“The eviction situation in Butler County is looking grim,” said Rachel Sheets, community relations coordinator with SELF, which is a nonprofit that serves as the community action agency for Butler County. “While many think the pandemic is over, the financial burden it has caused is still prevalent.”
A sharp increase
Municipal courts in Montgomery County saw a 41% increase in eviction filings last year, and filings in Butler County municipal courts jumped 25%, which were the largest increases since at least the late 1990s, according to data compiled by the Ohio Supreme Court.
Evictions plunged during COVID, owing to a federal eviction moratorium that expired in the summer of 2021 and changes to court procedures and proceedings.
Also, countless Ohio renters received federal assistance that helped cover their housing and utility costs.
Many people lost their jobs during the pandemic or had their hours severely reduced, which made it difficult for them to pay their bills.
Landlords filed 6,582 evictions in Montgomery County last year — which was more cases than any time since at least 1997, possibly longer, since data published by the Ohio Supreme Court only goes back that far.
Butler County — which had 4,544 new eviction cases in 2022 — had the highest eviction filing rate in the state, at 10.5%, according to a report by the Ohio Housing Finance Agency.
The eviction filing rate is the number of eviction filings per 100 renter-occupied households in an area, the agency said.
Lucas County, home to Toledo, had the second highest rate (10.2%), while Hamilton County had the third highest (9.2%).
Montgomery County’s eviction filing rate of 7.5% was the fifth highest in the state.
A worrying trend
Sheets, with the nonprofit SELF, said it’s surprising and saddening to hear that Butler County has Ohio’s highest eviction filing rate.
But she said that actually makes sense since local rents have dramatically increased. She said some renters say their monthly housing costs have doubled.
Sheets said not only have rents gone up — the prices of other essentials also have climbed, putting pressure on household budgets.
SELF has used COVID-related grants to help people pay their rent and utilities for the last couple of years, and the organization has about $1.8 million available to help struggling individuals and families.
But there’s high demand for the aid, and SELF had a wait list of about 91 requests for assistance as of mid-August.
Sheets said unfortunately there could be even more evictions once SELF runs out of rental assistance funds.
Comparing to pre-COVID years
Elsewhere in the Miami Valley region, eviction filings last year increased 27% in Warren County; 25% in Clark County; 13% in Greene County; 9% in Miami County and 5% in Champaign County, according to Ohio Supreme Court data.
Despite these sizable increases, Montgomery County was the only local county where the number of new filings surpassed pre-COVID levels.
New filings last year in Butler, Champaign, Greene and Miami counties fell short of 2019 totals, while eviction cases in Warren County did not exceed the 2018 tally.
Eviction rates vary from county to county partly because different areas have different costs of housing relative to household incomes, said Marcus Roth, director of communications and development with the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio.
Roth, however, also said studies have found that a small number of landlords often are responsible for a large share of evictions in their communities.
That means “it only takes a few frequent evictors to drive up a community’s eviction rate,” he said.
Court procedures and local tenant protection policies also play a role in the number of evictions in a community because it is harder and more expensive to evict tenants in some jurisdictions than in others, Roth said.
Roth agreed with Sheets that eviction rates are likely to continue to increase because of the loss of this kind of emergency rental aid and rising rental prices.
Nearly half of Montgomery County’s new eviction filings (45%) were filed in Dayton Municipal Court, even though the city only accounts for about one-quarter of the county’s population.
Dayton saw a 35% increase in new eviction filings last year, and landlords in the city already have filed about 1,900 eviction cases so far this year.
Marty Gehres, clerk of court for Dayton Municipal Court, said the increase in evictions is very concerning.
Gehres, who worked with an eviction task force formed by city leadership, said evictions have long-lasting health impacts on families and children and unfortunately this is a complex problem with no easy solutions.
Dayton has enacted several laws that seek to help people facing eviction, like a pay-to-stay and rent receipt policy, and municipal court regularly refers tenant and landlord disputes to mediation, he said.
“To address the eviction issue on a larger scale, the Ohio Legislature would need to act and provide additional protections and resources to tenants,” Gehres said.
Help available for struggling renters
Miami Valley Community Action Partnership is currently offering the ERA 2 Rental and Utility Assistance program to renter households in Montgomery, Darke, Greene, and Preble Counties.
Full program information is available on the organization’s website at https://miamivalleycap.org/era-2/.
Households are eligible to apply for the ERA-2 Rental and Utility Assistance Program if they meet the following criteria:
- Households of one or more individuals who are obligated to pay rent on a primary residential dwelling in Darke, Greene, Montgomery or Preble counties;
- Households that include undocumented residents are eligible for assistance;
- Eligible households must be able to answer “yes” to one of these two questions: 1) Is the household income at or below 50% of area median income (AMI) or 2) Has a member of the household been unemployed for at least the 90 consecutive days prior to the date of application?
- The household experienced a hardship during or due to (directly or indirectly) the coronavirus pandemic, which may include qualifying for unemployment benefits, experiencing a reduction in income or incurring significant costs.
The program began in January 2023 and will continue through December 2024, or until funds are completely depleted.
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