Thousands of Detroit Residents Under Eviction Threat, CERA June 30 Deadline 

For the last six years, Kimberly Cook has been struggling to stay afloat living in a rental home on Detroit’s west side with her husband and their six kids. While balancing the compounding stress of a pandemic, job loss, and the rising costs of inflation. Three years ago, she lost contact with her Texas-based landlord … Continued

Thousands of Detroit Residents Under Eviction Threat, CERA June 30 Deadline 

For the last six years, Kimberly Cook has been struggling to stay afloat living in a rental home on Detroit’s west side with her husband and their six kids.

While balancing the compounding stress of a pandemic, job loss, and the rising costs of inflation. Three years ago, she lost contact with her Texas-based landlord while continuing to pay rent.  

“I went downtown and was gonna put money down on the (property) taxes with the little money I did have,” said Cook. “I had to (pay to) fix things in the house and it’s hard, you know, especially when the pandemic was going on. I didn’t have my job anymore. I have six girls and I had to homeschool them.  

Kimberly Cook, Detroit westside resident 

My husband got sick with COVID and I had to help him, he was off work. So I was really struggling to keep things up in the house and keep it livable for my children, my husband, and myself. I’m in school also and it’s hard to focus with so much stress.” 

Two weeks ago, Cook and her family were served an eviction notice of tenet termination. She is now grappling with the looming threat of homelessness.  

Cook and her family plight hangs in the balance and they are not alone. Her story reflects the tens of thousands of Detroit renters struggling with housing security. 

What is the economic outlook for Detroit renters today? 

As the American economy continues to rehabilitate from the catastrophic impact of the pandemic, thousands of Detroiters face the crippling reality of rental debt and loss of basic housing security. 

Alexa Eisenberg, researcher at Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan, has been studying court cases on eviction during the pandemic. Her report demonstrates that although the annual rate of eviction filings have decreased from impacting one in five renters household before the pandemic to one in nine in 2021 due to prevention measure policies, rental assistance programs and expanded legal aid still were not enough to prevent thousands of residents from being forcibly uprooted from their homes during the pandemic.   

“City council passed a right to counsel ordinance, and that is progress. But until that’s a fully funded efforts, we really don’t have a right to counsel, we have a policy not a practice.” 

According to her research, roughly 70,000 people, mostly Black tenants, live under the threat of eviction each year prior to the onset of the pandemic and eviction prevention measures. 

“So that’s 30,000 eviction filings– multiplying it by 2.34, which is the average number of people living in renter households. And that does not count illegal evictions that happen outside of court.” 

Eisenberg is working with Detroit Eviction Defense, the leading community organization advocating for tenants’ rights. The group has organized tenants to attend City Council meetings and spreading awareness campaigns from residents’ testimonies on the conditions they are facing.  

 

How has Covid-19 impacted threats of eviction in Detroit? 

“Eviction filings fell to 40% of pre-pandemic levels in 2020, then rose to 66% in 2021,” said Eisenberg. “Through April 2022 fillings were 75% of 2019 levels. So there is a steady climb and what we are seeing in other cities across the country, when their rental assistance programs end, their filings tick back up to where they were before and in fact get worse. Which isn’t surprising because rental prices have increased across the country.” 

Federal CERA Program Provides Temporary Relief for Thousands of Detroit Tenants 

 In late 2020 and early 2021, Biden administration responded to the burgeoning crisis with the release of Covid-19 Emergency Relief Assistance (CERA) under two programs: ERA 1 and ERA 2. This two-part relief funding provided a total of 46.55 billion dollars directly to states, local governments, and Indian tribes. 

More than $750 million has been directly allocated Michigan residents in need of rent assistance, right to counsel in eviction proceedings, as well as paying mounting utility bills.  

“The CERA program was a great success,” said Duggan in a statement. “More than 19,000 Detroiters were helped with back rent since March 2021, and $159 million in assistance was approved for Detroit renters to keep them in their homes.”  

Through the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MISHDA),  United Community Housing Coalition (UCHC) and Wayne Metro are two of the main agencies in Detroit tasked with implementation of the CERA program for low-income residents. 

Receiving an estimated $40 million, UCHC leveraged the additional funding to provide a greater capacity of different housing services for local individuals and families, including legal representation once the cases reach the court, assistance with back pay on rent and utilities, and relocation stipends for those living in properties in bad condition. 

