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Diversion programs. Philadelphia’s Eviction Diversion Program (EDP) requires landlords to participate in a 30-day mediation with tenants who owe less than $3,000 in back rent before pursuing a formal eviction. It began as a city pilot initiative and was bolstered by federal COVID-19 relief funding into a national exemplar of eviction prevention, with 85 percent of cases reaching a settlement or an agreement to continue negotiations beyond the mandated 30 days. The program has been incredibly beneficial to Black women raising children in Philadelphia, where, according to city data, 74 percent of evictions involved a Black tenant, 70 percent involved a woman, and 50 percent involved a parent or caretaker.
Philly’s EDP program is bolstered by being coupled with rental assistance. Between May 2020 and January 2023, Philadelphia’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program distributed almost $300 million in federal, state, and local emergency COVID-19 relief funds to more than 46,500 households, according to city data.
This program was in former Philadelphia city council member Helen Gym’s mind for quite some time before she sat down to write the legislation. She never forgot how evictions influenced her experiences as a teacher decades prior. “I’d have fourth, fifth, and sixth graders who would be there one day and not be there the next,” Gym said in an interview with me this summer. “And it wasn’t like I got a notice—I was often told by another 10-year-old in the class that the family had been evicted and that student would no longer be showing up in school.”
Robust rental assistance programs. During the pandemic, emergency rental assistance programs distributed $46 billion to keep more than 10 million renters housed. Most of these programs are now inactive due to a lack of funding, and evictions are back to pre-pandemic levels in many places across the country. The relationship between rental assistance and eviction diversion is critical—and Philadelphia’s coupling of the two is a prime example of how it changes the dynamics in landlord-tenant mediations. Bluntly, the possibility of a landlord getting back rent paid compels them to participate in the diversion program. Most importantly, it allows a tenant to stay housed.
“We still see a dramatic reduction in evictions even without rental assistance, but [the diversion program] works its best [with assistance],” Philadelphia Councilmember Jamie Gauthier told me. “We’re able to get the best outcomes. We were able to resolve almost all mediations and disagreements between landlords and tenants when we [had] access to plentiful rental assistance.”
“During the pandemic, we were able to reduce evictions in Philadelphia through EDP by 75 percent—and [federal] funds were a huge, huge piece of that,” she added.
Rental assistance programs aren’t perfect and require an infusion of money and care to continue functioning. Some local housing agencies sent funds to the wrong parties, for instance, which resulted in some landlords not getting paid promptly or at all—a bureaucratic disaster that makes them less likely to be patient with tenants during the application phase for the funds. On a larger scale, states began to run out of money, which put millions of tenants’ housing in limbo.
Immediate sealing of eviction records. According to the Center for American Progress, “Eviction records keep individuals and families locked in a cycle of poverty; force people to live in unsafe housing; and cause homelessness and a host of other collateral consequences.” The “Scarlet E,” as it’s called, can follow renters for years after an eviction case goes to court—even if the tenant won their case. Automatic sealing or expungement protections are active in 10 states and the District of Columbia as of fall 2023. Some jurisdictions seal records for all types of eviction records, while others will only lock records in particular circumstances. Arizona, for instance, will only seal eviction records in cases filed for back rent or noncompliance with a lease.
However, automatically sealing all eviction cases upon filing would protect the most vulnerable tenants by reducing their chances of experiencing housing instability in the future by preventing the “Scarlet E” from being attached to their records in the first place.
Universal right to counsel for all tenants facing eviction. Legal representation is only guaranteed for defendants in criminal cases, not civil cases like eviction proceedings. Only 1 percent of tenants have legal representation in an eviction case compared to 90 percent of landlords. (Often, the landlord’s attorney shows up in their place, allowing the landlord to avoid the stress of getting to and from court.)
Right-to-counsel laws have tangible benefits for those facing eviction. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, tenants with legal representation are more likely to stay in their homes, avoid the “Scarlet E” stigma, and receive extended time to vacate the property if the court rules against them.
Kansas City allocated funds from the American Rescue Plan to implement a right-to-counsel ordinance—a decision that slashed evictions by 86 percent—following a campaign launched by civil rights-oriented organizations, including KC Tenants, Stand Up KC, Missouri Workers Center, Heartland Center for Jobs and Freedom, and others. Kansas City is now allocating city funds to run the program because it’s been so successful. Only 16 other major cities, one county, and four states have these right-to-counsel laws.
In Washington, D.C., six nonprofits, 19 private law firms, and the D.C. Access to Justice Commission have been working together to offer free legal representation to tenants during eviction proceedings starting in November 2023. (In late 2023, The District of Columbia has yet to codify the right-to-counsel.)
Guaranteed income for low-income Americans. Unlike a universal basic income, guaranteed income takes an equitable approach by providing cash payments to people living in poverty or to those without reliable income. The goal of a guaranteed income is to create an “income floor” that prevents people from living in poverty and addresses historical and systemic barriers that cause economic hardship. According to Ms. Magazine, this measure could be critical to keeping Black families afloat:
By prioritizing Black women, guaranteed income has the potential to make a difference for those struggling the most, and alleviate some of the racialized disadvantages low-income people of color face. In 2021, when parents received monthly payments through the expanded child tax credit (CTC), child poverty decreased by around 30 percent, with the CTC reaching more than 61 million children.
But in January, after the six months of payments ended, low-income Black and Latino families were hit hard: The childhood poverty rate rose from 12 percent in December to 17 percent in January—and soared to over 23 percent for Latino children and 25 percent for Black children.
Guaranteed basic income could bode well for reducing evictions since such a program would enable people to better afford housing.
Universal care infrastructure. Building a universal care structure is one part of a broader network of care reforms that would aid in preventing children and their families from being evicted in the first place. This includes but isn’t limited to culturally-competent universal care for kids ages zero to five; universal summer school and afterschool programs; and universal paid family and medical leave.
The need is urgent, and the benefits are immense. The U.S. invests among the lowest amount in child care compared to its peer nations, which leaves families with a bill that is too high for most. The Women’s Bureau report found that child care costs in every county in the United States exceed the affordability threshold of seven percent of family median income. Infant care costs more than in-state college tuition in more than 25 states. Parents are paying as much or more than their rent or mortgage for this level of child care because it takes a lot of people to provide adequate child care. Depending on state regulations, one teacher can take care of as many as 30 kindergarteners. Still, teacher-student ratios are much lower for younger children, with one teacher only being able to care for four, five, or six infants or toddlers at a time. Despite the demands on their labor and the skill set required, many child care providers and teachers make poverty wages.
Although the federal government does provide states with funds to help very low-income families pay for child care, the program is woefully underfunded. Publicly funded child care subsidies must be retooled to reach the eight million children who qualify for them. Right now, the money only helps two million children, a mere 25 percent of qualifying kids.
An affordable, high-quality, universal child care infrastructure with a well-paid, well-trained care workforce is urgently needed for families with young children. The money to kick start this effort exists: for instance, many states and localities haven’t allocated or spent all of the $350 billion in federal funds from the American Rescue Plan—money that must be allocated by the end of 2024* and spent by 2026.
While this isn’t enough funding to build and sustain a universal care infrastructure, it is a starting point to show what’s possible.
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