Eviction Protection Petition
Mayor Cooper and General Sessions Court
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For the last month we have witnessed the ways that Nashville residents are falling into homelessness because of the lack of care and diligence on the part of our court system. Day in and day out, judges are ruling against tenants that have nowhere to turn for affordable housing with no regard for CDC protections and no mention of the LEGACY court that was set up specifically to handle eviction mitigation during the pandemic.
Saddling our most vulnerable both with an eviction on their rental record and enormous debt is a choice that our city administration and courts have made. The federal government has attempted to avoid an eviction crisis by making millions of dollars in aid available. Our city designed an application portal that is ineffective and that prioritizes the city’s audit protections rather than our residents. The resulting backlog of applications has contributed to hundreds of evictions in July, both by default and by refusal to participate by landlords and debt collection lawyers.
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To:
Mayor Cooper and General Sessions Court
From:
[Your Name]
Nashville is facing a State of Emergency as the national moratorium on evictions ends on July 31. Already, about 700 residents have been evicted or displaced during a pandemic. The end of the moratoriums will lead to a surge of evictions and wreak trauma on Nashville’s poor and moderate-income renters.
The People’s Alliance for Transit, Housing, and Employment (PATHE) along with community advocates are calling for emergency relief to assist the hundreds, if not thousands, of Nashville residents facing evictions in the forthcoming months. PATHE and other community advocates are demanding the following action items:
1. Automatically divert all residents facing eviction that have an active application under the Emergency Rental Assistance program (administered by Metro Action Commission) to the L.E.G.A.C.Y. Housing Resource Diversionary Court.
2. Landlords of residents/tenants that have started an application for rental assistance can then OPT OUT of the L.E.G.A.C.Y. court if they are unwilling to accept federal funds to recoup back rent. In this case, the rental assistance money should be sent directly to the tenant.
3. Landlords shall be required to apply for rental assistance funds BEFORE seeking any monetary settlement against the tenant, and any late fees assessed after a resident or tenant applies for assistance should be waived.
4. The creation of a special advisor on evictions in the Mayor’s office that can triage evictions, work with the courts, assist with the relocation of displaced residents, and identify bad actors in the rental industry.