For poor renters, stability out of reach

American flag that had draped the casket of Denise’s grandfather, a World War II veteran.

Eviction, and the threat of eviction, weigh heavily on the lives of many of Baltimore’s poorest tenants. They move from one ramshackle rental to the next, migrants in their own city, squeezed by rents that consume most of their meager incomes, intolerable housing conditions, a court system that advocates say is insufficiently responsive to their complaints, and a rate of eviction actions that is among the highest in the nation.

In the Census Bureau’s most recent American Housing Survey, in 2013, Baltimore’s renters received more court-ordered eviction notices per capita than in any other city. More than 67,000 notices that year led to more than 6,600 evictions.

Since then, Baltimore District Court has issued 282,000 more eviction orders and nearly 28,000 formal evictions.

That figure likely understates the actual number of renters who are cast from their homes. Hundreds each year are locked out or forced out by landlords without going through the court system, as required by law. Others skip court dates and simply move out before the process plays out.

Landlords say they try to avoid evictions, which can be time-consuming and costly. But when a tenant is unable or unwilling to pay, they have no other option. Many landlords use a tenant’s rent payment to pay the mortgage on the property; if they don’t get paid, they can face foreclosure.

Decent, affordable housing is simply out of reach for many in Baltimore. In a recent analysis for the Abell Foundation, Johns Hopkins researcher Philip M.E. Garboden concluded that 57 percent of the city’s renters are considered “housing-cost burdened,” meaning more than 30 percent of their income goes to keeping a roof over their heads.

A full third of renters are severely burdened — they spend more than half of their income on housing.

The Baltimore Sun spent a year following several families in and out of homes, courtrooms and eviction prevention programs. Reporters examined hundreds of case files, observed dozens of hours of court hearings, obtained thousands of pages of inspection and property records, court documents, utility bills, legal opinions and studies.