HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo - Mail Packet - 2/27/2024 - Memorandum From Jc Ward And Leo Escalante Re: Eviction Legal Fund 2023 Year End Report
281 North College Avenue
P.O. Box 580
Fort Collins, CO 80522.0580
970.224.6046
NeighborhoodServices@fcgov.com
cc: Paul Sizemore, Director, Community Development & Neighborhood Services
Marcy Yoder, Sr. Manager, Neighborhood Services
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Eviction Legal Fund Year End Report – 2023
Community Development & Neighborhood Services
MEMORANDUM
DATE: February 13, 2024
TO: Mayor Arndt and City Councilmembers
THRU: Kelly DiMartino, City Manager
Tyler Marr, Deputy City Manager
Caryn Champine, Director, Planning, Development & Transportation
FROM: JC Ward, Neighborhood Programs Manager, Neighborhood Services
Leo Escalante, Neighborhood Liaison, Neighborhood Services
RE: Eviction Legal Fund 2023 Year End Report
This memo aims to provide City Council members with an annual update on activities performed and
opportunities identified as part of the implementation of the City’s ARPA-funded Eviction Legal Fund for the
period of January 2023 to December 2023.
2023 Eviction Legal Fund Overview
The City of Fort Collins Eviction Legal Fund is a grant program that provides funding to legal service providers
and community partners to support housing stability through tenant and landlord education programs,
outreach, legal advice clinics, and direct client representation for Fort Collins residents. Beginning in 2020 with
CARES Act funding as part of the pandemic response, the program continued from 2021 through today with
CARES Act funding and American Rescue Plan Act (“ARPA”) funding. Colorado Poverty Law Project (“CPLP”),
Fuerza Latina, and Interfaith Solidarity and Accompaniment Coalition (“ISAAC”) provided outstanding services
for the program in 2023. The mosaic of partners embedded in a variety of vulnerable and low-income Fort
Collins communities created a powerful collective impact. The 2023 Eviction Legal Fund awarded $200,000 in
grants to service providers.
In 2023 through the Eviction Legal Fund, our ARPA-fund investment:
• Kept an average of three families per week in their homes through direct legal representation
• Demonstrated the cost effectiveness of keeping people housed – costing $1,282 per family (3 families
per week in 2023/$200,000 ARPA funding) vs. the $38,000-95,000 per person annual cost of
homelessness.
• Reached more than 1,600 residents through all funded services
• Served 1,563 renters
• Served 45 landlords
• Resolved 119 eviction/housing-related cases that required an attorney
• Provided legal representation for 20 families in court proceedings for eviction
• Achieved eviction avoidance in 94% of the cases that had support from an attorney
• Resolved conflicts through mediation in 11 cases and assisted 65 landlords and tenants through
conflict coaching
• Trained volunteers in 22 mediation training sessions
• Offered 29 Know Your Rights trainings and other educational events with 605 attendees
• Provided 6 “Ask a Lawyer” legal clinics for 709 participants
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Eviction Legal Fund Year End Report – 2023
• Assisted 130 community members with eviction-related resources through a housing hotline
• Helped build and maintain trusting relationships among community members, the City of Fort Collins,
and service providers with CPLP and Fuerza Latina participating since 2020 and ISAAC since 2022
The participation rates and program outcomes in 2023 reinforced the prioritization of early intervention in
housing stability-related cases by service providers, indicating higher success rates for all parties involved
where education, training, mediation, trust building experiences, and conflict coaching are available before
these issues involve the courts or law enforcement.
Background
Identified as a critical path for the City during the COVID-19 response and recovery, the Eviction Legal Fund
was piloted and supported by CARES Act funding in 2020 and 2021. Due to the ongoing need for these
services and in recognition of the success of the pilot program, the Eviction Legal Fund received continued
financial resources for 2022, 2023, and 2024 from the City’s ARPA funds. Modeled after the Neighborhood
Grant programs to allow for rapid deployment of resources, the Eviction Legal Fund has been coordinated by
the Neighborhood Services Department since its inception. It was designed to meet numerous City Strategic
Goals related to housing stability, neighborhood livability, and equity (detailed in the Strategic Alignment
section below). This program has cross-departmental synergy and is seen as a beneficial complement to
ongoing housing stability work by Social Sustainability, Neighborhood Services, and Utilities. It also resolved
limitations on customer service that did not permit the City to provide legal advice or refer issues to attorneys
by creating a pathway for those free services to the public without also creating liability for City departments
and staff.
