to Counsel program, and those lawyers can help get tenants connected to rental assistance.

Meanwhile, plenty of rental assistance is still available locally.  There’s millions left in the roughly $18.1 million pool of rental-assistance money being offered by the city of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County for renters affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kevin J. Nowak, executive director of CHN Housing Partners, the nonprofit administering the fund, said as of Sept. 29, about 6,000 applications for rental aid were submitted to CHN. A CHN spokesperson confirmed that number had jumped to 6,800 by Oct. 12.

That number accounts for about $12.64 million in aid that could end up going out, provided all those applications are accepted. Around 2,000 applicants had an eviction case filed against them, giving them “priority status” in the assistance application process, Nowak said.

In total, about 913 tenants’ landlords have received rental assistance from the city-county program, for a total of almost $1.7 million provided so far out of the $18.1 million.

In other areas, rental assistance funds have run out in a matter of weeks or even days. A few factors have led to the rental aid not going out quickly since the program started in July, Nowak said.

“We’ve tried to be as accommodating as possible; you sometimes have a landlord that does not want to accept rental assistance for whatever reason they have,” he explained. “Sometimes you have tenants that may not want to apply.”

Laura Boustani, a spokesperson for CHN, said the number of documents tenants needed to provide to prove their eligibility was another barrier, so fewer documents are now being required.

“People would start an application, save their work, and then go figure out where the documents are,” she said. “Not being able to find a lease, things like that.”

Another challenge? The rental-assistance program is mainly meant to cover three months of missed rent, Boustani said. But with the pandemic dragging on, many people have been unable to go back to work, meaning some have already missed more than three months. So other funding sources may need to be pieced together. Recognizing that, the city has extended the amount of aid Cleveland tenants can be eligible for from three months to four.

Applicants can fill out the forms on paper or through a mobile app, but the main avenue – through the CHN website – requires a reliable Internet connection, which can be another barrier for many Clevelanders.

To make matters worse, Cleveland’s city hall has been closed since the pandemic hit, and with it, the city’s Bureau of Vital Statistics, where someone would normally go to get records needed to apply for the rental aid. Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson said during a press conference Friday that requests to that office are taking “much longer” than usual to fulfill because the office is closed and people need to mail in requests.

The city is renovating that vital statistics offices, Jackson said, to make it possible for people to enter into the area with appropriate social distancing, and a process for people to submit requests online is in the works.

With the federal moratorium on evictions now in place, it’s up to tenants to fill out the forms if they can’t afford to pay rent, Scott said.  And eviction cases filed against a tenant for non-financial reasons may still continue.

Jayah J. Watters-Clark, a spokesperson for the Housing Court, said it’s not clear yet how many have been able to postpone their eviction hearings through the CDC moratorium. According to the Eviction Lab project at Princeton University, about 1,700 eviction cases have been filed in Cleveland Housing Court since June.

Despite the pandemic and record levels of unemployment in prior months, Scott said there haven’t been “massive” numbers of evictions filed in Housing Court since the court opened back up in mid-June after a pandemic-induced hiatus.

“I think it’s because people have taken advantage of rental assistance, and I believe landlords show compassion,” Scott said. “I believe everyone understood the ramifications of the pandemic.”

Anyone with questions about the local rental-assistance aid can call CHN at 833-377- 7368. Help is also available through the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland at 216-687-1900, the Spanish American Committee at 216-961-2100 and other partners listed on the CHN website.

Click here to read the full article in ideastream. 

Written by Danilo Powell-Lima in Lakewood Observer on 10/08/2020.

On September 2nd, The Center for Disease Control (CDC) issued an order temporarily banning some evictions to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

This law is not applied automatically, and is not a rent forgiveness program – tenants will still have to pay rent once the Order expires on December 31, 2020. The law also only covers tenants who fit a certain set of requirements. Tenants must continue to comply with the terms of their lease as well as federal, state, and local laws.

Tenants who want the protection of this law must demonstrate that they qualify and ask for the protection. A tenant can do this by completing a Declaration Form and presenting this form to his or her landlord. Every adult listed on the lease must complete a Declaration Form and give a copy of the form to the landlord. Tenants should keep a photocopy of the completed Declaration Form for their own records.

