A survey of legal aid attorneys by the National Housing Law Project (NHLP) found that many landlords continue to evict renters despite available emergency rental assistance (ERA). The findings, detailed in “Evictions Survey: What’s Happening on the Ground,” indicate that landlords are engaging in other harmful and fraudulent acts as well, such as deferring maintenance to the point where units are uninhabitable, accepting ERA funds while still evicting tenants, and changing the terms of leases or making up lease violations to evict tenants. The authors recommend specific actions to mitigate these challenges, including enacting stronger landlord-tenant protections, changing ERA programs to require lease renewals and non-eviction pledges, and creating eviction diversion-programs.
NHLP surveyed 119 legal aid attorneys across 41 states to understand the landscape of evictions following the end of the CDC eviction moratorium. Sixty-six percent of respondents indicated that evictions have increased since the end of the moratorium. Respondents also report high rates of nefarious and harmful practices, including lying in court (40%), conducting illegal evictions or lockouts (35%), and deferring maintenance to the point where a unit is unlivable (13%). Two-thirds of respondents also reported evictions of tenants in subsidized housing.
The survey found that some landlords are abusing ERA programs to receive funds, while still removing tenants from their units. Eighty-six percent of respondents have observed landlords either refusing to apply for funds or collecting ERA despite moving forward with evictions. Some respondents report landlords using ERA to pay their own legal fees. This results in unpaid arrears for the tenant, allowing the landlord to move forward with an eviction. Other landlords have purposely delayed ERA applications so they can charge additional late fees and collect more assistance.
These issues are compounded in courts, where federal eviction notice requirements are rarely followed and eviction diversion measures are uncommon. Seventy-eight percent of respondents report that courts are not following a federal requirement to give tenants of covered properties a 30-day notice before evicting. Only 37% of respondents indicated that courts were using eviction diversion or mediation measures. Of courts that do have these programs, only 13% require landlord participation.
The report provides recommendations for each issue area. For example, to stop evictions of federally subsidized tenants, NHLP recommends the federal government enact an eviction moratorium that protects tenants in subsidized properties. To mitigate landlords taking advantage of ERA, programs should require landlords to renew leases for tenants that receive assistance or sign a non-eviction pledge. To prevent landlords from refusing to participate, courts should require ERA participation before an eviction case can be filed. Courts should also pause eviction cases where ERA applications are in process.
Read the report at: https://bit.ly/3oXlNv0