Legal aid helps Columbus tenants face evictions
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Columbus is taking action to protect tenants' rights amid a record-breaking number of local eviction filings.
Driving the news: City Council on Monday renewed its support for the Legal Aid Society of Columbus (LASC) with up to $1.5 million in new funding toward housing attorney costs.
Why it matters: Tenants are less likely to be evicted if they have legal representation.
- Attorneys can also negotiate payment plans and connect tenants with rental assistance and other social services.
What they're saying: "Without legal representation, they are more likely to lose their case, lose their home and have an eviction on the record that will follow them," says Council Member Shayla Favor, who leads the Council's housing committee.
- "[That makes] their chances at obtaining housing even more difficult."
By the numbers: LASC handled over 2,000 cases last year, helping 580 Columbus families stay in their homes via settlements and securing additional move-out time for another 640 families.
State of play: Columbus' eviction problem stretches back many years, LASC housing managing attorney Melissa Benson tells Axios.
- Around 18,000 evictions were filed in Franklin County in 2019, WBNS-TV reported.
- The number has grown to record heights since the pandemic, with nearly 21,000 filed last year and 2023 on pace to surpass that total.
Between the lines: Columbus and other local governments have allocated millions of federal relief dollars toward rental and utility assistance programs.
- But it can be a slow process doling out that money to tenants and, Benson says, some landlords have refused to accept this as payment.
- Columbus' low housing stock is driving up rent prices, which is contributing to the high eviction numbers.
The latest: Also on Monday, Council passed ordinances requiring landlords to accept third-party rent money if paid on time and protecting tenants from eviction if able to pay back rent and accompanying late fees before a court's eviction judgment is handed down.
The bottom line: Enacting these policies has been a "long time coming," Benson says, adding that more work is needed to solve the "extreme housing crisis."