To qualify for protection, a tenant must be able to say that all five of the following statements are true:

1. The tenant has made a sincere effort to get all available government assistance for rent or housing.
2. The tenant either:

• • Received a CARES Act stimulus check;
  • Was not required to report any income in 2019 to the IRS; or
  • Expects to earn no more than $99,000 in the calendar year 2020 (or no more than $198,000 if filing a joint tax return).

1. The tenant cannot pay the full rent because of a significant loss of household income (fewer work hours, lower wages, a lay-off) or extraordinary out-of-pocket expenses.
2. The tenant is using his or her best efforts to make timely partial payments in the largest amount possible as their circumstances permit.
3. An eviction would likely make the tenant homeless or force a move into close quarters with other people (e.g. doubling up with friends or family, or living in a shelter).

Tenants may need to prove that they gave a copy of the Declaration Form to their landlord. Legal Aid suggests tenants ask their landlord to initial the tenant copy of the form, or give the form to their landlord with a witness present.

Visit lasclev.org/cdc-eviction-moratorium for more important information on the Order and for a link to a fillable Declaration Form.

Tenants with housing questions can always call Legal Aid’s Tenant Information Line, which is available 24/7. Cuyahoga County residents can call 216-861-5955. Ashtabula, Lake, Geauga, and Lorain County residents can call 440-210-4533. Callers should leave a detailed voicemail and a Legal Aid staff member will return the call in 1-2 days, between 9 A.M. and 5 P.M.

If you are facing eviction and need legal help, please call Legal Aid’s toll-free intake line at 888-817-3777. Legal Aid’s intake line is available in several other languages, including Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin and French. Visit lasclev.org/contact for those contact numbers or to apply for help online. The sooner you are in touch with Legal Aid, the more work an attorney may be able to do to protect your home.

Click here to read the full article in Lakewood Observer. 

Written by Shawn Donnan in Bloomberg Businessweek on 10/06/2020. 

From the outside, 11410 Clarebird Ave. looks like many homes in Cleveland’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood. The fading yellow siding and creaky front porch point to mild neglect. The grass in the front yard needs a trim. But on a street of aging, single-family homes in an area that for decades has been fighting a losing battle against economic decline, the three-bedroom house has a new story to tell: Calais Gathings, a nursing assistant who lost her job in the pandemic and fell behind on rent, has moved out.

A 23-minute drive away, in the leafy western suburb of Lakewood, Ohio, 17527 Daleview Drive tells a different story. Built in 1927, two years after the Clarebird home, the four-bedroom brick house with a gabled roof and neatly landscaped grounds was sold in August to newlyweds Nathan Hodge and Erica Schulstad for $319,500, more than the asking price.

The two Cleveland houses paint a stark picture of how the pandemic—and the recovery from the economic crisis it precipitated—are not only reinforcing but widening America’s inequalities. On the east side of town, in mostly Black neighborhoods with a high percentage of rental properties, tenants struggling with their rent are facing the prospect of eviction. On the west side, in wealthier and whiter neighborhoods filled with homeowners, housing prices are soaring.

The disparities are a legacy of decades of housing discrimination and the Great Migration of 6 million Black Americans from the South to then-thriving northern industrial cities. Cleveland, which went into the pandemic as the poorest of the 100 largest U.S. cities, is still reeling from the last financial crisis. It left a physical imprint in the vacant lots that turned some communities into checkerboards and a less visible one in the speculative churn that brought seven owners to the Clarebird house in a little more than two years.

Now a new crisis is widening the gap, and not just in Cleveland. Cities across the U.S. have been bracing for a wave of evictions as the pandemic disproportionately affects lower-wage workers. Politics are playing a role, too, with President Donald Trump promising to keep low-income housing out of the suburbs as he courts a constituency that polls show he is losing.

In an economic recovery that looks increasingly uneven, home ownership is a dividing line. When the U.S. Census Bureau asked 9.8 million people living in rented homes in September how likely they were to move out in the next two months because of an eviction, almost half, 45%, said they were somewhat or very likely to face that fate. A similar survey of 8.7 million people in owner-occupied homes found that fewer than 20% were worried about having to move as a result of foreclosure.

