Evictions in Franklin County were a huge problem before the pandemic, and because the cost of rent is rising by the month in Central Ohio, the entire community is facing an affordable housing crisis – a crisis high-end apartment developers obviously couldn’t care less about.

In 2021 the US Census Bureau reported one in three Ohio renters have little or no confidence in their ability to pay next month’s rent.

Yet also in 2021, there were 15,185 evictions in Franklin County compared to 18,219 in 2019. The numbers are down significantly, even with the pandemic and landlords renting thin-walled three-bedroom apartments for $1,400 a month,

Indeed, many local longtime owners of 1,500 to 2,000-square foot homes are paying hundreds less for their mortgage than local renters of newer apartments, and certainly another canary in the coal mine regarding affordable housing in Columbus and its suburbs.

But here’s the good news regarding affordable housing and homelessness, says Carlie J. Boos, executive director for the Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio.

And the reason why evictions were 3,000 less in 2021 compared to 2019.

“We have resources right now, that as a community, no one has ever had before,” said Boos to the Free Press, referring to federal pandemic emergency funds. “We have the money to stop every single economic eviction in Franklin County. (And because) we have the money, we should not be seeing any evictions. That’s the benchmark.”

Most of the community is probably not aware that 30-plus nonprofits and public service organizations are keeping community members out of an ice storm. Besides the Affordable Housing Alliance, there’s also the Housing Stabilization Coalition, an umbrella group of these groups and spearheaded by IMPACT Community Action with help from Somali Link and Catholic Social Services, among others.

From June of 2020 through this month (February 2022), the Housing Stabilization Coalition has assisted over 32,000 families with over $76,000,000 in aid paid to landlords, who need the money to pay their own rent, mortgage and bills. True, there was a moratorium on evictions during the height of the pandemic, but it didn’t come with any money.

The Housing Stabilization Coalition also recently launched Rentful614.com.

“It’s one-stop shopping,” said Boos, her group part of the Coalition. “If you are facing an eviction or if you just don’t know how you’re going to pay your rent next month, Rentful614 has every piece of information to keep you safe.”

The Coalition, says Boos, can feel “how the ground is shifting under us what local conditions are evolving” because it has those “boots on the ground.” 

“We needed a lot of different organizations because people have different needs,” she said. “If you speak Somali you need to be able to go through a nonprofit that has that language capacity, that has the cultural competency that can serve you on your own terms. And if you are member of the LGBTQ community, or if you’re a pregnant woman, or no matter what neighborhood you are coming from, you want someone who speaks your own language, literally and metaphorically.”

Thousands are still evicted annually in Franklin County, a reality that makes the goodhearted cringe with shame. Not all those evicted go into homelessness, but a traumatic experience for adults and their children, nonetheless.

“We know that there is a path that they start to walk down,” said Boos. “After an eviction, you typically go into less stable, less safe housing, that is more expensive. And you kind of restart that cycle of falling behind again, because you are not secure again. And often times it will result in another eviction and you go into slummier housing, and eventually you end up doubled up, so you are staying with family and friends, so it’s overcrowded.

“Ultimately, if you can’t get an intervention and get stabilized at that time, you’ll find yourself at the shelter’s doors. And now, 18 to 24 months into the pandemic, we’re seeing a surge in homelessness.”

Boos and the Housing Stabilization Coalitions wants the community to know, they can help renters before they fall behind.

What would the community look like if there weren’t so many “boots on the ground” helping keep roofs over the heads of parents and their children?

“I think it would be safe to say that the 32,000 families who were helped, they would have been evicted. And you can disaster plan what it looks like to have 32,000 newly homeless families on the street. But I don’t want to imagine that, but that’s the alternative that this has stopped,” said Boos.