Cook County program touted as one of the ‘top eviction prevention innovations’ has drawn praise, pushback

A Cook County, Illinois, program implemented during the height of the pandemic to provide legal and financial support to landlords and tenants behind on their rent has dramatically slowed down the eviction process, drawing praise and pushback from renters and property owners.

The initiative, known as the Early Resolution Program, launched in November 2020 when court systems across the country were strategizing how best to help administer billions of dollars in rental assistance and support tenants facing eviction.

The White House touted the program, which offers free legal aid, mediation services and connections to rental assistance, as one of the “top eviction prevention innovations.”

But the innovation has brought additional challenges. Before the pandemic, it could take just a few weeks for a tenant to be evicted. Now it takes at least a couple of months. The slowdown, tenants’ attorneys argue, is necessary to ensure that everyone, including landlords, gets the help that they need. But the extra time leads to financial distress for property owners, argue landlords’ attorneys.

And a shortage of legal aid attorneys has further lengthened the process.

There are also new questions about the future of rental assistance — a primary component of settling eviction cases between landlords and tenants. The city recently put its rental assistance program on hold, and federal funds for rental assistance will likely run out by the end of summer in Cook County and by April 2024 in Chicago.

Michelle Gilbert, legal and policy director for the Law Center for Better Housing — one of the legal aid groups that is a part of the eviction diversion program — said that eviction court still moves more quickly than any other type of court.

“When the landlords say, ‘It’s so long,’ then to me it is because it used to be ridiculously short,” Gilbert said. “It is longer than it used to be, but it gives people an opportunity to actually consult with an attorney.”

Michael Zink, a real estate attorney who mostly represents small landlords, said that while the program is well-intentioned, the long process forces some of his clients — the majority of whom are people of color who own two- to four-unit buildings — to dip into their retirement savings to continue to provide their other tenants with quality housing.

In addition to not collecting rent during the eviction proceedings, landlords often incur $1,500 to $2,000 in legal expenses, he said.

‘Still trying to find the right balance’

In 2022, the first full year after pandemic moratoria on evictions were lifted, the number of evictions enforced by the Cook County sheriff’s office stood at roughly 4,500, which was about 2,000 less than in 2019, according to the Tribune’s analysis of data provided by the sheriff’s office.

Most evictions took place on Chicago's South and West sides in majority-Black and Latino communities, trends that line up with national data showing that racial minorities are more likely to face eviction. The pandemic disproportionately affected racial minorities, who were more likely to experience hardships such as job loss and illness.

Attorneys attribute the decline in evictions to the Early Resolution Program. Without eviction diversion programs and right-to-counsel laws, experts estimate that nationwide, 90% of landlords but only 10% of tenants would be represented by attorneys in court.

The Early Resolution Program has made a number of changes to the way eviction proceedings are handled.

A tenant’s first court date is scheduled about 35 days after a landlord files for eviction, a delay that’s meant to give renters time to seek legal aid. That first court appearance is now reserved for partnering unrepresented tenants and small landlords with attorneys, instead of to receive an eviction judgment. And tenants can no longer receive a default judgment — an automatic eviction — when they don’t show up to their first court date. Instead, the court reschedules the hearing for 14 days later to give the tenant another chance to participate in the legal process.

The pairing of clients with attorneys takes about a week and a half, so eviction cases in Chicago include a 28-day continuance, and suburban cases include a 14-day continuance.

Attorneys involved in eviction proceedings say it takes between one and three months for tenants to get approved for rental assistance and for landlords to receive the payments, adding to the slowdown.

Bob Glaves, executive director of the Chicago Bar Foundation, which manages the Early Resolution Program, said the program currently has 12 case managers who refer people to 20 lawyers. He said the program could use eight to 10 more attorneys.

In an ideal world, Glaves said, it would be great if all tenants could meet with an attorney on their initial court date and receive an answer regarding rental assistance applications within two weeks. But, he said, the slowdown since the program’s inception has already been reduced, and the current process provides renters with the opportunity to negotiate alternative solutions with their landlords.

“We are still trying to find the right balance,” Glaves said. “This (program) is not intended to be favoring tenants or landlords; it is trying to reach a more fair and efficient solution.” Glaves added that a quarter of eviction cases are settled in the Early Resolution Program, with more being settled afterward.

Geronimo Abarca, 52, a resident of Albany Park and restaurant worker, got his eviction case settled thanks to the program.

Due to a kidney tumor and the pandemic, he was unable to work for months, leading him to fall behind on rent payments for the apartment where he lived for years with his wife and son.

“It’s a very, very frustrating and stressful situation,” Abarca said in Spanish, about not being able to work and pay rent.

He received rental assistance, yet when he gave the check to his landlord, his landlord said the check couldn’t be cashed, Abarca said.