In Cleveland, as elsewhere, essential workers in the leisure, hospitality, and health-care industries bore the brunt of the pandemic—both the virus itself and its economic consequences. What’s also becoming clear is that the tentative recovery is exacerbating the race-linked inequalities that divide the two sides of the city. “The Cuyahoga River is like our Berlin Wall,” says Eric Morse, chief executive officer of the Centers for Families and Children, a Cleveland nonprofit that provides early education, employment training, and free health care to some of the city’s most vulnerable communities. The current crisis, he says, “is definitely accelerating inequality.”

Even if the $2 trillion federal Cares Act softened the economic blow for many Americans, the expiration of several key features has meant that the full impact of the crisis is only now materializing for the most vulnerable.  After a dip over the summer, the Cleveland Food Bank has started to see an increase in the number of cars lining up for weekly food distributions. It’s now feeding more than 2,000 households a week, 30% more than before the pandemic. At Morse’s nonprofit, social distancing guidelines have forced it to reduce the number of slots for children in the Head Start early education program by 40%.

But it is evictions that most worry people such as Morse. Housing plays a role in everything from wealth creation to health and education outcomes. A Case Western Reserve University study of almost 20,000 evictions in Cleveland from 2013 to 2016 found that they resulted not only in higher rates of housing instability but also in children missing more school and being tested less often for lead poisoning, a persistent problem in Cleveland associated with its aging housing stock. If a new wave of evictions washes over the city, it could unwind decades of work.

That hasn’t happened yet, thanks largely to an $18 million countywide rental-assistance program that has received applications from more than 6,000 tenants but is running out of money. The original funds came from the Cares Act; without further federal help for cities such as Cleveland, which have seen local tax revenues collapse during the crisis, the prospects for replenishing the program look dim. “I’m not sure that we are going to get through the end of the year with what we have available,” says Kevin Nowak, executive director of CHN Housing Partners, the nonprofit that runs the program.

A national moratorium on evictions announced Sept. 2 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has had little effect in Cleveland, partly because the initiative is so new but also because there’s no money behind it. By the end of September, only a dozen evictions in the city had been delayed because of the moratorium, according to the Cleveland Housing Court.

To Judge W. Moná Scott, who this year became the first Black woman to preside over the housing court, the pause on evictions ordered by the CDC just adds to the confusing, mixed messages that characterize the federal government’s pandemic response. The moratorium does nothing to help tenants resolve existing debts to landlords—or to stop those debts from mounting. “It’s not if they come and collect, it’s when they come and collect,” Scott says.

Scott is doing what she can to avoid or at least slow evictions, which are down substantially this year, largely because of the rental-assistance program. Of the 437 cases filed in August, only 164 resulted in eviction orders. The rest ended in some kind of mediation.

That’s what happened when Gathings showed up for a hearing on Sept. 4. It took place via a Zoom call, and she didn’t have a lawyer representing her. Still, just making an appearance was unusual. Even since hearings went online during the pandemic, only about 40% of tenants have argued their cases. Those who do often lack lawyers, despite a “right to counsel” rule Cleveland adopted in July that provides free legal help to tenants from households with minors. Scott asked Legal Aid in September to start having a lawyer available in all Zoom hearings to avoid situations like the one Gathings faced in her session.

Gathings didn’t seem to know she was entitled to a lawyer, or even that there was a moratorium, when questioned by Magistrate Mark Wiseman.

“Where would you go if you were evicted?” Wiseman asked.

“A shelter? I have nowhere to go. That’s why I need a couple of weeks to find somewhere to go,” Gathings answered.

Gathings had fallen behind on the rent after losing her job at a nursing home. Then her mother moved out, leaving her responsible for the full $900 a month. Gathings was back at work at the nursing home but earning less money than before and unable to pay her landlord. “I just can’t keep up with it,” Gathings told the magistrate. “It’s too much on my own.”

The landlord, identified only as BL US1 LLC, had a lawyer on the Zoom call who argued that Gathings wasn’t eligible for the CDC moratorium, which would have kept her in her home at least until January. He said she hadn’t applied for government help or rental assistance. Wiseman agreed. It was all over in 4 minutes and 45 seconds. To avoid a forced eviction, which would have led to bailiffs piling her belongings on the curb, Gathings later agreed to move out by Sept. 25.

