Compounding the problem is 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.
Nationally, the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project estimates 25.8 million Americans are a risk for eviction by September 2020. 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 are asking 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 still has $2 billion in federal Coronavirus Relief funds that have yet to be allocated.
Meanwhile, eviction court hearings are underway again across Ohio.
“It’s back to business as usual now,” Bowman said. He predicted that Ohio will see a cascade of evictions by late August or early September, which may flood homeless shelters and lead to outbreaks of coronavirus infections in overcrowded shelters.
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 was put into place across the state but many courts resumed eviction hearings in June. In Franklin County, the Columbus Convention Center was converted to hold eviction hearings – a space big enough to allow for social distancing and handle the volume.
The U.S. Census Bureau Pulse Survey reported that 36% of Ohio renters didn’t think they’d be able to pay rent in July. Even with unemployment benefits, roughly 30% of renters didn’t pay full rent in May.
Evictions for not paying rent and late fees are prohibited until July 25 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 July 25, property owners may file 30-day notices to evict tenants.
Eviction filings are a matter of public record and 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.
At the same time, electric and gas utilities are making plans to resume disconnections and fees for non-payment. The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio suspended utility shut offs in March after the governor declared a state of emergency but now PUCO is telling utilities to submit their plans for resuming disconnections.
Heading into the coronavirus public health and economic crisis, evictions were already a major problem.
In December 2019, U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Cincinnati, sponsored the Eviction Crisis Act, bipartisan legislation that aims to improve data collection and analysis, reduce preventable evictions and reduce the downstream consequences of evictions that can hurt families. But the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee has yet to take action on it.
Portman’s office said:
- adjusting for inflation, the median rent has increased 61% since 1960 while median renter income grew 5%;
- In 2016, one in 50 renters were evicted.
- In 2016, 2.3 million eviction filings were made in courthouses nationwide -- one every four minutes.
Three area counties fall in the top 10 highest eviction rates: Butler is first at 5.5%; Clark is at 5.1%; and Montgomery is ninth at 3.8%, according to the OACAA poverty report.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Cleveland, 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.
Eviction Timeline:
Three Day Notice – served on the tenant with a request to leave the premises.
Eviction Filing – landlord files a case in the local court and the tenant is summoned to a hearing; the landlord may also sue for back rent, utilities or other damages
Red Tag – if the court determines the tenant should be evicted, a ‘red tag’ is posted on the door and say how long the tenant has to move out. In general, it’s five days.
Sheriff – after the designated move out time expires, the landlord may ask the sheriff to come to the home and remove the belongings.
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