There were more than 4,700 evictions in Summit County in 2019. That number dropped sharply during the coronavirus pandemic due to federal moratoriums, but it鈥檚 on the rise again this year.
A new report due out soon shows how eviction is affecting residents and highlights what can be done, from a legal standpoint, to help.
It's the result of a daylong eviction prevention summit in Akron, organized by and Fair Housing Contact Service. It looked at ways to prevent eviction while empowering tenants who may be living in substandard conditions.
Attendee Debra Holman lives in public housing, which means her landlord is essentially the government. But she said things have not gone smoothly.
鈥淚 have vertigo. I鈥檓 not supposed to be on the stairs. The elevator went out [and] we have intruders in our building all the time," Holman said. "So everybody went home and I鈥檓 stuck down here. I can鈥檛 get upstairs. This young man came along and said, 鈥楥ome on, I鈥檒l help you.鈥� He carried my rollator, and he told me [to] take my time and rest at each landing until I got to the fifth floor. If he had not come along, I would鈥檝e still been down there.鈥�
One solution to an unresponsive landlord discussed at the summit was a tenants鈥� union. Holman has started one where she lives at the White Pond Homes. She says the amount of time she鈥檚 spent being her own advocate is like having a second job.
鈥淲hen I said, 鈥極K you know what? I need to get an attorney. I need to sue HUD.鈥� Then it鈥檚 like, 鈥極K, wait a minute.鈥� I told that lady from HUD, 鈥業 think that money you abated should come to me for the stress and aggravation I鈥檝e been going through for the past two years.鈥欌��
pending repairs. Holman said that鈥檚 one legal option many people don鈥檛 know about. This leads to one of the main remedies cited repeatedly at the eviction summit: legal representation.
Tenant v. landlord
During a panel on housing equity, legal aid attorneys noted that during eviction hearings in Summit County, about 80% of landlords have an attorney. But for tenants, that number is just 11%.
鈥淚n Cleveland the stats were actually worse," said Abigail Staudt, managing attorney with the . "It was more like 70 to 80% of landlords were represented, and only 1 to 2% of tenants had representation."
At the summit, she described the situation before Legal Aid partnered with the city of Cleveland and the United Way.
鈥淚n 2019, City Council passed an ordinance that would entitle tenants who were at or below 100% of the federal poverty guidelines 鈥� and had at least one child living in the household 鈥� to the right to an attorney. Now what happens is there's all kinds of outreach to those tenants who have an eviction filed against them to call the free eviction helpline [and] contact us.鈥�
What about Akron?
City Councilman Shammas Malik wants the same thing in Akron. He鈥檚 also an attorney and was at the summit discussing eviction proceedings in his city.
鈥淥ftentimes what we're seeing is that people actually would prevail on the facts if they had an attorney," Malik said. "And even if they wouldn't, their attorney can help mediate 20 days [or] 30 days so that they can move out and they can find a place and they won't become homeless.鈥�
He describes it as a 鈥渨in-win,鈥� since it also gives landlords a person to interface with 鈥� irrespective of any bad blood that may have built up directly with a tenant. So Malik wants the city to use some of its to do what took Cleveland several years to accomplish.
鈥淔or under $1 million we could fund two years of a pilot program that would give legal aid the opportunity to hire staff to actually spread awareness, because actually making sure that tenants are aware of this is a whole other issue.鈥�
A number of solutions
Malik also would like to see Akron and Summit County work together to centralize landlord information in one place. The city and county currently maintain separate lists. He鈥檚 also hopeful that an increase in housing inspectors will make it easier for tenants to have issues addressed.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a matter of basic fairness," Malik said. "Someone should not have to go into a courtroom 鈥� [who is] not a lawyer; they weren鈥檛 trained in this 鈥� and they shouldn鈥檛 have to face this thing where they don鈥檛 know the magic words that are going to figure out whether they鈥檙e going to stay in their home.鈥�
Connecting tenants with the attorneys who know those magic words is key to stemming evictions, according to the report that Akron鈥檚 Community Legal Aid will release in June. And Malik is encouraged that Mayor Dan Horrigan and his staff are already exploring how a right-to-counsel program, like the one in Cleveland, might be adapted to Akron.