What no one said that day was that when BL US1 bought 11410 Clarebird for $65,150 a year ago, the Ohio-registered company became its 13th owner since 1975. The house had sold for $93,000 in 2004 and bounced around among home flippers after the subprime mortgage crisis. In one 28-day stretch last year culminating with the Sept. 17, 2019, sale to BL US1, ownership changed four times, all among limited liability companies, according to property records. BL US1 bought the house from another LLC, Immobilier Cleveland, that purchased it earlier the same day for $49,000 and recorded a 32% gain in a matter of hours.

Both Immobilier Cleveland and BL US1 are linked to Thibaut Gueant, whose Aventura, Fla,-based property firm, Invest US, caters to French investors looking to buy Cleveland real estate. The Clarebird house, Gueant says, was one of about 150 his firm sold over the past 18 months to individuals drawn by Cleveland’s low prices and high rental returns. Immobilier Cleveland was his company, and BL US1 belonged to a French client he declines to identify. The gap between the sales prices last September was meant to cover the cost to his firm of a one-year guarantee on rent and repairs that he offers to investors. The $900 a month Gathings paid to live in the Clarebird house provides a gross annual return in line with the 15% to 17% typical of his other Cleveland properties. “It’s pretty nice,” he says.

Zach Germaniuk, a housing lawyer at a nonprofit in Slavic Village, a neighborhood near Mount Pleasant, says investor-driven churn in deprived communities has perpetuated both the decline of some neighborhoods and Cleveland’s race-based economic inequality. “We’re one of the most heavily segregated cities in the country,” Germaniuk says. “Real estate is really the centerpiece of that tragic history.”

Ten days before Gathings got on the Zoom call that would decide her fate, Hodge and Schulstad closed on their house at 17527 Daleview Drive. The two tech company employees—he’s a software architect, she’s an engineer—met at work and were married in July. They toured the house for the first time three hours after the listing went online and found it had almost everything they were looking for, including a front porch that could house the swinging couch they had been hankering for since Reese Witherspoon posted pictures of hers on Instagram in 2019.

They made an offer an hour later and followed up with a letter pleading their case and saying they would add $10,000 to the asking price. They won the bidding over a half-dozen other buyers just days before their wedding and closed on the deal Aug. 25. “We were racing, racing, racing,” Hodge says. “We didn’t want to miss this opportunity.”

The price of the house was more than double the $143,500 the previous owner paid in 2011. That’s a testament to the value of suburban economic stability and of how a recovery fueled by the Federal Reserve and low interest rates is inflating the price of assets such as suburban homes and the stock market.

The median sales price of homes in Lakewood was up 11% in July from the previous year, to $227,000, with houses on the market for an average of 26 days, down from 39 days in July 2019, according to data provided by property site Redfin. In Gathings’s 44105 ZIP code, the median sales price in July was also up 11%—though to only $36,000. In other predominantly Black ZIP codes nearby, prices have tumbled 20% or more over the past year, according to Redfin.

Julie Weist, a Cleveland real estate agent, says the rapid drop in mortgage rates this year, driven by the Fed’s response to the crisis—along with a shortage of properties—has turned the city’s western suburbs into the hottest seller’s market she has seen in three decades in the business. “The pandemic really has not slowed anybody down,” she says.

Weist helped tech entrepreneur Mitch Bihuniak sell a three-bedroom colonial in the suburb of Rocky River in August for $457,500, almost twice what he and his wife paid for it in 2013. She also helped them trade up to a five-bedroom, Tudor-style house closer to Lake Erie, bought for $560,000. One motivation was finding a quieter street for his daughter, who turns 5 in October. Another was that they were able to get a mortgage at 2.85%. “It’s insane,” Bihuniak says.

The disparity in house prices on the two sides of the city reinforces Cleveland’s wealth gap. People such as Bihuniak and the newlyweds are doing fine. Hodge and Schulstad both work from home, and the pandemic has had little impact on their professional lives or incomes. “We’re fortunate to be relatively safe in our work environment,” Hodge says. “It’s weird that the housing market is so crazy, but people want more space, and interest rates are so low.”

But for renters on the east side, the pandemic has been crueler. At least one-third of tenants who inhabit the 900 affordable housing units managed by the Famicos Foundation in the neighborhoods of Hough and Glenville are behind on their rent, says John Anoliefo, the nonprofit’s executive director. Almost two dozen haven’t paid any rent since March, he says.