Abarca then told his landlord the restaurant where he worked was going to open again, and he’d be able to pay his rent soon. After returning to work, he was able to pay rent for a few past-due months, he said. But his landlord wanted the full payment of back rent owed and eventually filed an eviction.

Abarca had already been looking for places to move, so he left a few days after he received the notice. Once he was in court, the judge dismissed the case since Abarca no longer lived in the apartment, and Abarca’s attorney successfully argued that he should not have to pay the $8,800 in rent owed since the landlord never provided the fridge and stove that had been promised.

“Everything turned out all right, thanks to God — and thanks to them,” Abarca said, referring to his advocates from the eviction diversion program.

Landlords and their attorneys said some tenants take advantage of the delays.

Ryan Sinwelski, 40, had a tenant who did this, one he had been trying to evict for nearly a year.

According to Sinwelski, his tenant evaded service of the eviction order for months. Then, his tenant failed to show up for her first court hearing. When the tenant did appear two weeks later, she refused to go through the eviction diversion program and demanded a trial instead, which happened months later. At that trial, Sinwelski said the tenant asked for her security deposit back, asked that her eviction record be sealed and said she would then vacate the property. Sinwelski acquiesced because he wanted the tenant to move out.

“She knows she can drag this out for a long time and get a lot of free rent out of it,” Sinwelski said.

While his tenant is an extreme example, the case illustrates how difficult the updated eviction process can make it for landlords to continue offering affordable housing, Sinwelski said.

Sinwelski owns a two-flat and four-flat in Harvey, a south suburb in Cook County and his hometown. He hopes to help revitalize Harvey through restoring and preserving properties that are distressed — something the city is known for — but he had to put off making improvements to the building in the last year given that his recently evicted tenant did not pay him around $9,000 in rent.

Since Sinwelski bought the four-flat last June, he has only lost money on the property, he said.

Funding in question

On May 15, Chicago’s Department of Housing canceled its contract with the Resurrection Project, the organization that had been in charge of administering rental assistance.

Rima Alsammarae, spokesperson for Chicago’s Department of Housing, said in a May 17 statement that the city is working with the courts and the Early Resolution Program to “minimize disruption and resume taking new applications as soon as possible, as we value this program and are proud of its impact on Chicagoans.” She declined to comment on why the Resurrection Project is no longer the administrator of the court-based rental assistance program.

The Resurrection Project said in a statement that it will no longer be administering the funds “as the pandemic and resources for the program wane” and that the Department of Housing “has decided to move in a different direction, and they will administer the program’s final phase.”

Zink, the small landlord’s attorney, said the pause in doling out rental assistance will “at the very least make housing providers even less likely to consider a rental assistance solution, if there is no rental assistance even available” and “jeopardize tenants’ housing and make it harder for housing providers, especially smaller ones, to pay for upkeep of the property.”

The Resurrection Project’s statement said the organization helped more than 18,000 families stay in their homes.

One of these individuals is Davey Vacek. Vacek, 36, lived in the Edgewater neighborhood on Chicago's North Side with his partner until about a year into the pandemic. Then, his partner left him, and he lost his job as an event planner, forcing Vacek to pay their full rent, $1,500, Vacek said.

Vacek fell behind on his payments.

“When he left me and he stopped paying his half of the rent, I just started to really decline in my own mental health,” Vacek said.

Vacek said he spoke with his landlord about his situation and filed for rental assistance, so he was shocked when he received an eviction notice.

He was connected to the Early Resolution Program, which helped get his rental assistance approved for five months of back rent and three months of future rent payments.

While Vacek eventually faced eviction again and had to leave his apartment, he said the eviction diversion program’s assistance was crucial.

“I couldn’t imagine navigating all of that without (legal) help,” said Vacek, who had not faced eviction until the pandemic. “I can speak a few languages, but legalese is not one of them.”

Alsammarae said the department is hopeful that once federal funds for rental assistance run out next year, other resources will be available.

The county is considering appropriating additional funds for rental assistance, as well as asking the state for more resources and looking for federal opportunities for funding, according to Nick Mathiowdis, spokesperson for Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s office.

Chicago’s Department of Family and Support Services has a smaller amount of funds, typically a few hundred thousand prior to the pandemic, available for distribution.

Gilbert of the Law Center for Better Housing said she is optimistic a smaller pot of money for rental assistance will be enough, as people won’t be facing eviction for many thousands of dollars like they were during the height of the pandemic. Instead, she said, tenants may be behind $1,000-$2,000.

But if there’s not enough money, Robert Kahn, a landlords’ attorney, said, the eviction diversion program will no longer be viable.

“I do believe that the program is working in the right direction,” Kahn said. “However, once rental assistance dries up, this program is going to have to go by the wayside because there is not much of a negotiation once they can’t get rental assistance.”

(Chicago Tribune’s Joe Mahr contributed.)