Eastland area leads city in eviction cases
As social service agencies gear up to distribute another round of federal CARES Act money for rental assistance, they are eyeing city ZIP code data to see where eviction filings and requests for help are highest.
Neighborhoods in the once-thriving Eastland area – the 43232 ZIP code – sit atop both lists.
“It saddens me,” said resident Ava Johnson, a community advocate who serves on the Greater South East Area Commission. “Some of these families just almost had their foot out of the muck and the mire, and now they’re stuck again.”
She and others have little doubt the COVID-19 outbreak will complicate what already were worrisome trends for the area near the struggling Eastland Mall.
According to census information compiled more than a year ago by the Columbus Foundation, about 49% of residents in the 43232 ZIP code had incomes below 200% of the poverty line in 2017, up from 28% in 2000.
Median household incomes, homeownership and employment rates also
had declined there before the pandemic struck. More than half of the area’s residents are Black or African American.
Bo Chilton, president and CEO of IMPACT Community Action, said housing advocates are doing all they can to get rental-assistance money into communities quickly and to study the geography of need. “That’s going to be part of the discussion,” Chilton said. “We’re going to be targeting those neighborhoods with high numbers.”
IMPACT is administering the HOPE Fund, a housing-stability initiative that largely contains CARES Act money allocated to the city of Columbus. Thousands of families have applied for help from the fund, which grew to about $12 million this summer and is to receive about $5.6 million more this fall, Chilton said.
Demand was so overwhelming during the first round that on Oct. 2, “We had to shut down the portal,” he said.
All the CARES Act money has to be spent by the end of the year.
The eviction data gathered by the Housing Stabilization Coalition – a group that includes IMPACT – shows 9,039 eviction filings in Franklin Coun
ty from Sept. 1, 2019, to Feb. 29 of this year. After the coronavirus hit, from March 1 to Sept. 30, there were nearly 6,000.
The 43232 ZIP code tally was highest among 48 areas on the list, both before and during the pandemic. The Eastland area also received the most rental assistance from June 1 to Sept. 30, whether via the HOPE fund, Job and Family Services, Veterans Service Commission or other aid.
Also on the East Side, the 43213 ZIP code had both large numbers of eviction filings and assistance rates.
That indicates that many residents who don’t have enough income to stay current on their rent know where to turn for help, Chilton said.
But that might not be the case in other areas where eviction filings and applications for help don’t align. The 43228 ZIP code on the West Side, for example, ranked second in PRE-COVID eviction filings and fourth after the COVID outbreak began.
It was 13th for rental assistance. “We’re looking to engage with our community partners,” Chilton said, to raise awareness about eviction prevention and to boost outreach in areas with significant immigrant populations. That includes the 43228 ZIP code and also 43229 in the northeast part of the city.
“We definitely see this as a program not just for tenants, but for landlords, too,” Chilton said. “We want them to be OK.”
Aid groups generally have been overwhelmed and haven’t had sufficient time and funding to analyze eviction data beyond geographic markers, said Jeff Biehl, coordinator for the Housing Stabilization Coalition. “We’re in crisis mode, but we also have to create the time and space to think about what we’re learning,” he said. That means going beyond the basics in eviction filings and studying more-detailed income information that could be available through assistance programs, he said.
Johnson, who is part of an ambitious community improvement effort among residents, neighborhood groups and other area commissions on the East Side, said members feel optimistic.
Infrastructure work taking place along Hamilton Road is an important step, she said. The area also needs more social service nonprofits and recreation opportunities for young people.
“Everything has been focused on the inner city, or in walkable areas,” she said. “You hear a lot about Linden and the West Side, but not a lot about the Eastland area. But I think we have opened up the City Council’s eyes.” rprice@dispatch.com @Ritaprice