Idaho courts halted evictions, but Boiseans are still getting kicked out of their homes
In March, as clients were drying up for her in-home job as a self-employed medical assistant, Boise resident Rhonda Englander realized that she wouldn’t be able to pay her next month’s rent.
Englander sent a note to her landlord, asking for April’s month to be forgiven. She offered to pay $600 of her $1,200 federal coronavirus-aid check to the landlord, as soon as it came in. She hoped, too, that her lease would be renewed come May.
But her property management company, the Eagle-based DJW Property Management, wasn’t forgiving. She would need to pay April’s rent, and her 12-month lease would not be renewed for May. As the governor was giving orders to all Idahoans to stay at home, Englander was being told to go find a new one.
Englander is not alone. Even though the Idaho Supreme Court temporarily suspended eviction proceedings through the end of April, some renters are still being kicked out of their homes. Tenants, already strained by record unemployment rates, face a difficult choice: Do they move out by the end of the month, or risk eviction when the stay-at-home order is lifted?
“All the people they’re telling to vacate — how are those people supposed to get a new place to live when there’s a stay-at-home order?” Englander said.
Tenants call for rent deferment, forgiveness
Zoe Ann Olson, executive director of the Intermountain Fair Housing Council, reports a spike in renters asking for help so they don’t have to move once the order is lifted.
“Our concern is that once the stay-at-home order is lifted and if it’s not extended, then we will see a flood of evictions … from those who were late on payments and those who are now not able to pay,” she said.
Olson said she has heard from many people like Englander, whose leases were not renewed, as well as people seeking rental assistance. Typically, she heard from 10 to 15 people a week calling about rental assistance. In March, she started getting around 30 calls a week, plus 10 to 20 intakes over email.
It’s not just an Idaho problem. Nearly a third of U.S. renters didn’t pay their rent in April, according to data from the National Multifamily Housing Council, an industry group.
Although most courts stopped nearing new eviction cases, with the exception of drug-related evictions, courts have still ordered the Ada County Sheriff’s Office to carry out 17 evictions since Gov. Brad Little’s stay-at-home order, according to spokesman Patrick Orr. In Canyon County, the Sheriff’s Office carried out 10 evictions throughout March and April, most of which were already in motion prior to the governor’s order, said spokesman Joe Decker.
Most renters can work successfully with their landlords to negotiate rental deferrals or extend their leases, Olson said.
The coronavirus aid bill passed by Congress in March also provides relief to some renters. Landlord who receive forbearance on their mortgages under the law are barred from serving eviction notices to tenants. The law also prohibits landlords with federally backed mortgages from evicting renters until at least July 25.
In March, the Idaho Apartment Association, a trade group that represents multifamily housing investors and property managers, encouraged landlords to work with their tenants on rent deferment plans to keep them in their homes.
But some landlords, like Englander’s, have taken a harder line, even for renters who have lost their income due to the coronavirus.
‘I’m going to fight it’
Englander, 59, hasn’t had any medical-assistance assignments since the beginning of March because of the coronavirus. She applied to Idaho’s Department of Labor for unemployment benefits in March, but has been told she was ineligible because she is a contract worker. (Many contract workers are eligible, however, for federal payments of $168 to $448 per week that the department says will be paid starting in May.)
She relied on Jesse Tree, a Boise nonprofit that helps prevent eviction and homelessness, to pay her April rent.
But her property manager, the Eagle-based DJW Property Management, won’t offer her another 12-month lease on Englander’s two-bedroom, two-bath apartment on the Bench. She could face fines, on top of court fees, if she refuses to move out.
“I’m going to fight it,” Englander said. “I absolutely will not move. I hope justice prevails for every family facing this.”
Some landlords struggle with lack of income
A representative for DJW, owned by Denny Werner of Eagle, declined to comment. The company deferred questions to its attorney, Gary Neal, of Boise, who said he advised DJW not to make exceptions for any clients because they would then have to make exceptions for everyone.
“Once the door is open, it has to be opened for all the tenants,” he said Friday by phone.
Offering rent deferment agreements can be a “risk” to property managers, who also have a responsibility to the homeowners they work for, Neal said. DJW has not processed any evictions during the month of April, he said.
Property owners may themselves be under financial strain without rent coming in, Neal added.
“I do see a number of owners being stressed,” he said.
Scrambling to move amid a pandemic
Meanwhile, renters like Sherry Biddle are left to deal with the fallout.
For the last year, Biddle, a 46-year-old mother who works at the Boise Airport, has been on a month-to-month lease with DJW for her 2,000-square-foot house in West Boise. At the end of the March, Biddle discovered that her home was listed online for $1,895 a month, an increase from her current rent of $1,475.
Biddle called DJW and asked if she could renew her lease at the new rate, but the company declined to sign a lease. The company said it was because she had earlier violated the neighborhoods homeowners association rules by keeping a trailer in her driveway, she said.
In April, DJW told Biddle she would need to leave the house when the property manager brought prospective tenants on tours.
“They’re telling me, ‘You can’t be here when we do this,’” Biddle said in a phone interview. “Where am I supposed to go?”
Unlike Englander, Biddle isn’t going to risk a potential legal battle with DJW.
“I’m moving because I don’t want to be charged with a big, huge fee,” she said. She said she can’t afford it.
Amid the stress of coronavirus, she hunted for an apartment. “It’s really tough,” she said. But she found a new house.
She scrambled to put together enough money for the first and last month’s rent, plus a security deposit. These totaled nearly $4,000.
Earlier this week, Biddle started packing up her house — far sooner than she ever imagined she would have to.
Canceling rent and evictions
Housing advocates are urging Mayor Lauren McLean to use emergency powers the City Council granted her in March to cancel rent and evictions.
“The reality is that many of us struggled under ‘normal’ circumstances,” wrote the advocacy group Boise Renters United in a letter to McLean earlier this week. “The hardships we face have only been exacerbated by this pandemic.”
McLean says the city has no legal authority to cancel rent, even under the new ordinance. But she said she asked Gov. Little to consider policies that could protect renters unable to pay their rent.
Some progressive national lawmakers are backing a bill in Congress proposed by Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar to cancel rent and mortgage payments and instead use federal dollars to cover the losses suffered by landlords and mortgage holders until one month after the national emergency that President Donald Trump declared in March ends.
Meanwhile, Olson says she is putting in long hours to make sure that vulnerable tenants don’t end up homeless in the midst of a stay-at-home order.
“That would be the worst thing — not just for that person, but for the community — to have that person more susceptible to COVID-19,” Olson said. “One way we can community-wide vaccinate ourselves, is to make sure people are staying housed.”
This story was originally published April 25, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Idaho courts halted evictions, but Boiseans are still getting kicked out of their homes."