The agency also works alongside tenant organizing in subsidized development buildings in cases where a new owner rehabilitates the new property and displaces tenants.  

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), “Across Michigan, there is a shortage of rental homes affordable and available to extremely low-income households (ELI), whose incomes are at or below the poverty guideline or 30% of their area median income (AMI).” 

What does this mean for Detroiters currently facing the threat of eviction? 

There are four different types of eviction cases: (1) Non-payment of rent; (2) termination of tenancy by the landlord; (3) health hazard cases; and (4) land contract forfeiture cases.    

“Sixty-five percent or more of the (eviction) cases are roughly nonpayment,” said Ted Phillips, Director of UCHC, “And 25% or more would normally be termination of tenancy.” 

About 40 percent of local CERA applicants have been approved and will continue to be aided until the September 30 funding deadline. 

“With the CERA program providing more money that I’ve ever seen in my entire career for paying rent,” said Phillips, “The good news is they’ve been able to stave off a lot of evictions. Our role there as attorneys is more along the lines of getting appears made, getting rent waived…there are so many cases where tenants owe more than what CERA can pay.” 

The eligibility requirements for CERA applicants is largely income based. Applicants must report an income no more than 80 percent of the area median income (AMI). For a family of two people in Detroit, 80% of the AMI is $50,267 total.   

“When CERA goes away,” said Phillips, “That’s going to be a real big problem.” 

City of Detroit’s post- CERA Plan to Address Eviction Threats 

On June 15, Mayor Duggan announced a plan to help residents facing eviction with the CERA application deadline fast approaching. 

The mayor reassured residents that legal representation will continue as the city will provide attorneys at no cost at the 3th District Court. On May 10, following suit of other cities, including New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Milwaukee, Newark, San Francisco and Denver, Detroit City Council approved an ordinance to provide legal representation for lower-income residents.  

Other city-led assistance programs include Rapid Jobs, connecting housing insecure residents with employment opportunities, and Skills for Life, a work training program.  

For residence without a shelter, the city is offering access to housing shelters and resources, including Coordinated Assistance Model at 1600 Porter St. in Corktown.  

The last month saw an outpour of Detroit residents expressing their grievances at City Council meetings at the Committee of the Whole. 

Organized by the Detroit Eviction Defense, the effort provided residents an opportunity to share their fears and experiences about the devastations they are experiencing. 

The city provided an emergency hoteling program for an estimated 150 residents that have been evicted and given temporary shelter at local hotels at no cost to the residents. This program is also expiring on June 30, much to the stress and dismay of residents that are still without adequate alternatives.  

Council President Mary Sheffield said the council is taking these concerns very seriously. “They are scared they won’t be able to replace their housing. We’ve been made aware of all the individuals and will be connecting them to a case manager and will be placed in permanent supportive housing. We’re pushing for that. Not just shelters, but actual rental units or some form of housing.” 

Regarding a long-term plan to deal with the threat of evictions post- CERA funding, Sheffield said, “I can tell you that the Council is looking at ways that we can reappropriate some of the ARPA funding and remove it from some things like demolition and other categories and put it towards more housing for residents.” 

 

Advocates Call for Holistic Solutions to Address Other Needs 

Sonja Bonnett, Community Legal Advocate at the Detroit Justice Center, has been assisting Cook and her family, advocate for her rights as a tenant, and others on property tax home foreclosure cases.  

 As someone who has personally experienced hardships due to foreclosure, Bonnet said the relief measures in place are not nearly as holistic as they need to be to address the compounded issues residents face. 

“You have to figure if somebody is housing insecure,” said Bonnett, Community Legal Advocate at the Detroit Justice Center, “That nine times out of ten, they’re food insecure, maybe clothing insecure, utilities insecure. “  

Cook she is doing her best to take care of the wellbeing of her family, especially protecting the needs of her children.  

“It’s really impacted the rest of my life,” said Cook. “For instance, I’m in school and I can barely even focus because I’m so worried about the situation that we are in with that property. And my children, they don’t know what’s going on. Really, it’s just horrible. Because, you know maybe if I didn’t have kids I will still be upset but this…it’s like you don’t care about any family. You don’t care about the children at least? Or older people. We are already vulnerable.”