The Ongoing Dilemma of Evictions
Advocates, landlords, city officials seek to reduce evictions. From The Alexandria Times, December 12, 2024
What should Alexandria, a forward-thinking city, do when, despite numerous efforts to reverse course, eviction filing rates remain persistently high?
According to the city’s Office of Housing, Alexandria has 43,000 renter households. Allison Coleman Tokarz of the Department of Health and Community Services wrote that 11% of Alexandria’s renters have been subject to eviction filings. Neighboring Arlington County, 4.86%, and Fairfax County, 6.7%, have lower eviction filing rates than Alexandria. Conversely, Prince William County has a 12.98% eviction filing rate.
According to Princeton University’s Eviction Lab, which tracks evictions nationwide, Virginia has a 10% eviction filing rate – though Alexandria city officials put the statewide eviction filing rate at a significantly higher 13%. Eviction filings and judgments overall are now back to higher, pre-pandemic levels.
Dan Moshenberg, a co-founder of Tenants & Workers United who tracks eviction data, said that in some instances tenants “self-evict,” or move after receiving an eviction summons.
The impact of prior eviction filings on prospective renters should be reduced by a Virginia law that became effective on July 1 that requires the automatic expungement of dismissed eviction filings from public records.
Eviction judgments, however, remain a matter of public record for 10 years from the date of entry and can complicate a tenant’s subsequent search for housing.
Social Outcomes and Housing Burden
Extensive research confirms the negative consequences of evictions on renters, according to “Alexandria’s Eviction Landscape,” an Oct. 24 Office of Housing presentation viewable
Being evicted makes it more difficult for a person to hold a job, often leads to a decline in their physical health, leads to more homelessness and often worsens mental health issues.
Evictions also impact children’s health through adverse birth outcomes, increased rates of food insecurity and poor physical and mental health.
According to a study, the housing burden in Northern Virginia is the worst in the nation, leading to a higher rate of evictions.
“Severe housing cost burden” is generally defined as a household spending more than half its income on rent/mortgage costs, taxes, fees and basic utilities. The housing cost burden in Northern Virginia on the region’s lowest-income residents is the highest in the United States, according to a 2021 study by the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia.
“Compared to other large metro areas, Northern Virginia has the highest rate of severe housing burden among households earning less than 200% of federal poverty (about $50,000 for a family of four) in the country and the sixth highest rate among households earning between 200 and 400% of federal poverty ($50,000-$100,000),” the study states.
Eviction Prevention Efforts
The Office of Housing’s Landlord Tenant Division focuses on the relationship between the city’s landlords and its tenants. Mary Horner, who has been the division’s chief for about six months, describes the Landlord Tenant Division’s role as “reconciliatory,” as distinct from enforcement-oriented.
Horner, formerly an attorney with Legal Services of Northern Virginia for six years, said she believes that most people wrongly assume that evictions are a result of people not wanting to work.
“The majority of people that I spoke to who went to court, which was thousands over the years, were employed – maybe they worked two jobs, or three jobs,” Horner said.
For tenants who live paycheck-to-paycheck, an eviction notice can be triggered by seemingly minor events.
“It was [that] something happened, say, their car got towed, or they got in a car accident, or there was an unexpected bill that popped up, or a family member got sick and they had to take a couple weeks off work, or they had a baby,” Horner said.
Horner said small changes to the eviction system’s rules can make a big difference. For example, during the pandemic, the five-day “pay or quit” period that follows a tenant’s receipt of a summons was extended to 14 days. Horner said that the additional nine days reduced evictions because tenants got to the next pay period and had more time to raise money to pay rent arrearages.
“We had more success during COVID[-19] when the legal protections were in place and there was funding available [so that we could] work quickly and together. We got everyone on the same page. Because we have such an active philanthropic community, whether it is through your church or through ACT for Alexandria, people are involved in Alexandria so we had a lot of volunteers” engaged in eviction prevention efforts,” she said.
The issue now is how to take what was learned during the COVID-19 pandemic and understand what worked to lower the eviction rate.
“You can’t look at COVID[-19], and the COVID[-19] numbers, as a standard because we’re not going to be living in that world forever,” Horner said.
Horner said she believes the approaches that helped lower evictions during the pandemic were “proof of a concept” that should inform future policy decisions.
“It was a horrible time … but there was a silver lining for eviction, because for the first time it was a priority, people cared about this issue and they were willing to put the resources behind it to keep people in their houses,” Horner said. “From my perspective the hard thing was it worked – we kept people in their houses. Was it stressful? Sure, but it is stressful anyway because evictions are fast-moving, whether in the pandemic or not.”
Horner said that intra-government relationships in Alexandria matter in fighting evictions, for example between housing advocates and the Sheriff’s Office.
“The fact that we have a supportive Sheriff’s Office [matters] … they don’t want to evict people either,” Horner said. “It [eviction prevention funding] is never enough … when you are looking at hundreds of people who owe thousands of dollars and they have to have it paid yesterday.”
Eviction as a Business Practice
Horner confirms that eviction is a business practice, not an indicator that landlords are mean or dislike their tenants. Eviction notices are automated: Landlords do not personally decide who gets an eviction notice and who doesn’t.
“[Landlords have] an algorithm in their systems that says you have not paid rent. It auto-populates a letter that says ‘owe rent,’” Horner said. “There’s also a misperception that you just work with your landlord.”
Horner said that there is little or no room for negotiation when landlords, often organized as real estate investment trusts, or REITs, control large numbers of apartments and are unwilling to make exceptions from established business practices.
