1. Eviction Prevention Planning
Presented by Ted A. Lovato, LMSW, CCDS, CART
Vice President & Chief Operations Officer
To the Tarrant County Homeless Coalition,
Providers Roundtable, September 15, 2009

2. WHAT HOMELESS PROVIDERS DO:
WE ALL PROVIDE HOUSING AND SUPPORTIVE SERVICES TO HOMELESS OR FORMALLY HOMELESS MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN.

3. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU EVICT?
“When you evict a homeless person, you make them homeless again.”
Joyce Grangent
Senior Program Manager
Corporation for Supportive Housing

4. WHY ARE PEOPLE EVICTED? Non-payment of rent Drugs (using/selling)
Violence
Housekeeping habits
Unauthorized occupants
Nuisance
Disturbances
Pets
Mental health and erratic behaviors
Foreclosures
Subleasing unit
Lease ends
Home Condemned
Damaging unit

5. WHAT ARE OUR RESPONSIBILITIES AS HOMELESS SERVICE PROVIDERS?
Provide supportive services
Teach
Nurture
Empower
Provide opportunities to learn life skills

6. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE DO OUR JOBS?
We Prevent Evictions!

7. HOW DO WE PREVENT EVICTIONS?
We go the extra mile!

8. WHO DO WE SERVE?
Our clients
are not losers!

9. WHO DO WE SERVE?
We must believe in our clients! If we do not believe in our clients, how can we effectively empower them to change?

10. WHO DO WE SERVE?
It is our job to take on the challenge of the difficult to serve clients and help them to learn new skills to improve their lives.

11. WHO DO WE SERVE?
We must be careful not to be judgmental. Just because we have the skills to remain housed does not mean your clients will have that same skill. You know how hard it is to keep a roof over your head, right? Our job is to teach those skills.

12. WHO DO WE SERVE?
Homeless people get
the message that they
have no value over
and over again.

13. WHO DO WE SERVE?

14. WHO DO WE SERVE?
I like to think of the clients we serve as tootsie pops. They have a hard shell, but the good part is in the middle. We have to find it!

15. WHO DO WE SERVE?
The excitement and anticipation of those we serve should be foremost. If it is not, maybe you are in the wrong job.

16. THIS MEANS:
We have to
meet the clients
where they are.

17. Why Prevent Evictions? What’s the Point?
Makes the homeless person homeless again
Creates a negative credit and rental report
Makes renting for your clients difficult if not impossible
Creates a vacancy in your program
Affects your occupancy rates
Failures reflect negatively on your agency, your mission and your APR outcomes
It costs money and time to evict a client. It could take days and weeks.
You feel bad, but just think how the client feels
Finally, providing housing to hard to house homeless people is our job.

18. Common Tenant Problems
Drug and Alcohol Use
Drug Dealing
Domestic Violence
Disturbances
Housekeeping
Unauthorized Visitors or Too Many Visitors
Non-Payment of Rent
Pets
Erratic Behaviors and Mental Health Issues

19. Care Plans
At Samaritan House, we use Care Plans and Eviction Prevention Plans as leverage for compliance. If the resident does this, the Samaritan House will do that.

21. Lease Violation Information

22. Lease Violation Information Cont’

23. Example of Problem: Non-Payment of Rent
Resident consistently pays rent late, pays partial rent, or does not pay at all. Always wanting to make pay arrangements.

24. Recommended Change in Care Plan
Money Management and Budgeting Classes
Guardianship Services
Priority setting
Figure out what the problem is and incorporate it into the EPP.

25. Action taken by staff to assist resident with improvement
Help client with budget
Help them manage their cash (envelope method)
Agency Serves as Payee
Refer them to Guardianship Services
Refer them to Consumer Credit Counseling Services

26. Remember:
The client may not have the same skills as others. We must reach out and teach them and give them resources for learning.

29. Who Is The Final Decision Maker?

30. Discharge Planning If we have done everything
we can to prevent eviction and
the client still fails, we must
do good discharge planning. Remember our job is not done until the client is safely in another form of housing if possible.

31. Know Your Landlords
Build relationships with the Landlord. Case Workers should explain your program and your tenant. Let them know you are a resource to help them keep your client housed. Explain Eviction Prevention and your role in keeping the resident housed.

32. Burnout
We must be aware of burnout because it affects our work. If your client becomes too difficult or hard to serve, turn them over to another case manger. Let them try too before you give up.

33. Finally
We are not experts at Samaritan House. We are simply thinking out of the box and trying to keep people housed.
QUESTIONS?