That has cast a shadow over long-term efforts to address the area’s glut of abandoned properties, aging housing stock, and homeownership rates of only about 30%. It also presents a conundrum for an organization helping people secure long-term housing. “My goal is to work with my tenants to avoid even going to court,” Anoliefo says.

Neither the volume of eviction cases nor the number of people receiving rental assistance reflect the true scale of what’s happening, says Hazel Remesch, who oversees Legal Aid’s housing team in Cleveland. Remesch says lack of knowledge and representation are not uncommon. That makes her worry about what comes next. “We are absolutely looking out at a crisis,” she says.

For Don Fenderson, a retired guidance counselor who started investing in rental properties in the east side neighborhoods of Glenville, Collinwood, and Mount Pleasant in the early 2000s, buying them at sheriff’s auctions, that crisis is already visible. One-third of his 21 tenants are behind on the rent, he says, and “one person hasn’t paid for three months.” The only ones who aren’t behind are those whose rent is paid by the federal government as part the Section 8 subsidized housing program for low-income Americans. Even those tenants, Fenderson says, are struggling to come up with the small amount of rent they contribute, and the houses that he bought two decades ago are worth less than he paid for them.

“I’m okay for now,” Fenderson says. “But long term, it’s definitely curtailed some of the way that I am used to living. It was so easy to buy houses, and I probably jumped in too far.”

Gathings declined to comment when a reporter knocked on the door of her Clarebird home after her court appearance. She moved out before the Sept. 25 deadline, which means the eviction won’t be logged on her record or affect her credit. She later texted to say she found a new place to live.

On the housing court Zoom call, Gathings made clear she was hoping for some help and a new start. “I tried for everything,” she said, “and I wasn’t getting approved for anything. It’s out of control.”

At 11410 Clarebird, the search for a new tenant is already underway. Gueant says the house is one of about 20 managed by his firm that have been involved in eviction proceedings this year, a number that increased as a result of the pandemic. The evictions are taking longer to move through the courts, he says, but it’s a cost of business his investors are willing to bear. Finding a new tenant shouldn’t take more than a couple of weeks. “The market is very dynamic,” he says. “We still have a lot of opportunities there in Cleveland. It’s just a matter of transitioning back to normal.”

Click here to read the full article in Bloomberg Businessweek. 

Written by Danilo Powell-Lima in The Collinwood Observer on 10/01/2020.

** Editor note: the eviction moratorium now lasts until January 31, 2021.

On September 2nd, The Center for Disease Control (CDC) issued an order temporarily banning some evictions to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

This law is not applied automatically, and is not a rent forgiveness program – tenants will still have to pay rent once the Order expires on December 31, 2020. The law also only covers tenants who fit a certain set of requirements. Tenants must continue to comply with the terms of their lease as well as federal, state, and local laws.

Tenants who want the protection of this law must demonstrate that they qualify and ask for the protection. A tenant can do this by completing a Declaration Form and presenting this form to his or her landlord. Every adult listed on the lease must complete a Declaration Form and give a copy of the form to the landlord. Tenants should keep a photocopy of the completed Declaration Form for their own records.

To qualify for protection, a tenant must be able to say that all five of the following statements are true:

1. The tenant has made a sincere effort to get all available government assistance for rent or housing.
2. The tenant either:

• •  Received a CARES Act stimulus check;
  • Was not required to report any income in 2019 to the IRS; or
  • Expects to earn no more than $99,000 in the calendar year 2020 (or no more than $198,000 if filing a joint tax return).

1. The tenant cannot pay the full rent because of a significant loss of household income (fewer work hours, lower wages, a lay-off) or extraordinary out-of-pocket expenses.
2. The tenant is using his or her best efforts to make timely partial payments in the largest amount possible as their circumstances permit.
3. An eviction would likely make the tenant homeless or force a move into close quarters with other people (e.g. doubling up with friends or family, or living in a shelter).

Tenants may need to prove that they gave a copy of the Declaration Form to their landlord. Legal Aid suggests tenants ask their landlord to initial the tenant copy of the form, or give the form to their landlord with a witness present.

