‘Perfect storm that’s about to happen’: Lancaster eviction crisis won’t be an easy fix
Lancaster County officials can see the wave of evictions coming. But the officials need more answers before they settle on what to do about it.
Lancaster County Council voted Monday night to send a temporary housing plan for federal treasury review to see if it qualifies for emergency pandemic funding granted to the county. Yet council members vary with their support of the plan. Several want details first.
On one question, elected officials agree. The wave is coming.
“They are going to all happen at one time,” said Chairman Steve Harper. “That’s a fact.”
Lancaster County eviction
Communities nationwide will see a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention moratorium on evictions end this month. A moratorium was put in place and extended several times due to COVID-19. The federal agency sees the moratorium as a way to keep people in homes or apartments where they can isolate to prevent COVID spread, rather than in homeless shelters or group settings.
Steve Willis, county administrator, said he doesn’t know how many new eviction cases may come up at month’s end. There will be dozens that weren’t resolved prior to the moratorium.
“We currently have approximately 50 eviction cases that are basically frozen in time at the magistrate’s court,” Willis said. “Wherever they were in the process when the initial moratorium hit, that’s where they’ll be Aug. 1.”
Bekah Clawson and Sharon Novinger outlined a plan to council Monday night from Lancaster Area Coalition for the Homeless. That group wants the county to allocate more than $300,000 of the roughly $19 million it received in federal pandemic relief funding. The money, through the United Way of Lancaster County, would pay for 20 hotel rooms for three months, a case worker and other services needed to assist people who are evicted.
“It’s almost like a perfect storm that’s about to happen,” said Clawson. “The residents are feeling the pressure. The landlords are feeling the pressure. We at our organization completely understand both standpoints.”
Nonprofits see people daily who will be impacted, she said.
“We expect to be filled up with a waiting list,” Clawson said. “I just can’t imagine that we’re not going to fill those up.”
Novinger said there are at least three dozen cases outside of the 50 that are pending. In typical cases, there may be homeless shelters in other areas to help for a few days at a time. Those places won’t have capacity this time, Novinger said.
“The fabric of our community nonprofits is being stretched to the point of no return with all these requests,” she said.
Public support for COVID eviction
Councilwoman Charlene McGriff said she believes eviction relief is a “clear project that council needs to support” with funds that are available. McGriff said she was elected to make her community better, and the proposed plan does it.
“To know that in the weeks to come there will be dozens of families with children displaced, with no shelter,” she said. “These funds are not meant to spend as we choose. It is to be used to better the lives of low and moderate income populations.”
Other council members have concerns. Chairman Steve Harper said there were evictions in the court pipeline before COVID arrived.
“A lot of these evictions are not COVID-related,” he said. “And I’m concerned when this is over with, they’ll come in and the United Way won’t be responsible for paying the money back, but there’s a possibility the county will.”
Harper said last year there were 148 police and 28 EMS calls to the hotel that would provide the rooms, where smaller-scale efforts to temporarily house evicted people have happened. The max stay in that program is three nights. The new plan would be in place three months.
Harper said there is a state relief program with an eight-page application that may be better to sort which evictions should receive pandemic funding assistance.
“They have started writing checks,” Harper said. “It’s slow. But the reason it’s slow is because government is slow.”
Councilman Brian Carnes said he’s concerned spending federal money without final federal guidance on where all it should go. Councilman Allen Blackmon wants more details on how the local program would work and an in-depth funding breakdown.
Blackmon said he is a landlord but he hasn’t experienced what nonprofit leaders describe.
“They all had jobs,” Blackmon said of his tenants. “Some lost jobs, changed jobs during the pandemic. They all paid their rent. Some were late, things like that.”
Blackmon said if one of his tenants were months behind on rent but just got a job and could start paying, he wouldn’t kick them out of their home.
“I don’t understand why some of these people being evicted can’t get jobs when there are jobs out there to be had,” Blackmon said.
McGriff said he believes if that’s so, Blackmon is a more gracious landlord than many.
“Believe me they will kick them out,” she said. “I’m sorry, yes they will. I live it every day.”
Federal funding eligibility breaks down by census tracts, related to income levels. McGriff said the areas of the county that qualify, mostly in Lancaster, are in her district.
“I see it,” she said. “They call me.”
So far the only county decision related to the federal money is to give a bonus for essential workers. County officials expect more requests to come. For McGriff, helping people who face eviction because of job loss or other factors related to COVID makes sense.
“We all must remember we are one disaster away, another pandemic away, one illness away, one paycheck away and another downturn in the economy away, from being homeless,” she said.
