4 November 24–30, 2022 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Month XX–Month XX, 2014 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER | Classified | MusiC | dish | Movies | Culture | Night+day | feature | sChutze | uNfair Park | CoNteNts | “Pre-COVID, there was a pretty predictable seasonality in eviction filing patterns,” Flores said. “So, we always saw a big jump in January, and then evictions would kind of fall in the spring. Then they would start to climb back up in the summer, and there would be another peak late summer, early fall. And they would decline in the winter, jump back up in January, jump back down … But COVID really disrupted that pattern. “We can’t say if we’re sort of returning to some of that seasonality or if we’re entering a new normal as far as eviction filing patterns are concerned.” Whatever is around the corner, advocates want to be prepared. “We’re at a sort of unique point in time,” Flores said. “During COVID we had so many new resources that came to Dallas for eviction prevention. We had rent relief, we have new legal aid efforts. So, all of this infrastructure was stood up in kind of record time, really, to support renters in need. Now, as the federal rent relief winds down, and we’re sort of approaching a new normal, I think we’re sort of at a transition where we need to consider what comes next. What should a permanent eviction prevention infrastructure look like? We’ve learned so much over the last couple of years about renter needs and housing instability that we’re really at the point where it’s time to plan for what comes next, and how do we sustain all this good work that has been started.” As people work to set up that permanent infrastructure, others are trying out new strategies, like diversion, which is essentially doing everything possible to keep tenants from ending up on the streets or in emergency shelters. It has proven far cheaper than letting people slip into homelessness. Family Gateway, a nonprofit focused on getting families into affordable housing, has run the numbers. From January to September, the nonprofit was able to keep 350 families out of emergency shelters through diversion. About half of those families needed only Family Gateway’s time to help them come up with their own solutions. “We often find that those in trauma are not able to access the ‘executive function’ part of their brain but are in ‘fight, freeze, or flight’ mode and just need someone to help them process and think through alternatives to shelter, call family they are embarrassed to call to ask for help, etc.,” Ellen Magnis, president and CEO of Family Gateway, told the Observer by email. Other families needed financial help raning from $1,000 to $5,000. That assistance could go toward a deposit on a new apartment, late rent or paying for transportation out of state to family members willing to take tenants in. “So, tallying up the total amount we expended on the diverted families (including staff time) and dividing by the number of diverted families, this averaged to $1,275 per family,” Magnis said. That’s cheaper than the average shelter stay for a family. It costs about $160 a night to place a family in a shelter. That covers their meals, case management, education support for the kids, unemployment support for the adults and a slew of other things. Families are in shelters for an average of 77 days, costing a total of more than $12,000. “We would far prefer to pour resources into helping families avoid shelter … than to take every family seeking shelter services into a shelter,” Magnis said. “No matter how good the shelter, it is traumatic for families to live in a communal setting. We also don’t want shelter to become a ‘normalized’ experience for families. We want families to rely on their own resources as much as possible. Shelter is the most expensive intervention we offer, so we want to use it wisely and effectively.” Meanwhile, people like attorney Mark Melton are trying to help set up permanent protections for tenants in Dallas. He has been assisting tenants facing eviction throughout the pandemic. Today, he does so through the nonprofit he started with his wife, Lauren, called Dallas Eviction Advocacy Center. The nonprofit offers free legal representation to tenants in Dallas facing eviction. Melton also wrote a temporary Dallas ordinance two years ago that provided more protection to people facing eviction by giving them extra time before being thrown out of their homes. Every moment counts when you’re down on your luck. Melton knows this from experience. In 1999, the Meltons arrived in Dallas after leaving behind a broken life in Tulsa. He was 21 years old with two children when he and 5,000 other workers were laid off from their jobs at a company called Commercial Financial Services. The Meltons, who weren’t married at the time, didn’t have college degrees or job prospects. For the next few months, they tried to make ends meet but eventually ran out of money. They lost their house and one of their cars. Selling what they could, they gathered about $1,500 and everything they could pack into their Honda Civic and headed to Dallas with the kids. They thought more opportunities awaited them in the city. The family of four hunkered down in a 450-square-foot apartment, and Melton found a job making cold calls trying to sell oil and gas investments. The Meltons eventually enrolled in college, living in student housing and working odd jobs while they took as many classes as they could. After all the struggle, Melton made it into the law program at Southern Methodist University and got hired by the law firm Hunton & Williams when he graduated. It took the family about eight years to get back on top after losing everything in Tulsa. Now, Mark and Lauren Melton work to try to prevent people’s lives from getting turned upside down like theirs did. Often, all people need is a little more time. (Lauren Melton is taking classes at the University of North Texas to get a degree in nonprofit management and hopes to attend law school next.) Before the pandemic, landlords could issue eviction notices to anyone who was a dollar short on rent. The notice would usually say the tenants had three days to leave the property. That often scared people into leaving voluntarily, but it also started the eviction process. From there, the eviction could get a hearing in court, and if the judge ruled in favor of the landlord, a constable would come knocking on the door to remove renters and all their belongings. Things were different under Melton’s temporary eviction ordinance. It gave people 21 days from the initial eviction notice to provide proof that they had been financially affected by the pandemic, causing them to fall behind on rent. If they did that, they had 60 days from the initial notice to avoid eviction. During that time they could negotiate a payment plan with the landlord, apply for rental assistance or find a new place to stay. If the tenant did everything right and the courts handled the eviction case correctly, which doesn’t always happen, Melton said, the tenant would get the extra time to avoid ending up on the street. Over time though, the ordinance became less effective, and few people got the full intended benefit from it because it became harder for tenants to prove that COVID-19 was the reason they were behind on rent. So, people were getting only an extra 21 days to avoid eviction in most cases. A recent change to the temporary ordinance rectified this, and a permanent ordinance could be brought to City Council for consideration by the end of this year. The changes to the temporary ordinance give tenants 10 days from their initial eviction notice to prove they’ve applied for rental assistance. If they do that, they get a full 60 days from the initial notice to avoid eviction. The ordinance now includes Mike Brooks Lawyer Mark Melton and his wife, Lauren Melton, are working together to help tenants fight eviction. Unfair Park from p3 The changes To The TeMporary ordinance give TenanTs 10 days froM Their iniTiaL evicTion noTice To prove They’ve appLied for renTaL assisTance