This was, by far, the hotline’s busiest February ever. This isn’t anything new—we’ve been setting record monthly call volume numbers for a long time now. We track three levels of call volume at HOME Line. The first is new calls—a new caller or a new issue from a prior caller. The second is follow-up calls—where we are working with a previous caller about an issue but new questions arise about the same issue. The last is total calls—combining new and follow-up calls.
New Calls: Since October 2021, we’ve set a record number of calls for that month, every month. November 2021 was our busiest November ever. December was our busiest December everand that trend has continued all the way to the present. February was our busiest February ever for new calls, where we took 1,667 new calls, topping last year’s number of 1,367 calls.
Follow-Up Calls: We set a new mark for follow-up calls in February as well; 1,341 follow-up calls, wildly outpacing last year’s number of 877 follow-up calls. You’d have to go back to December 2020 to the last time we didn’t set a year-over-year record for any month’s follow-up calls—26 straight months of setting a monthly high record in follow-ups. Caller issues have simply gotten more complex in the last couple of years.
Total Calls: In February, 2023 we took a total of 3,008 total calls, compared to 2,244 in February 2022: a 34% increase. January 2021 was the last month where we didn’t set a year-over-year record for total calls—over two years ago.
Why are we so busy? As covered in recent months, the unprecedented number of eviction filings continues to drive the increase in our call volume more than anything else.
Here are the top 10 call reasons in February:
| Call Reason | Number of Calls |
| Evictions | 573 Calls |
| Repairs | 434 Calls |
| Break Lease Questions | 122 Calls |
| Security Deposits | 120 Calls |
| Landlord Notice to Vacate | 116 Calls |
| Lease Questions/Review | 83 Calls |
| Financial Aid Questions | 75 Calls |
| Fees | 66 Calls |
| Rent Increase | 59 Calls |
| Neighbor Issues | 56 Calls |
We are coming up on ‘renewal/move-out’ season so we expect to see a lot more questions about rent increases and eventually security deposits in the coming months.
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