Community group urges Durham Housing Authority to change eviction filing process
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Durham Housing Authority filed hundreds of evictions against tenants each year, one the highest rates among public housing agencies in North Carolina.
For almost the entire pandemic, DHA and other public housing agencies have been under a nationwide eviction moratorium. But with that set to expire at the end of June, a Durham community coalition is asking DHA to give tenants more time to pay or contest their overdue rent.
Durham Congregations, Associations and Neighborhoods, or CAN, wants DHA to give tenants 90 days after rent is due, more than triple the current time.
Durham CAN, which seeks to address issues facing communities in Durham, says that this extension would allow time for a resolution between tenants and DHA instead of an eviction filing, which can stay on a tenant’s rental history for seven years even if there is no official judgment in the case. Eviction cases are sometimes settled before trial without actual displacement of the tenant.
DHA filed 902 evictions in 2019, according to data from the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts. DHA said only 63 resulted in displacement.
But Kathryn Sabbeth, a law professor at UNC whose students work with tenants in eviction cases, said any eviction filing, judgment or not, can hinder a tenant from finding housing.
“Any filing of an eviction case creates a mark that can haunt them for years,” Sabbeth said in an interview with The News & Observer.
She said private companies collect and sell eviction data and sell to landlords. Many will not rent to anyone named as a defendant on any eviction filing.
“It really increases a landlord’s leverage in the relationship and increases the potential for abuse when they take this unilateral step and cause harm to their tenants,” Sabbeth said. “They will now be marked and more likely to have trouble relocating.”
DHA has previously advocated that state law expunge eviction filing records that have no judgments.
Anthony Scott, DHA’s chief executive officer, said the agency is reviewing Durham CAN’s proposal.
He said DHA has adjusted its eviction procedure in recent years to reduce filings.
“We are not interested in evicting residents for nonpayment of rent. It is not at all what DHA is about,” Scott said.
Changes in DHA eviction filing procedure from 2019
To reduce filings, Scott introduced changes to DHA’s eviction policy in August 2019.
Among those changes were providing additional information along with the initial 14-day notice of lease termination, which is required for all public housing nationwide under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The additional information provided to the tenant includes how to contact their housing manager to make payment arrangements, rental assistance resources provided by Durham County Social Services and a reminder about tenant rights under their lease.
Those rights include the ability to request a hardship exemption to waive rent charges in certain cases.
If the tenant does not respond to the termination notice, a DHA lawyer will review the case before filing.
DHA also started an eviction prevention pilot program that assists select families who struggle to pay rent with access to rent assistance and a third party to talk to about their financial burdens.
By December 2019, DHA said, eviction filings went down by half.
But it’s still more than other larger public housing agencies in North Carolina or those of similar size, The N&O reported in January 2020.
The Charlotte Housing Authority filed around 50 evictions in 2019 and the Raleigh Housing Authority less than 40.
The Charlotte Housing Authority has 2,000 more units than DHA and the Raleigh Housing Authority has roughly the same, 1,900 units.
To reduce the number of filings, Scott said, DHA needs more communication from residents.
“If residents are unable to pay their rent, then DHA is willing to work with them,” he said. “The challenge that we’ve had is where residents have not contacted DHA about their inability to pay.”
Sonia Laurie, who is on Durham CAN’s affordable housing team, said it should be the other way around — that DHA should be required to speak with tenants before they file eviction, which was not a part of the policy changes in 2019.
Besides more communication initiated by DHA property managers, another key Durham CAN contention is giving tenants more time before DHA files eviction.
DHA is currently able to file an eviction after the five-day grace period from the beginning of the month and after the 14-day lease termination notice required by HUD, a period of about 20 days after nonpayment.
“In the stories and the lived experiences that we see residents going through, that is not enough time,” Laurie said.
DHA has not filed any evictions due to nonpayment since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Scott said, due to a federal moratorium on evictions.
But the moratorium is set to end in June.
Comparison to Winston-Salem
Durham CAN said it based its 90-day proposal on the Housing Authority in Winston-Salem’s eviction filing procedure. But Kevin Cheshire, that housing authority’s director, told The N&O that they don’t have a strict 90-day policy.
He said there are key differences in procedure compared to DHA that often does result in a longer time from nonpayment to filing.
The Winston-Salem policy, Cheshire said, gives the tenant five days after the five-day grace and 14-day notice periods to file an appeal.
A hearing is then scheduled 10 days later where the tenant explains their situation to housing authority staff. The agency makes a decision 10 days after that, an overall period of about 45 days after rent is due.
If the agency still decides to evict, the process can repeat itself before a case is filed. Essentially, the tenant can appeal again, with different staff hearing the appeal, potentially postponing a possible eviction filing to 25 days later.
Depending on the circumstance, Cheshire said, it is possible that the whole process can last up to 90 days before an eviction is filed after nonpayment.
“It’s imperative that you have some sort of informal procedure in place to allow the residents to raise questions or concerns before you just blindly file an eviction action,” Cheshire said.
Compared to DHA’s 902 eviction filings from 2019, Winston-Salem filed 245, according to state court data.
Winston-Salem has about 1,300 housing units compared to DHA’s approximately 1,900.
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