CINCINNATI — Cincinnati wants to test out a new pilot program that could be a solution to the city's eviction crisis. The “Access to Counsel Pilot Program” was presented in the Equitable Housing Committee meeting Tuesday afternoon.
"It doesn’t guarantee a lawyer for every person facing eviction in the City of Cincinnati or Hamilton County. What it does is provide additional funds for representation in court and rental assistance," said Nick DiNardo, managing attorney for the housing and consumer practice group at Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio.
The pilot program would allocate $600,000 to United Way for rental assistance and another $600,000 to Legal Aid for legal services, with $50,000 used for administrative fees.
"Access to council ordinance is important because it makes landlords whole," DiNardo said. "They get the rent that they’re owed and the tenant gets to stay in their unit. A key part of that is having an attorney assist you through that process."
DiNardo said the extra cash will allow them to take on an additional 250 cases. He thinks the funds will last a year if it gets approved by the council.
"Part of Access to Counsel is we want to study, look at the data on this, study how effective this is, what works the best, so we can try and leverage these funds to get additional funds both from private philanthropy as well as other state or federal funds," he said.
Several people spoke in favor and against the measure. The Greater Cincinnati Northern Kentucky Apartment Association supports it.
"We have some concerns about the practicality of some of these measures but believe strongly that if we continue working together in a solutions-oriented manner we can all achieve the results we desire," said Justin Seger with the apartment association.
A Cincinnati Tenant Union study from March 2021 to January 2023 showed of the 19,000 eviction cases 93% of landlords had a lawyer and 7% of tenants had a lawyer.
"If you have an attorney representing you, like I said, we can get a good outcome for our clients in more than 80% of our cases," DiNardo said. "If you don’t have an attorney, the chances of being successful even if you have a good defense are quite low."
He said most tenants can’t afford legal services and don’t understand the eviction court process. DiNardo said they can only represent a small portion of people in eviction court. Last year, he said they prevented around 1,200 evictions.
Deborah Collins with the Real Estate Investors Association of Greater Cincinnati said there’s a reason why the percentage of landlords with legal representation is disproportionate.
"Housing providers are required to have a lawyer when they come into a court, to eviction court. It’s state law if their property is held in LLC that they cannot represent themselves," she said.
At the Hamilton County Courthouse anywhere between 60-100 eviction cases are heard daily Monday through Friday.
"The average eviction hearing is oftentimes less than a minute," DiNardo said.
In Hamilton County, DiNardo said a little more than 12,000 evictions are filed each year, which is about 1,000 a month.
DiNardo said he is seeing more people show up in court, because of one economic setback.
"There’s been a lot of folks who just have some sort of one-time emergency … any sort of unexpected economic emergency can lead to them missing one month’s rent," he said.
Not everyone will be eligible for the pilot program if the council approves it. The tenant must live in the City of Cincinnati, have their income be under 60% of the area median income, demonstrate ability to pay rent moving forward and more.
DiNardo said this program will level the playing field and will hopefully receive more funds in the future to help more people in need. He said the funding doesn’t meet the demand.
Mayor Aftab Pureval also had a housing ordinance on the table that would require landlords to help with tenant relocation assistance if the tenant is or will be displaced. It would also allow the city to hire contractors to make repairs if the conditions are uninhabitable or if the landlord can't or won't fix a problem.
