We’ve gone a full half-year on the tenant hotline and have some interesting statistics to share. 2023 was our busiest year in HOME Line history for contact volume so it is unsurprising that tenant hotline client interactions (primarily calls and emails) are down from last year’s halfway-point totals. In 2024 thus far we’ve advised 5% fewer new clients in the first half-year than in the first half of 2023. Follow-ups contacts are also down—closer to 8% lower this year.
The key question—why? In short; evictions. Here are some statistics:
| Total Contacts First 6 Months of the Year | 2023 | 2024 |
| New calls: 10,160 | New Calls: 9,679 | |
| Difference: – 481 | ||
| Eviction Contacts First 6 Months of the Year | 2023 | 2024 |
| New calls: 3,128 | New Calls: 2,193 | |
| Difference: – 935 |
We’ve previously covered the reason why fewer clients are reaching out to HOME Line’s tenant hotline this year but generally it stems from 21% fewer evictions filed this year than last year at this time. The most significant influence on this was last year’s state law change to the eviction process that HOME Line and other advocates have supported for well over a decade. As of January 1, 2024, Minnesota landlords must give a 14-day written notice before filing an eviction for non-payment of rent. The decrease in filing numbers is hard to dispute.
Taking evictions out of the equation for both years, HOME Line’s new client contacts are actually up for the first half of the year over 2023. Looking at our top 10 topics, you can see that half of our top-ten topics went up over last year while half went down.
| Contact Reason | Number of Contacts | Change from 2023 |
| 1. Repairs | 2,473 | – 2% |
| 2. Evictions | 2,193 | – 30% |
| 3. Security Deposit | 1,000 | + 10% |
| 4. Break Lease | 818 | + 9% |
| 5. Landlord Notice to Vacate | 732 | – 11% |
| 6. Lease Questions | 615 | + 7% |
| 7. Privacy/Intrusion | 459 | + 20% |
| 8. Neighbor Issues | 384 | + 25% |
| 9. Rent Increase | 327 | – 4% |
| 10. Financial Assistance | 323 | – 17% |
We’ve seen a 10% increase in contacts to both HOME Line’s Spanish and Somali queues this year as well. Note that last year was our highest total in this category to date and we are on pace to pass that easily.
HOME Line has also seen a big increase in our speeches, already talking to 43 different groups with over 1,700 attendees—a 43% increase over the number of attendees at this point last year.
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