According to the Oct. 24 presentation, Alexandria’s top five eviction filers are Bridge WF II VA Mason Van Dorn LLC, co-owned by Shoreham Capital LLC and Bridge Investment Group Holdings; Equity Residential Management LLC, owned by the Equity Residential REIT, the fifth largest apartment owner in the U.S.; Elme Alexandria LLC, owned by Elme Communities, a large REIT; UDR Presidential Greens LLC, owned by United Dominion Realty Trust; and Brookeville Apartments LP, owned by Greystar.
Eviction, or Unlawful Detainer, cases are filed in Alexandria’s General District Court. Larisa Zehr, an attorney with the Economic Justice Program of the Legal Aid Justice Center describes eviction cases as an “assembly line” that is a “summary process, fast moving.”
According to Zehr, almost all eviction cases involve unpaid rent and eviction expenses mount up quickly. Alexandria’s high rents mean that late fees – 10% of the amount owed – are also high, which makes eviction prevention more difficult. Tenants facing eviction also incur court costs and other expenses.
In Court on Return Day
Of the 101 items on the General District Court’s Nov. 20 afternoon docket, 99 were Unlawful Detainer, or eviction, cases. This was “return day,” meaning that tenants who had received an eviction summons were required to appear in court to answer a single question from the judge:
“Do you agree that you owe this amount of money for unpaid rent?” If the answer is “yes,” judgment is entered.
If the answer is “no,” the judge sets a date for the filing of a complaint, or Bill of Particulars, a date for the filing of the tenant’s Grounds of Defense, and a trial date, all within weeks. If rent is owed, personal circumstances or hardships are not relevant in eviction cases.
“There is no ‘Yes, but...’ defense” in an Unlawful Detainer case, Zehr said.
On this return day, none of the tenants facing eviction were represented by lawyers, a condition that Zehr and Horner described as typical.
An information table staffed by attorneys from Northern Virginia Legal Services is positioned in the hall outside the courtroom so that tenants facing eviction cannot miss it. The attorneys try to engage with tenants as they arrive. They also provide handouts explaining the eviction process and describing programs offering rental assistance.
Elliott Morris, an attorney with Magruder & Associates, P.C. who represents landlords, has about 500 open files. Unlawful Detainer cases are technically adversarial proceedings, but on return day, Morris answered questions from tenants facing eviction almost as a counselor.
“My clients are in the business of providing housing, not taking it away,” Morris said.
Morris described Virginia as a “right of redemption state,” meaning that if all amounts are paid by a tenant at least two days before a scheduled eviction the process is stopped, a point also made by the judge to each tenant who appeared in court. However, the eviction judgment remains a public record for 10 years.
Role of the Sheriff’s Office
Alexandria Sheriff Sean Casey said his office seeks to avoid having a tenant’s possessions piled outside the premises if they’re evicted. To avoid this, the Sheriff’s Office works with the Department of Health and Community Services to facilitate temporary storage of tenant possessions.
“Evictions do not happen overnight,” Casey said. “Alexandria has compassion for persons facing eviction at every step in the process.”
According to Amy Bertsch, the public information officer for the Sheriff’s Office, from Jan. 1 through Nov. 30, there were 1,619 scheduled evictions, of which 842 – slightly more than half – were canceled. Evictions were executed during this 11-month period on 777 properties.
Evictions in Alexandria are carried out by a four-person Field Services Unit in the Field Operations Section of the Judicial & Field Operations Bureau of the Sheriff’s Office. The Field Services Unit, headed by Sergeant Richard Hagar, executes evictions and serves legal papers in other proceedings.
The Sheriff’s Office must execute an eviction within 30 days of receipt of a Writ of Eviction from the General District Court. Evictions take place three days a week beginning at 9 a.m. when the Field Services Unit concentrates its efforts in one or two parts of the city.
Bertsch emphasized that the department does not schedule any evictions during the last two weeks of the year.
On the morning of Dec. 5, the Field Services Unit executed, or served papers for, six evictions.
Evictions can be either a full eviction that involves the immediate removal of the tenant and the tenant’s possessions, or an eviction that begins with a lock change, depending on the landlord. After the lock is changed, the tenant must vacate the premises by 5 p.m. that day.
A tenant staying after 5 p.m. is subject to trespassing charges. The Field Services Unit notifies the Alexandria Police Department that an eviction has taken place at a residence.
A lock change eviction affords the tenant 24 hours to remove their possessions.
Deputy Sheriff Sean Scalsky explained that when a lock is changed, possession immediately vests in the landlord and the dwelling, “… effectively becomes a storage unit.”
“I don’t enjoy evicting people, but it’s part of my job,” Scalsky said. “In most evictions, tenants are in the process of moving out.”
Tavesa Moore, a property manager at Acclaim at Alexandria, at 318 S. Whiting St., said that, during an eviction, her company offers payment plans to renters who fall a month or two behind. Moore said that when rent arrearages become too large, landlords decide their only option is to pursue an eviction.
“We want them to stay,” Moore emphasized.
The Affordable Housing Aspect
City and justice system personnel responsible for administering Alexandria’s eviction system generally try to prevent evictions from occurring. Reducing evictions, a damage control effort, seems overlooked or obscured by other, more positive, arguments for increasing the supply of affordable housing.
Moshenberg described the core dynamic of housing affordability: Evictions will persist as a problem for as long as rent increases exceed wage gains.
Other jurisdictions are also wrestling with eviction prevention. According to an Oct. 8 report in The Washington Post, the Prince George’s County Council is considering a plan to tie increases in the county’s $15 per hour minimum wage to the average percentage growth of the Consumer Price Index.
For more information on evictions, see Alexandria’s Office of Performance Analytics, which publishes an online dashboard that records and charts the number of summonses, the number of issued writs of eviction, the average time from issuance of a summons to issuance of a writ of eviction, the average judgment rate, the average amount of unpaid rent and the percentage of cases based on nonpayment of rent.
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