Project Description

Harris County seeks to maximize the impact of its COVID-19 rental assistance funding by investing in eviction defense legal services for low-income residents. Harris County has had an increased number of evictions, especially for non-payment of rent due to household financial losses related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Housing instability has lasting negative health and financial impacts on the families losing their homes as well as their communities. During the public health crisis and aftermath, the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Program will continue to support a network of housing legal service providers to meet increased demand through funding for attorneys, paralegals, intake staff, interpretation, community outreach, and programmatic costs associated with these services as well as those costs necessary to ensure the provision of this legal assistance safely in light of the public health and economic crisis.

As the nation continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. is facing an eviction crisis. Eviction filings in Harris County are above the pre-pandemic average: From January through July 2022, landlords filed 121,248 evictions; and tenants were represented by an attorney in only 1.96% of those cases. In one week in August 2022 alone, Justice courts scheduled 1,865 eviction hearings. These figures do not include informal evictions, in which families self-evict before receiving a formal notice of a court setting. The program makes short-term, non-cash, in-kind emergency disaster relief in the form of consulting, referral, legal, and other related legal services directed to cure legal needs due to COVID-19 for qualifying applicants in Harris County, Texas. This program will further the objectives of the County and serve the broader purpose of protecting the health, safety, and economic welfare of Harris County residents.