Nothing else matters when a family loses its home. Children do not finish school, the baby does not go to the doctor and meals are skipped. Restful sleep is impossible without a bedroom. Hunger, sickness and depression are common. Living in fear of crime is ever-present for the unsheltered. The list of harms is endless.
In Georgia, the legal process to force a family out of its home is called a dispossessory or an eviction and the primary reason is for unpaid rent. In my meetings with tenants facing eviction, the most common misperception I hear is that if the tenant testifies about a financial hardship at court, the judge will order the parties to work out a payment plan or give them more time to move. Unfortunately, Georgia law requires that if the judge finds the tenant owes rent and no other defenses are available, the judge must order a Writ of Possession within seven days allowing the sheriff to forcibly remove the tenant. If the tenant fails to appear in court, the writ can be issued immediately and a default judgment will be entered against the tenant for unpaid rent and fees.
Credit: contributed
Credit: contributed
Another incorrect assumption people make is that an eviction will not appear on their record unless the sheriff removes them. On the contrary, eviction filings are public records and an eviction will show on a tenant’s screening report soon after it is filed. This is true even if the eviction was filed in error or is dismissed at court. Prospective landlords can use the tenant screening report to deny housing even if the former landlord is at fault. Tenants are faced with an impossible situation; they must find another place to live within a few days but no one will rent them a home because an eviction has been filed against them.
Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond wrote in “Evicted,” his 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, that since the 2008 recession, incomes have remained flat, housing costs have soared and eviction rates have skyrocketed. The poorest among us pay between 60% to 80% of their income in the private rental market. A person is more likely to lose their job if they get evicted because stress from an eviction affects job performance. A job application is incomplete without a home address. Psychiatrists identify eviction as a “significant precursor to suicide.”
In August 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed evictions to resume. Since then, more than 252,000 evictions have been filed in the 5-county metro Atlanta area, according to Georgia Tech’s Eviction Tracker. From January 1 to June 30 of this year, 72,635 evictions were filed, an increase of 12% over the same period in 2022. Atlanta is now evicting more of its families than it did before the pandemic. As James Baldwin wrote, “Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” Evictions are a problem for society to solve, not just for the individual or family.
The final stage of an eviction can be traumatic, especially for families with children. Angry and fearful, they watch helplessly as strangers put their possessions on the lawn. Family pets are often impounded and euthanized. The process disrupts lives, destroys families and has a detrimental effect across every area of society. Without a home, everything falls apart.
During the pandemic, certain occupations were defined as essential workers. Sadly, these are the people who can no longer afford to live in the Atlanta area. As the median rent surpasses $2,000 and landlords require tenants to earn three times that amount, younger families priced out of the market are teachers, law enforcement personnel, firefighters and nurses. Likewise, people on social security or disability have nowhere to turn.
What happens to families after the sheriff has forcibly removed them? Barred from the rental market, often their only options are pricey extended-stay motels which can cost more than $630 per week for a single room. Without living space, they must put their furniture and other valuable items into storage units that can cost $250 or more each month. As Baldwin also noted: “Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.”
The core problems are clear: inequality of income and the lack of affordable housing. When these issues are resolved, society’s costs of evictions will be reduced. Consider it trickle-up economics, but unlike its trickle-down counterpart the benefits will accrue to everyone.
Richard W. Merritt is a housing attorney in the Cobb County office of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society.
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