Visit lasclev.org/cdc-eviction-moratorium for more important information on the Order and for a link to a fillable Declaration Form.

Tenants with housing questions can always call Legal Aid’s Tenant Information Line, which is available 24/7. Cuyahoga County residents can call 216-861-5955. Ashtabula, Lake, Geauga, and Lorain County residents can call 440-210-4533. Callers should leave a detailed voicemail and a Legal Aid staff member will return the call in 1-2 days, between 9 A.M. and 5 P.M.

If you are facing eviction and need legal help, please call Legal Aid’s toll-free intake line at 888-817-3777. Legal Aid’s intake line is available in several other languages, including Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin and French. Visit lasclev.org/contact for those contact numbers or to apply for help online. The sooner you are in touch with Legal Aid, the more work an attorney may be able to do to protect your home.

If you live in Cleveland, are facing eviction, and have at least one child in your home, you may qualify for free eviction help. Visit freeevictionhelp.org for more information.

Click here to read the full article in The Collinwood Observer. 

Written by Lisa Ryan in ideastream on 09/30/2020.

Cleveland Housing Partners (CHN) has distributed about $1.2 million in aid to tenants facing eviction due to the coronavirus pandemic, with $11.2 million more in requests.

Kevin Nowak, CHN executive director, told a Cleveland Housing Court panel Tuesday some landlords and tenants are not open to accepting the help.

“Some of it is an education process, particularly on the tenant side, also on the landlord side,” Nowak said. “Sometimes the landlord is not interested in taking the assistance.”

Some of the assistance offered requires inspections, which is a disincentive for some landlords, he said.

The city of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County have set aside $18 million in coronavirus aid for eviction prevention.

Since eviction is a civil matter, many tenants across the country don’t have access to free legal aid. The city of Cleveland changed that by passing legislation last year that guarantees tenants have the right to free legal help during evictions, but there are still barriers due to the pandemic, said Hazel Remesch of the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland.

Legal Aid this week started appearing at every virtual eviction docket to screen tenants for eligibility for free legal aid and rental assistance.

“We’ve had to pivot quite a bit,” Remesch said. “We’re in an era where we believed we’d be in court physically, we’ve now had to pivot to virtually doing all the hearings, which is a whole new way of practicing.”

Access to the internet and confusion over how to access Zoom meetings is a barrier for some tenants, Remesch said.

Most people who apply for rental assistance walk away with some money, said Nowak. He said of the $1.2 million distributed, all of those tenants are “housing stable,” meaning they have resolved financial issues with their landlord.

Those who apply with an eviction status or pending eviction status are given priority, he said.

The September 29 discussion was part of a Cleveland Housing court’s panel entitled “From Confusion to Clarity: Understanding Cleveland Housing Court, the Pandemic, and the CDC’s Eviction Moratorium.”

Click here to read the full article in ideastream.

Interview conducted on 09/29/2020 on Facebook Live. 

Sam Sylk speaks with Anastasia Elder, attorney at The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland and Andrew Katusin from the United Way of Greater Cleveland. The three speak about access to housing support, Cleveland’s new “Right To Counsel” legislation, the CDC Eviction Moratorium, tenants’ rights, and more.

Click here to listen to the full interview on Facebook. 

Written by Karlynn Wells in Spectrum News 1 on 09/25/2020. 

Michael Anderson has called Cleveland his home all of his life. He says he has experienced a lot of things, and now he’s at risk of experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic.

What You Need To Know

• Evictions are still happening across the state of Ohio at unprecedented rates as a result of COVID-19
• Organizations are advocating for housing stability for the city’s most vulnerable populations
• According to Evictionlab.org, over 57 percent of homes in Cleveland are rented and the current eviction rate in the city is over 4.5 percent

Anderson, like many people across the country and in Northeast Ohio, are struggling with navigating the COVID-19 crisis.

“It’s impacted our lives and changes from doing what we need to do to survive —that’s eating and everything! Food has went up since the virus. We cannot find toilet paper or paper towels or bleach or nothing like that,” Anderson said.

Anderson, who is a Navy veteran, says unfortunately he has experienced homelessness before, but this time, he’s fighting not only to stay in his Euclid Beach-area apartment, but he feels like he is fighting for his life.

