Some say the need for financial aid to renters facing homelessness will remain after funding runs out — this year for one popular program and next year for another.
Courts in Dayton and surrounding suburbs, combined, are on pace this year to surpass 2022 eviction filings by nearly 100, records show.
Those totals come with projected drops in Huber Heights, Kettering and Miamisburg municipal courts, but all three of those jurisdictions are still on pace to shatter or approach pre-pandemic eviction filings.
“What we’re seeing, the effects of the pandemic are nowhere close to being over,” said Erin Jeffries, an executive with the Miami Valley Community Action Partnership.
“People who experienced any kind of financial hardship from 2020 until now, the destabilizing factor of that remains and they haven’t been able to get fully back to where they were before,” she added.
Lack of affordable housing, inflation, fewer affordable child care options and a rise in single-family incomes are among reasons cited by funding distributors and court officials.
“The increase in evictions is highly distressing,” Dayton Municipal Court Clerk Marty Gehres said.
“When a tenant has an emergency bill come up, their car breaks down, or they miss work to care for a sick family member, their ability to pay rent is dramatically impacted,” he added.
Stretching funds
MVCAP’s funding is part of the American Rescue Plan Act and comes through the Ohio Department of Development, Jeffries said.
MVCAP has spent more than $13.6 million from the state to help clients with rent and utility payments in Montgomery, Darke, Greene, Preble, and Warren counties since early 2021, Jeffries said.
The regional group serves those first four counties directly, and has given Warren some funds for rental assistance, she said.
MVCAP is now in the second phase of the program, which requires funds to be spent by December 2025. It budgets $150,000 each month for emergency assistance with the goal of having it last through 2024, according to Jeffries.
“We knew with the funding amount that we had we wouldn’t be able to stretch it out” to the deadline, she said. “A lot of community action agencies have already spent their full allocation.”
Through late September, MVCAP had saved 3,175 households from eviction, she said.
For more information on the program, called ERA-2, go to the organization’s website at https://miamivalleycap.org/era-2/.
Widespread need
A similar program run by the U.S. Treasury provided about $27 million to Montgomery County through mid-July, officials said.
Several entities have helped distribute those funds, county officials said. But Homefull and the city of Kettering — which also helps renters in Centerville, Moraine and Washington Twp. — have been allotted more than half of the federal funding.
Current totals were not available from the county or Homefull. But before spring, the county had distributed $21 million — $6.72 million to Homefull, officials said.
Kettering has received $7.4 million and approved nearly $7 million for renters, officials said. Through Sept. 25, the city’s program had served 1,523 with an average monthly rent of $895, Kettering records show.
More than 400 households have been saved from eviction, according to the city.
“We’re seeing a lot more evictions,” Kettering Community Development Manager Angela Rahman said.
Rahman and county officials said they expect the funds to be depleted by year’s end. Few options remain, Gehres said.
“As a result, some landlords may be less willing to work out a solution and instead turn immediately to eviction to get the rental unit back on the market and a new tenant into the unit,” he added.
While his office and the city of Dayton have enacted policies to address evictions in the city, the issue has widespread implications, Gehres said.
“It will take our suburban communities, our state legislatures, and our national leaders prioritizing this issue,” he said.
EVICTION CASES
Eviction filings in five of Montgomery County’s largest municipal courts combined are on pace this year to surpass pre-pandemic levels — before a COVID-mandated freeze — by nearly 800.
Year Filings
2019 4,942
2020 3,171
2021 4,044
2022 5,650
2023 5,741*
*Projected based on filings through late September and early October for Dayton, Huber Heights, Kettering, Miamisburg and Trotwood municipal courts.
About the Author
