Evictions are a confusing, traumatic, and stressful process for most tenants and having an eviction on record has a lasting negative impact on a tenant’s ability to find and maintain stable housing. In January 2019 HOME Line began proactively contacting renter households in the seven-county Twin Cities metro area that had evictions filed against them as part of a new program called the Eviction Prevention Project (EPP). EPP’s primary purpose is to communicate with households facing imminent eviction cases and encourage these tenants to reach out to HOME Line for free and confidential legal advice regarding the eviction. A key part of this effort is to pull daily eviction filing numbers from public court records to be able to reach out to tenants, while also more broadly monitoring eviction case files for patterns. In late 2020 the project was expanded to the entire state in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent eviction moratorium to determine who needs to have a letter sent to them, HOME Line’s Eviction Data Assistant searches the public court record on a daily basis for evictions that were filed the previous day. They compile this information in a database and use it to send a letter to the residential tenants named in the complaint who would qualify for HOME Line’s services.
Since May 1st, 2022 Minnesota has seen a drastic increase in eviction filings. This timeframe aligns with the end of last remaining renter protections provided during the phaseout of the statewide Minnesota Eviction Moratorium. To put this in perspective in 2019 (the last year without any additional limits on filing eviction actions) the average number of evictions filed per month was 1,292. June of this year was over double that number alone.
Total evictions cases filed since May 1, 2022
There has been a shift in the types of cases being filed from May to July, with 3,555 out of 6,943 filed due to nonpayment of rent alone (51.20%).
The high number of eviction filings in certain metro counties, namely Anoka, Dakota, Hennepin, and Ramsey, has delayed initial court hearing dates for several weeks or even months, so tenants often initially hear about the case against them from our letter before any formal court summons is issued.
Total Letters sent since May 1st through the Eviction Prevention Project
While many things can occur while a case is pending, such as a dismissal or cancellation, it is still important for us to reach tenants as quickly as possible so they can understand what their legal rights are in their situation, their options are going forward, and what they can expect in negotiations with their landlord and when they attend court. Even if a case is dismissed before the initial hearing the tenant will likely still need to seek advice on if they can expunge the eviction from their record and how to navigate the obstacles tenants face such as filing fees and time-consuming bureaucratic processes. With our efforts, we provide tenants the opportunity to obtain timely and pertinent guidance through all this.