Pre-pandemic, only one organization, Colorado Legal Services, was operating in Larimer County for low-cost
or no cost legal services in civil cases. When the pandemic began, this local low-income legal service provider
was already operating at 100% capacity, creating a widening gap in resources during COVID response and
recovery. Some residents, including undocumented community members, did not qualify for Colorado Legal
Services representation because of the source of the organization’s funding. The Eviction Legal Fund has
been successfully filling much of that gap over the last three years by providing resources that attracted
Colorado Poverty Law Project to bring their services to Northern Colorado for the first time and leveraging the
expertise of trusted nonprofit partners with deep roots in the community to connect residents with additional
new resources like the housing hotline and Know Your Rights training sessions for both landlords and tenants.
CPLP now has one full-time attorney and two bilingual support staff that work exclusively on cases
from Larimer County and a mobile home park specialist from their Denver office who works
extensively with Fort Collins residents and City staff.
Lessons Learned
Continuing Need
Although some impacts of COVID-19 have decreased over time, housing stability has not fully recovered from
the dramatic increase in housing prices and economic hardships experienced during the height of the
pandemic, particularly for residents from historically marginalized communities for whom the pandemic
compounded existing inequities. The additional resources like increased rent assistance and tenant
protections, such as eviction moratoria, in place from 2020 through 2022 have now also lapsed. However, our
community partners and legal service providers still report that threats of eviction, landlord-tenant conflicts, and
the inability to pay rent or utilities are maintaining higher than pre-pandemic rates. Rent assistance shortages
for Fort Collins residents began in July 2023 and continued through the end of the year as need outpaced
available funds.
Legal advice, educational resources on tenant and landlord rights and responsibilities, and legal representation
are an important component of the affordable, stable housing puzzle in Fort Collins that offers practical conflict
resolution options with proven ability to keep residents housed. Participation in all Eviction Legal Fund
components was relatively consistent throughout each quarter of 2023 with Q1 and Q4 demonstrating higher
need for services. The exception to participation rate consistency was the legal advice clinics that saw an 80%
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Eviction Legal Fund Year End Report – 2023
increase in attendance in Q4 2023 over participation in Q1 2023. This may be due to the increasing need for
this type of service or it may reflect the results of outreach and awareness efforts over the last three years.
o “Proactive Outreach” includes Know Your Rights training, Mediation Volunteer Training, and Conflict Coaching
o State and Federal Eviction Moratoria were in place during the Eviction Legal Fund from 2020- September 2021.
Efficient Service Model
Annual capacity for legal services by a single attorney for low-income clients is approximately 225 cases,
including direct legal representation and brief legal advice consultations. The approximate current annual
salary for an attorney from an organization serving low-income clients is approximately $100,000. The Eviction
Legal Fund provided direct legal representation in 139 cases and reached 709 community members through
legal clinic events, the equivalent work of 3.77 full-time attorneys with salaries of $377,000 working exclusively
on cases from Fort Collins. The current funding for this program is $200,000 per year. In addition to providing
these opportunities for contact with attorneys, the Eviction Legal Fund reached 760 residents through the other
education and outreach components of the program by leveraging the expertise of community nonprofit
organizations for program delivery.
Greater Need for Early Conflict Intervention
An eviction case being filed with the court reflects one of the final stages of landlord-tenant conflict where one
or both parties do not believe resolution is possible without a court order. However, there are numerous points
for conflict intervention by qualified service providers before parties reach that point. While most of the
resources accessed through the Eviction Legal Fund (53%) required contact with an attorney, hundreds of
residents had issues, questions, and conflicts resolved through early intervention program components like
Know Your Rights trainings, housing hotline calls, and mediation. Participation in these components increased
by 280% since the program’s first full year in 2021.
Program Demographics
As a caveat to the data presented in this section, note that a concerted effort has been made to reach
historically underserved and marginalized community members through the Eviction Legal Fund over the last
three years, as they were identified as some of the most at-risk populations for COVID-19 impacts and
continue to experience compounding intersectional vulnerabilities that contribute to housing instability. Data
may represent the current state of the community but it may also reflect the success in targeting specific
demographics through outreach efforts.
The 2023 Eviction Legal Fund gives us a picture of the residents in Fort Collins who are currently housed, but
facing housing instability. Most of these residents are employed but are in the “extremely low income” range,
with 61% of participants making below 30% Area Median Income (“AMI”). Residents from Communities of
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
Proactive Outreach Educational
Materials Distributed
Direct Legal
Representation &
Legal Clinics
Hotline Calls
Eviction Legal Fund Services by Type 2020-2023
2020 (Sept-Dec)2021 2022 2023
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Eviction Legal Fund Year End Report – 2023
Color are overrepresented in the client population when compared to the overall city population, particularly for
Latiné residents.
