D.C. Courts Receive $605K Grant to Support Eviction Diversion Initiatives
June 03, 2022
On June 1 the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) announced that it has selected the D.C. Courts as one of the beneficiaries of a $10 million grant it received from Wells Fargo Foundation to improve housing stability across the country.
The D.C. Courts will receive $605,847 over a two-year period, of which $384,040 will be used to support two civil case management facilitators to triage landlord and tenant cases, assign them to a case management pathway, then contact the parties to provide information about the court process and resources available for assistance.
In addition, $297,443 will fund two court navigator facilitators to help landlords and tenants better understand the court process and access legal services, housing counseling, financial assistance, and other social services. Finally, $100,000 will be set aside for a public education initiative in partnership with the Greater Washington Urban League. The D.C. Courts will provide $175,636 in matching funds in the second year of the grant.
Along with the D.C. Courts, eight states have been chosen as beneficiaries of the Wells Fargo grant through the NCSC’s Eviction Diversion Initiative (EDI), which was born out of the coronavirus pandemic that has severely impacted housing stability for families nationwide.
“There is absolutely no underestimating the importance of a home in the lives of families or [an individual] person. When people are secure in their homes, they are able to focus on their other important [agendas]. And when that home is in jeopardy through eviction or foreclosure, everything spirals out of control,” said D.C. Court of Appeals Chief Judge Anna Blackburne-Rigsby. “And we see those same families and people coming into courts for other issues: domestic violence, child support, child abuse and neglect, mental health. So, if we can keep families in their homes and make sure that landlords receive the rent to keep those homes safe, it’s a win-win for the families who are tenants, the property owners, but most of all, our community.”
NCSC President Mary McQueen said that successful eviction diversion programs such as the EDI will provide landlords, property owners, and tenants with the time, resources, and information they need to resolve landlord–tenant disputes before they reach adversarial litigation.
“We hope to be a triage to help identify certain issues before they become legal problems,” McQueen said. “[These programs] can help tenants stay housed, they can help landlords stay whole, and they can stabilize communities in local housing markets.”
McQueen added that the NCSC will serve as “a resource center for the participating courts, offering evidence-based practices, technical assistance, and support for their work. These courts will serve as the national model to truly transform the housing court landscape across the country.”
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton said eviction processes around the country “are fundamentally flawed.” Instead of serving as a last resort for landlords, eviction has become their “first step in claiming unpaid rent from struggling tenants,” Norton added.
Approximately 30,000 evictions are filed in D.C. Superior Court every year, 60 percent of which are against renters in neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River. “The low eviction filing fee in D.C. encourages landlords to file for evictions as the first response for the small amounts of unpaid rent, imposing unnecessary costs on tenants and courts,” Norton said.
Evidence shows that eviction cases disproportionately affect communities of color, particularly Blacks and Latinos. Bill Daley, Wells Fargo’s vice chair of public affairs, said the threat of eviction further contributed to the problems facing these communities during the pandemic, including wage loss and health issues.
“[Evictions] only compound the problem. When children are involved, the housing security issue takes on a whole other need,” Daley said.
In a brief panel discussion, D.C. Superior Court Chief Judge Anita Josey-Herring, Judge Kimberly Bacon of the Marion Small Claims Court in Indiana’s Lawrence Township, and Nikki Del Casale, a District-based grassroots tenant advocate, noted the importance of partnering with other legal and social services organizations such as the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center to address the eviction crisis.
“We were able to pull in many community partners to help with our rental assistance programs that we had on site. So, if their applications were denied, they could get [immediate] assistance to get that application back on track,” Bacon said.
The D.C. Courts have demonstrated the effective use of court navigators and virtual proceedings to assist tenants facing eviction. “I think this is helpful for people who have very little money, very little time, and oftentimes competing obligations such as childcare and work commitments,” Josey-Herring said.
