Pandemic may cause wave of evictions
Laura A. Bischoff and Josh Sweigart
DAYTON — Four months into the coronavirus pandemic and economic crisis, thousands of Ohioans are receiving eviction notices, telling them to pay back rent or leave, and more notices are likely to come next month, experts say.
Evictions had been largely held at bay through a patchwork of moratoriums and a prohibition on evictions from housing that have federal subsidies or federally backed mortgages. But the patchwork expired in June and the federal moratorium expires Saturday.
Add to that enhanced unemployment benefits are slated to dry up at the end of July.
“If a statewide rental assistance program is not operating soon, thousands of Ohio families will find themselves facing eviction and homelessness. Some will be forced into unsafe shelters and other group environments which will put their health at risk as well as potentially contribute to large outbreaks in those communities,” said Ohio Poverty Law Center attorney Graham Bowman in a letter to Gov. Mike Dewine.
Attorney Larry Lasky, a member of the Greater Dayton Apartment Association who handles evictions for landlords, said many landlords have not seen rental income since February and have had no means of removing tenants who haven’t paid. Talk of extending the eviction moratorium for federally financed properties to March 2021 is unwelcome, he said.
“If that happens, you’re going to have blood in the streets. I don’t think these landlords are going to walk away from everything they’ve worked for,” he said.
Nationally, the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project estimates 25.8 million Americans are at risk for eviction by September. In Ohio, 800,000 renters could be at risk for eviction and Ohio landlords will be owed $345 million in back rent by then, the project estimated.
The Ohio Poverty Law Center and more than 100 other advocacy groups have asked Dewine to earmark $100 million in federal Coronavirus Relief Funds for emergency rental assistance. Lasky said he supports the move.
Dewine hasn’t made a move on the $100 million request, but he did announce an additional $15 million for homeless prevention programs. The grant, which will go to the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, will provide rental or mortgage help for up to four months.
When asked whether he thinks more money is needed for rental assistance, Dewine said: “We’ll certainly monitor and see how things go. We are certainly open. Obviously, we have to find the money somewhere. But this is important.”
Bowman calculated that Ohio has $2 billion in federal Coronavirus Relief funds that have yet to be allocated.
Montgomery County launched a new program to help residents avoid evictions and mortgage foreclosures by offering grants of up to $10,000 to people set back financially due to the coronavirus pandemic.
A total of $10 million in federal CARES Act funds is being put behind the effort to help those behind on mortgage, rent and utilities payments.
Meanwhile, eviction court hearings are underway again across Ohio.
“It’s back to business as usual now,” Bowman said. He predicted that Ohio could see a cascade of evictions by late August or early September.
Lasky agreed but noted that landlords need rental income to pay their mortgages and expenses.
“It is a vicious cycle. Everybody is getting hurt here. No one is the winner. No one,” Lasky said.
Bowman and ABLE attorney Matt Currie noted that Ohio could see a confluence of crises: the coronavirus is disproportionately impacting Black Americans; evictions often involve African American women; evictions are carried out by law enforcement so there could be tense situations between deputies and Black tenants.
`I just need a little bit of time’
Mike Felver said he was laid off from a local plastics manufacturer because of the coronavirus in March. Then while he was trying to get unemployment, he had a heart attack about four weeks ago. Sitting in the Dayton courtroom awaiting his eviction hearing, the Army veteran raised his shirt to show the fresh surgical scar down the length of his chest.
Felver said he just got approved for unemployment but hasn’t received the money yet; meanwhile he is trying to get on disability. He has been able to buy food and pay some of his bills with help from family, but he’s about $3,000 behind in rent on his Dayton home.
“I just need a little bit of time,” he told Magistrate Judge Colette Moorman.
Moorman, wearing a plastic face shield, listened to his story and said she was sympathetic. “A lot of people are suffering because of everything going on,” she said.
She approved the eviction, giving Felver a week or two to get out of the house.
Help proposed
In Ohio, 1.5 million households rent their homes.
Ohio did not implement a statewide policy against evictions during the pandemic emergency. Instead, a patchwork of moratoriums were put into place across the state but many courts resumed eviction hearings in June.
The U.S. Census Bureau Pulse Survey reported that 36 percent of Ohio renters didn’t think they’d be able to pay rent in July. Even with unemployment benefits, roughly 30 percent of renters didn’t pay full rent in May.
Evictions for not paying rent and late fees are prohibited until Saturday for any landlord who has a federally backed mortgage or who receives government housing subsidies, according to the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act. But after Saturday, property owners may file 30-day notices to evict tenants.
Eviction filings are a matter of public record, can impact credit reports and make it more difficult to rent for years to come.
“Eviction has been shown to not only increase homelessness and long-term housing instability due to post-eviction consequences, it has also been shown to increase mental health issues, stress, emergency room usage, and materials hardship. A lack of stable housing impacts children and their education, reduces financial means to buy healthy food and medical care, and exposes families to dangerous materials in substandard housing,” according to the Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies’ State of Poverty in Ohio report for 2020.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-ohio, is sponsoring the Emergency Rental Assistance and Rental Market Stabilization Act, which would earmark $100 billion to help at-risk, low-income households with rent and utilities.
The city of Dayton adopted two recommendations from an eviction task force established by Mayor Nan Whaley: require landlords issue receipts for rent paid in cash and cap late fees at $25. Whaley said she’s also exploring adopting a “stay-if-you-pay” ordinance or state law to block landlords from evicting tenants who paid all their back rent and fees.
Whaley said there aren’t enough good-paying jobs in Dayton, which contributes to the eviction crisis. “It was always the fact that people’s wages were too low,” she said. “During COVID, they’re nonexistent.”
She added that government leaders need to work to stave off the anticipated wave of evictions. “Once you get the eviction (on your record,) you’re really in trouble.”