Although the highest number of people assisted through the Eviction Legal Fund who needed services from an
attorney were in their 20’s, there is a fairly consistent distribution of clients ranging from age 18 to 59 years old,
indicating a widespread housing affordability issue throughout the community. Senior citizens comprised the
lowest percentage of participants in this program, but were more likely to also be unemployed than participants
in other age ranges. The highest percentage of participants who needed representation or advice from an
attorney live in Council District 1 (32%), Council District 6 (24%), and Council District 2 (19%).*
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Eviction Legal Fund Year End Report – 2023
Council Districts reflect home addresses based on pre-redistricting designations existing before August 2022.
Impacts beyond the numbers
Service providers for the Eviction Legal Fund (“ELF”) submit narratives of impact from participants in the
program components they deliver. One theme that emerged from these client stories in 2023 was the
cascading impact of circumstances outside the control of the renter, such as health issues or landlords refusing
to repair units, that result in housing instability.
• A couple with three young children live in a local mobile home park. They experienced a backup of
sewage in the home, which made it unlivable. The park management refused to take responsibility for
the situation and the couple contacted the ELF for assistance. Attorneys were able to step in to ensure
the home was cleaned up, repairs were made, and the family received compensation for loss of use
and expenses.
• A woman undergoing breast cancer treatment had an apartment flooded with water. She was staying in
a hotel at her own significant cost. The landlord waited two weeks to hire someone to repair the leak.
The repairs were not done property, the toilet was removed, and there was water damage and mold
everywhere. With no projected repair date, this tenant contacted the ELF for help and was able to
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Eviction Legal Fund Year End Report – 2023
negotiate a mutual rescission of her lease along with compensation to repay her expenses and allow
her to relocate to a new apartment.
• A resident had fallen behind on rent after being hospitalized and slipping into a coma. He came to the
Eviction Legal Fund after an eviction judgment had been entered against him while he was in the
hospital. Attorneys negotiated a stipulation with the property owner to allow the resident to pay the rent
arrears and remain in his home.
• A monolingual, Spanish-speaking mobile homeowner signed off on a nonpayment eviction and
judgment entered against her, despite the documents being in a language she did not speak or
understand. The mobile homeowner had informed the landlord’s attorney she did not speak English but
the landlord's attorney never offered to communicate with her in Spanish or translate the documents
into Spanish. Attorneys with the ELF connected the homeowner to a rent/mortgage assistance
program, and drafted a motion to vacate the judgment, in part, because the documents were not
translated or explained to the homeowner in Spanish. The landlord’s attorney agreed to vacate the
judgment and dismiss the case. Mortgage assistance paid the homeowner’s back lot rent and she was
able to remain in her home.
Strategic Plan Alignment
• Housing Strategic Plan (2021) - Greatest Challenge 7: Housing policies have not consistently
addressed housing stability and healthy housing, especially for people who rent. The Eviction Legal
Fund was identified as a “Quick Win” Strategy to directly support legal representation if an issue needs
to be resolved by the court and provide additional tools and resources necessary to carry this strategy
in instances where early intervention or a wider variety of options might keep people housed and
resolve housing-related conflicts.
- Strategy 25: Fund foreclosure and eviction prevention and legal representation
• City of Fort Collins Strategic Plan (2022)
- 1.1 Increase housing supply and choice and address inequities in housing to ensure that everyone
has healthy, stable housing they can afford.
- 1.4 Advance equity for all with an emphasis on racial justice to remove systemic barriers so that
persons of all identities, including race, ethnicity, religion, gender, age, class, sexual orientation, and
mental and physical abilities can fully participate in City services and experience equitable community
outcomes.
- 1.5 Enhance the quality of life and sense of belonging in neighborhoods by connecting neighbors to
City services, building community and fostering harmonious relationships.
Next Steps
The Eviction Legal Fund has been in place for forty (40) months as of December 2023. Performance metrics
reflect the success of the program, the impact on equity in the community, its contribution to housing stability,
improved customer service for neighbors, and an efficient use of program dollars from federal sources. The
program has ARPA funding through the end of 2024 and currently is contracted with Colorado Poverty Law
Project, ISAAC, and Fuerza Latina to continue their work this year. City staff will submit a 2025/2026 BFO offer
through the budgeting process to support the Eviction Legal Fund into the future.
The implementation of Rental Housing programs (in association with new requirements for rental registration)
is expected to be a strong complement to the services of the Eviction Legal Fund. Rental Housing programs
will focus on fostering positive relations between landlords and tenants to encourage conversation and conflict
resolution outside of the court system, avoiding costly legal fees. The portfolio of educational programming and
housing quality grants coming online in 2024 will focus on enhancing resources available to landlords and
tenants through all stages of a lease agreement.
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