“If you get evicted, it’s really hard. If a person gets evicted and you become homeless, you have to go downtown to the men’s shelter on 2100, or the ladies shelter over on Payne. I got to shower down here, I got to sit down and eat, I got to sleep with these people. I can contract the disease that quick,” he said.

According to Evictionlab.org, a site that makes nationwide eviction data publicly available, over 57 percent of homes in Cleveland are rented and the current eviction rate in the city is over 4.5 percent. The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland is representing many tenants, including Anderson, who are caught in the eviction crisis which has been made worse by COVID-19.

“End of March, spanning through mid-June, we saw many courts closing down, you know, the majority of their work, including evictions, but we didn’t see our work subside at all. The number of calls for people with housing issues stayed the same and then increased since then, so now we’re at about 39 percent more calls average, in comparison to a year ago,” said Abigail Staudt, of the Legal Aid society of Cleveland

Staudt is the managing attorney of the Housing Group for the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland. She says many tenants that end up getting evicted do so because they don’t know their rights.

“Defenses that tenants may have that they’re not aware of. So, navigating that on one’s own, which, you know, most tenants are doing, actually leaves them vulnerable for eviction, when maybe they had a great defense and they just didn’t know it,” Staudt said.

In early September, the CDC issued a new order, effective through December 31, 2020, that provides protection from eviction to prevent the further spread of COVID-19. Staudt says the order hasn’t stopped enough evictions from being filed, and adds that a temporary eviction moratorium won’t protect tenants long term.

“The halt of the eviction is great. Without sort of the companion part of rent assistance for those families and for those households, we are, we are gearing up for a very very difficult beginning of 2021. This is the time where we need our federal government to support the housing stability of, I don’t know, 50 to 60 percent of our community,” she said.

Click here to read the full article in Spectrum News 1. 

Written by Sam Allard in Cleveland Scene on 09/23/2020.

In early September, a spokesperson for the Cleveland Housing Court told Scene that the court’s legal team was “working to interpret” the recent federal moratorium on evictions issued by the Center for Disease Control.

That moratorium, issued Sept. 1, should be in effect through the end of the year, but housing advocates have worried that because the order was issued with no prior warning, additional direction was needed from local and state governments.

The moratorium was criticized on other grounds as well. The president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition called it a “half-measure” that merely extends “a financial cliff for renters to fall off of when the moratorium expires and back rent is owed.”

According to the CDC, the order was issued to prevent the spread of Covid-19, especially in shelters where mass evictions could lead to overcrowding. But in communities across the country, renters and landlords are still scrambling to understand what it means for them.

In Cleveland, housing court judge Mona Scott recognized the need to provide clarity. She has organized a panel to explain the confusing situation and how her court will proceed. Scott will be joined Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. by her leadership team on the court; Colleen Cotter, the executive director of the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland; Kevin Nowak, executive director of CHN Housing Partners; and Ayonna Blue Donald, Director of the Cleveland Department of Building and Housing. The panel will be moderated by Cleveland.com columnist Leila Atassi.

Those interested in the panel can register online — see the flyer above — or watch on Facebook Live.

Click here to read the full article in Cleveland Scene. 

Are you currently working or recently unemployed with questions about your rights at work or unemployment benefits?  

Call Legal Aid’s Worker Information Line to learn about Ohio’s employment laws and unemployment benefits.

• Call 216-861-5899 in Cuyahoga County
• Call 440-210-4532 in Ashtabula, Geauga, Lake and Lorain Counties

Some common questions Legal Aid can answer are:

• How do I apply for Unemployment Compensation (UC) benefits?
• What information will I need to apply for UC benefits?
• How many weeks of UC benefits can I receive?
• Do the new laws passed because of COVID-19 apply to me and my employer?
• How long does my former employer have to give me my final pay check?

Workers can call and leave a message at any time. Callers should clearly state their name, phone number and a brief description of their employment/unemployment compensation question. A Legal Aid staff member will return the call between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Calls are returned within 1-2 business days.

This number is for information only. Callers will get answers to their questions and will also receive information about their rights. Some callers may be referred to other organizations for additional help. Callers who need legal assistance may be referred to Legal Aid’s intake department.

