TITLE
Title
CONTRACT TO OPERATE AN EVICTION MEDIATION AND LANDLORD OUTREACH PROGRAM WITH UNC-G
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SPONSOR
Sponsor
Cheri Neal and Victor Isler
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BACKGROUND
Background
Guilford County entered into a contract with the UNC Greensboro Center for Housing and Community Studies (CHCS) in November 2022 to help address the needs of vulnerable, low-income communities experiencing housing instability and potential evictions. During the current contract term, from November 2022 to March 2023, CHCS has held 57 eviction clinic days in the courthouse in partnership with Legal Aid and together served over 1400 households across eviction mediation, rental assistance, and referrals to other services. During this same period there were 4,343 evictions on the court docket on the days the clinic was present in court. Of those cases, approximately 31% (1,332) were dismissed by the court or the landlord and an additional 18% (775) were delayed by being continued to a later date. Additionally, UNC-G has conducted 69 one-on-one landlord engagements, primarily with small landlords who have 1 to 10 units.
Staff recommend entering into a new 12-month contract with UNC-G to provide the same program eviction mediation and counseling components, and the landlord outreach program. The eviction mediation and counseling program includes a triage system of housing counseling and resource navigation that will guide tenants through options to address rental arrears, address cost burdens, and connect with existing resources in the community. Additionally, it includes eviction mediation work focused on facilitating a resolution to pending or eminent evictions in coordination with Legal Aid of North Carolina. The program will continue to operate for 2 days per week in Greensboro and 2 days per week in High Point. UNC-G will continue to maintain a cloud-based client management system to track the number of clients served, connections and referrals, and outcomes for those clients. The lan...
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