Revisiting
Evictions
In July, I wrote a story for Headway about how Philadelphia was trying to reduce evictions by requiring landlords to attend mediation with tenants before getting courts involved. Recently, researchers there published the first comprehensive look at this effort, the city’s Eviction Diversion Program.
The program started in 2020, but changed several times, which made it a bit tricky to measure. The Reinvestment Fund, a nonprofit focused on communities underserved by financial institutions, reviewed 11,509 diversion cases and found that landlords and tenants who went to mediation were more likely to come to some kind of agreement than if they didn’t. And when they came to terms, tenants were less likely to get an eviction filed against them in court. That, the report said, “made a positive difference in the filing experience of tenants.”
The researchers noted that eviction diversion rolls soared in 2022, which meant a much smaller percentage of cases could be heard in mediation. They also left an important question unanswered: What’s the bang-for-your-buck of diversion compared to other housing interventions?
We also heard from a number readers, including some from Philadelphia, who praised the diversion program as a step in the right direction, even if it wasn’t perfect and didn’t address larger issues like the rising cost of housing.
— Aidan Gardiner
The approach is commendable. As a Philadelphia landlord, my goal is to collect rent that covers my expenses and affords a modest profit. I never willingly want to evict a tenant. However many stories that cover landlord-tenant relations tend to heavily endorse the tenant perspective without going into detail what landlords — especially mom-and-pop landlords — go through.
Name Withheld, Philadelphia
[While living in Delaware,] I was evicted for owing $623.00. My monthly rent was $599.00. Eviction is a pathway to homelessness. It’s that simple.
DeBorah Gilbert White, Ph.D., Washington, D.C.
I have been trying to search for jobs I’m qualified for after working for three years right out of college. So many jobs that interest me or that I’m qualified for pay so little, but also looking at rent prices, it seems almost impossible to pay to live somewhere if you’re only making minimum wage or slightly above that.
Karlee Bradlee, Phoenix
Links we liked
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In her 2015 book Ghettoside, Jill Leovy argued that when police fail to solve murders, it perpetuates cycles of violence, a phenomenon that has since drawn more focus nationwide as homicide clearance rates have dipped to record lows. For the past few years, Denver police have applied this thinking to solving nonfatal shootings. A Marshall Project analysis found that the city’s police cleared more nonfatal shootings than any of the other 20 most populous cities in the country.
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In 2022, Lucy Tompkins reported for Headway on the prospect of states using some of their Medicaid funding to cover housing for people with significant health needs experiencing homelessness. Now, Katia Riddle reports for NPR, Oregon and California are among the states putting this idea into practice.
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For years, Department of Defense schools have been held up for their striking outcomes on assessments of student learning. As Sarah Mervosh reports for the Times, these schools have managed to build on this record even through the pandemic.
Your turn
We’d love to hear from you. Where have you seen progress in your own community? Where are you not seeing progress, but wish you were? What links do you recommend to the Headway team? Let us know at dearheadway@nytimes.com.
