photo by: Douglas County

Douglas County commissioners, county staff and representatives of state and local organization discuss eviction prevention efforts as part of the commission's meeting Oct. 13, 2021.

Douglas County leaders say the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing housing issues, and that the county will need to consider how it wants to address those issues both immediately and over the long term.

As part of its study session Wednesday, the Douglas County Commission received information about the level of evictions occurring now that the nationwide moratorium has been lifted, as well as ongoing eviction prevention and landlord engagement programs. Assistant County Administrator Jill Jolicoeur told the commission that the county would like to start thinking about how to sustain the work of the programs over the long term and integrate other needs such as legal services.

“We knew that we needed to have more robust rental assistance and housing navigation services before the COVID-19 pandemic,” Jolicoeur said. “We now know it’s just essential to have that.”

Through September of this year, 372 evictions have been filed in Douglas County District Court, and 172 of those evictions resulted in an order for the tenant to vacate the property, according to data Douglas County District Court Judge James McCabria provided to the commission. That’s compared to 584 evictions filed and 342 orders for the tenant to vacate in all of 2019, before the onset of the pandemic in the U.S. and before any restrictions on evictions were put in place.

As part of the study session, commissioners heard updates from representatives of the Kansas Housing Resources Corporation, the Housing Stabilization Collaborative program and Kansas Legal Services. The KHRC was awarded two installments of approximately $150 million of emergency rental assistance from federal pandemic relief packages that it has been distributing through the Kansas Emergency Rental Assistance (KERA) program.

KHRC Executive Director Ryan Vincent told the commission that the pandemic had turned the state’s housing problem into a housing crisis. Vincent said that as of July it was estimated that about 27,700 Kansans were behind on their rent and 14,700 were at risk of eviction. He said KERA has paid out about $50 million in assistance so far, including about $3.8 million to about 700 households in Douglas County.

As the Journal-World recently reported, the KERA program has dealt with delays in processing applications, but a recent loosening of federal restrictions has helped get those payments out faster. Due to those delays, the commission recently provided $125,000 to the local Housing Stabilization Collaborative for emergency rent and utility assistance to try to prevent evictions.

HSC program manager Gabi Sprague said the program has been using emergency funding in conjunction with the KERA program. She said that over the last six months, the program has distributed $173,000 in rental assistance to 146 families, with an average payment of $1,200. She said the emergency assistance has been used in situations when upset landlords don’t want to engage with the KERA program, when landlords think KERA is not an appropriate solution to the situation, or provided to households experiencing homelessness.

Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority Landlord Liaison Manager Mariel Ferreiro provided an update on efforts to engage with landlords who are reluctant to accept KERA funds and other forms of rental assistance such as Section 8 vouchers. Ferreiro said that includes steps to ease the administrative process, as well as sign-on bonuses and damage mitigation funds for landlords who agree to rent to tenants who typically have a hard time finding landlords who will accept them.

Kerrie Lonard, managing attorney of the Topeka office of Kansas Legal Services, discussed the eviction process and some common pitfalls tenants make when trying to navigate that process alone. Douglas County is one of five counties served by the office, and Lonard said her office is working toward having a physical location in the county or potentially having staff present for eviction hearings so tenants can easily get legal advice on their rights and duties and potentially avoid an eviction. Lonard said once someone has an eviction on their rental history, it becomes a huge barrier to housing going forward, and the goal is to prevent evictions.

“By the time we get to the word eviction, there are so many things that could have happened beforehand for tenants and for landlords, and so I think the key piece is education and education early,” Lonard said.

Commissioners indicated that preventing evictions and addressing the community’s housing issues were long-term priorities. Commission Chair Shannon Portillo expressed appreciation for efforts to engage with landlords, provide representation for tenants ahead of eviction hearings and address the administrative burden of accessing resources. Commissioner Patrick Kelly said the county should also consider how factors such as local income levels and land use decisions at the county level can affect housing affordability.

Commission Vice Chair Shannon Reid said she was appreciative of all the eviction prevention efforts going on in the community.

“I just think we need a multilayered approach in our community, and I’m super appreciative of everybody’s work on it so far,” Reid said. “Prevention efforts are key.”