Plan: Create ‘diversion’ track before eviction
Program would allow tenants to make payments on past-due rent
A program that would help tenants get on their feet while catching up on back rent could be debated by Virginia lawmakers next year.
Modeled after a similar program in Michigan, it would send eligible court cases to a “diversion” track, allowing tenants at risk of eviction to pay past-due rent over several months as long as they also pay their regular rent each month.
Chip Dicks, a lobbyist for the Virginia Association of Realtors, presented the idea Monday during a meeting of a state evictions work group as a way to prevent evictions.
The work group — representing landlords and housing advocates tasked with identifying ways to reduce evictions in Virginia — will recommend proposed legislation later this fall.
The group was created earlier this year after a Princeton University study found five Virginia cities — Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Chesapeake and Richmond — rank in the top 10 nationally for highest eviction rates among large cities. Portsmouth was fifth among midsize cities.
Dicks said the eviction diversion program would require landlords and tenants to determine a timeline of repayment in front of a judge. The payments would be made to a court escrow account before being delivered to the landlord so the court could keep track.
Laura Lafayette, the group’s chairwoman, said landlords and tenants often agree to payment schedules on their own anyway.
“We know that there is this activity going on where people are trying to work things out, where there are informal payment plans that are structured,” she said. “The devil is in the details, but in some ways the code is moving toward the behavior that is already out there.”
Barbara Gaden, a retired Richmond civil court judge, told the state Housing Commission Sept. 12 that in her 16 years on the bench, she’s seen this plenty of times.
“Many landlords will work with (tenants) by creating payment plans or adding what’s due to the current rent if it’s a short-term problem,” she said.
“(The eviction diversion program) would formalize that, and
The program could be voluntary or mandatory, Dicks said. If the tenant enters the program and still fails to pay back or current rent, the eviction proceeding would continue in court.
provide judicial oversight,” said Christie Marra, who focuses on community development for the Virginia Poverty Law Center, in a phone interview after the meeting. She said landlords are often willing to work with tenants to keep them in their properties.
She said she would like anyone facing an unlawful detainer to be eligible for the program, not just the most at-risk tenants.
The program could be voluntary or mandatory, Dicks said. If the tenant enters the program and still fails to pay back or current rent, the eviction proceeding would continue in court.
Dicks said if such legislation passed in 2019, he’d like it to go into effect July 1, 2020, to allow time to determine eligibility criteria and train staff.
Other work group members asked for more data on the most at-risk tenants that could be eligible for such a program.
Lafayette said the work group will discuss proposed legislation in October and later present it to the Housing Commission, which will recommend legislation to the General Assembly.