Nashville's rising homelessness problem grows worse because the high rate of evictions
Nashville has a growing number of homeless people. They are easy to spot if you drive around town on the interstates. Nashville also has a great network of social service agencies, private and government, who do heroic jobs serving the homeless while trying to find them housing. Believe it or not, these agencies are making progress.
Yet, a new tragedy is occurring every week that is increasing our homeless population faster than any agency can keep up with. Our newest highway to homelessness is the eviction court.
The numbers going through eviction courts are swelling. A few months ago, an average number of eviction cases in eviction court on a busy day was in the 30s. Now, the courts often hear 200 eviction cases in a day.
A few months ago, the eviction court was open Tuesday and Thursday, now it is open most weekdays. The Eviction Lab at Princeton University recently revealed Nashville has one of the highest increases in eviction rates in America.
Another view from Eddie Latimer: This is a Nashville crisis: We are not housing today's or tomorrow’s workforce
Tennessee law now makes it easier to evict tenants
You need to know two things:
First, the court system itself (the judges, court staff, non-profit and government social service workers, and a good number of the lawyers) are doing all they can, within the law, to keep our lower-income citizens housed. It’s hard work!
Second, the tenants being evicted are primarily African Americans, elderly on fixed income, and people between jobs for various reasons.
Some background: Not long ago, the state passed a law that allows evictions to legally happen in 14 days. When many of us were in our 20s, eviction usually began at 90 days past due. (Note: Landlords have always had the legitimate right to short evictions if the tenant was a danger to the property and its residence due to drug activity, domestic violence, theft, and other such behavior).
This overall short 14-day eviction law means that now on the sixth day of the month (remember rent is due by the fifth day), a landlord can begin the eviction process, which is generally completed in weeks.
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Profit motive is guiding many landlords as rents soar in Nashville
Several years ago, many of our C and D-grade apartments sold due to the inflated prices we have all seen. Many properties were sold to investors (LLC’s and hedge funds - not people). These investors/companies only have one obligation: to make a profit for their investors. There is no sense of community to the investors; profit is king. But, if profit is the only motive, there is then no ability to work around the financial challenges of the lower and fixed income tenants.
In this age of historic high rents, it is easier for these newer owners to simply evict all late tenants, paint the apartment, recarpet it, and re-lease it with a $500 rent increase. Daily our newer short eviction process is promoting this new highway to homelessness.
This eviction system is legal, but is it moral? And what people groups are leading evictions? African Americans, elderly, people between jobs, and single parents are our main targets.
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Good news: Local property owners often want to help
There is some good news. Many of our local, affordable landlords will work with their delinquent tenants as they realize that, at times, cash can be tight for our low income neighbors.
These local landlords do care about cash flow and making a good living, just like the investors do, but often the local landlords seem to have motivation to be flexible which is lacking in the investors. The locals have a sense of community which comes out in their actions of grace with some delinquent tenants. An investors’ only obligation is to rigid, undisciplined capitalism, ROI. But choosing grace allows local owners to pursue a profit while being flexible.
Undisciplined capitalism is nothing to be proud of. It is eroding our Judeo/Christian ethic. This ethic values community and the morals needed for Nashville to be a place for all who work here and who want to stay here. A major cause of our new highway to homelessness is profit over people.
What can we do to have Nashville removed from being a national leader in evictions? We need planning on how we can affordably house those on fixed incomes (our older workforce) and those earning under $20/hour. We need to explore how to keep people housed in this time of economic challenges.
Eddie Latimer is the CEO of Affordable Housing Resources (AHR) in Nashville.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Homelessness in Nashville: High rates of eviction worsen the problem