How to File Your Weekly Job Search Claim Related to COVID-19:

1. Select “Yes” that you were able to work.
2. Select “Yes” that you were physically and mentally able to work.
3. Select “Yes” that you completed two work-search activities
   1. For the first “Work search activity completed,” answer “COVID-19;” for “Location of work search activity,” answer “Executive Order – Home;” for City, State, and Zip Code, use your home address.
   2. Select “Internet” as the method of completing the work search activity.
   3. For “if you applied for a position, please list it here,” answer “COVID-19 Executive Order.”
   4. Select any date listed.
   5. Select “Unknown” for the outcome of the work search activity.
   6. For f-j, repeat your answers from a-e.
4. Answer the rest of the questions (4-7) truthfully and remember to report any earnings.

For a step-by-step guide with photos, look here: Instructions for Filing Weekly COVID-19 Claims

The website link described here will take you to a new website where you can get help preparing Ohio’s Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care and/or Ohio’s Living Will.  These documents, also known as “advance directives,” can assist health care providers if you cannot communicate because of a serious illness or injury.  A Health Care Power of Attorney allows you to name someone to make medical decisions for you if you are unable to do so. A Living Will allows you to state what type of medical care you want to receive if you are permanently unconscious or terminally ill and unable to communicate.  You can also indicate your wishes regarding organ and tissue donation in a living will.

The “Access to Justice” or A2J website will ask you to enter information in order to prepare your documents.  You will need the name and address of the person or people you want to identify in your Health Care Power of Attorney and/or Living Will.  After you complete the online interview and print your documents, you need to read them and make sure they say what you want to happen.  In some places, you can also add or omit certain instructions.  Also, you will have to follow the instructions for having your signature on the documents witnessed or notarized. Lastly, you should deliver copies to your physician and the people named in the documents.

Before you go to the A2J website, you may want to review this helpful information – click here.

Make sure your computer is attached to a printer, so you can print these documents.

** CLICK HERE now to access the A2J website and interview questions! (in English) **

** CLICK HERE now to access the A2J website and interview questions! (en Español) **

This information and the information provided on the A2J website cannot take the place of individual advice from a lawyer.  Each person’s situation is different.  You should contact a lawyer if you need legal representation or have questions about your legal rights and responsibilities.  

If you plan to come to a Legal Aid Brief Advice Clinic, remember to bring all the documents with you.  Attorneys will need the documents in order to advise you.

A durable power of attorney can be one of the most helpful estate planning tools a person uses, but it can also be very risky. A durable POA gives a person (who is called an “attorney in fact”) legal authority to act for another person in a variety of matters, including banking, benefits, housing, taxes, real estate, litigation, and more. (The durable POA is different from a Health Care Power of Attorney, which is the form used to appoint a person to make decisions about health care.)

A power of attorney can be limited or very broad in scope depending on what is needed. A properly written and executed durable POA can give someone a great deal of power over another person’s affairs, and should be carefully considered. Executing a power of attorney does not take away the ability of the principal — the person signing the power of attorney — to continue to conduct his own affairs.

When deciding who to name as “attorney in fact,” consider four things about potential people:

1) Trust. The person named in a POA must be trusted to do what the principal wants and needs. The “attorney in fact” must not use his authority to take advantage of the principal and cannot exceed the authority given to him.

2) Competency. The attorney in fact must be capable of handling the tasks the principal needs done. A person who must handle a complicated tax matter needs a different level of competency than someone who needs to make sure the rent is paid each month.

3) Capacity. The needs of the principal may change over time. The attorney in fact should have the time, energy, and willingness to help the principal as different situations arise.

4) Communication. The principal and the attorney in fact should be able to communicate clearly with each other. The principal needs to give directions about what she wants done under different circumstances, and the attorney in fact should be honest about what she is willing and able to do.

Ohio’s “power of attorney” form, along with tools and resources to help fill it out, can be found here. The POA form should be signed before a notary. The POA must be given to anyone or any institutions asked to rely on it, such as a bank or landlord. The POA lasts until the principal dies or says the power of attorney is no longer in effect. The POA must be recorded with the county if used for any transactions involving real property.

Older adults and people with disabilities or serious illness may apply to Legal Aid for help creating a durable power of attorney by calling 1-888-817-3777.

This article was written by Anne Sweeney and appeared in The Alert: Volume 33, Issue 1. Click here to read a full PDF of this issue!