Detroit Metro Times: 15% of Detroit landlords evicted tenants soon after receiving COVID-19 rental aid
by Steve Neavling
About 15% of landlords who received federal emergency rental assistance for single-family properties in Detroit moved to evict tenants within six months of receiving the funds, according to researchers at the University of Michigan.
Those landlords received at least $8.2 million in pandemic-era rental assistance that was intended to stabilize housing for tenants, the analysis by Alexa Eisenberg and Kate Brantley of UM's Poverty Solutions found.
The research suggests that some landlords who relied on COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance program (CERA) had no intention of helping tenants remain in their homes.
“These figures illustrate that CERA funds were often approved after a landlord had filed a case in court and that landlords commonly filed new eviction cases against tenants after being approved for funds,” the researchers wrote in the report, “The crisis is temporary: Evictions after emergency rental assistance in Detroit.”
Among the 5,600 single-family rental properties where a tenant received at least one rent relief payment between June 2021 and February 2022, 842 landlords moved to evict tenants within six months of the last recorded CERA approval data.
About 90% of those properties lacked a certificate of compliance at the time CERA was approved. In those instances, the city placed 20% of the landlord’s eligible CERA funds in escrow until the properties were in compliance.
Of those 757 non-certified properties, only 27 came into compliance between the date of CERA approval and the eviction, indicating a lack of motivation among landlords to enhance the safety of their housing conditions.
To help stabilize housing for tenants struggling to pay rent during the pandemic, Congress allocated $46.6 million for the CERA program in 2021. The funds were used to pay up to 18 months of past and future rent.
Tenants were eligible for assistance if they made less than 80% of the annual median income for a household in their metropolitan area and had a COVID-related hardship.
Between April 2021 and June 2022, Michigan approved CERA applications for a total of $1.1 billion.
The University of Michigan researchers made several recommendations to protect tenants in the future: Establish a mandatory pre-court eviction diversion program, enforce rental codes, reduce landlords’ incentives to file for eviction, and expunge COVID-era evictions so tenants aren’t penalized when they’re searching for a new home.
