The first quarter of 2023 is over and we have, once again, record call volume on the tenant hotline.
2022 was, by far, the busiest year for calls in HOME Line’s history. 2023 is shaping up to be even more massive, with 5,467 calls in the first quarter, a 14% increase over last year’s record pace. Follow-up calls have increased even more, with 3,975 calls, a 26% increase over last year.
We’ve also seen an increase in calls in a language other than English. HOME Line has staff fluent in Spanish, Somali and Hmong, and we saw a 41% increase in calls in a language other than English over last year’s first quarter (which was the record number at that time).
Why are we continuing to see this increase in calls? Here are the top 10 reasons for calls for the first quarter, along with the percentage increase/decrease from this quarter last year.
First Quarter 2023 Hotline Calls
Evictions have exploded since June, 2022, when all the remaining pandemic-related eviction moratorium protections officially expired. During the first quarter of 2022, landlords couldn’t file evictions for the most common reason for evictions; non-payment of rent, if the tenant had a pending application through RentHelpMN. Since June, eviction filings have shot up and continue to maintain a historically high level. This explains the 46% increase in eviction calls to HOME Line this quarter.
Why are there so many eviction calls to HOME Line? There are a record # of evictions being filed. In the first quarter of 2023, there were over 6,400 evictions filed statewide—a 41% increase over the first quarter of last year. If that pace continues, there will be over 25,000 residential evictions filed in MN this year.
Last year’s first quarter was a bit of an outlier for eviction filings though, because some of the eviction moratorium protections were still in place. The 3rd quarter of 2022 should have been the highest level of eviction calls since all the moratorium protections were gone,and it was the highest quarter with 6,542 calls. But unexpectedly the 1st quarter of 2023 was also high —with 6,432 calls. This was only 2% less than that record eviction quarter immediately following the re-opening of all evictions.
A couple notes about the two largest decreases:
Landlord Notices to Vacate—down 36%. Again, this is a comparison to 2022’s first quarter, a time when landlords didn’t have the traditionally available option of filing evictions for non-payment of rent. Many landlords opted to simply not renew leases during this period. It appears that approach has simply shifted to landlords filing evictions this year.
Financial Aid Questions—down 40%. HOME Line doesn’t provide financial aid to tenants, but we get a lot of questions about it. During the first quarter of 2022, RentHelpMN was still active (although officially unavailable in late January, 2022) so tenants still had myriad questions about this system last year. Since RentHelpMN is dormant now, the questions about that system (which was still relatively new last year and complicated) have effectively ended.
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