During the pandemic, emergency rental assistance helped reduce evictions in the state. As those funds run out, eviction rates are rising again in many Ohio counties.

The number of evictions in Franklin, Hamilton and Montgomery counties exceeded pre-pandemic levels last year and continued to rise in 2024. More than 100,000 evictions were filed in Ohio last year – the highest amount since 2015.

In Columbus, that’s an acute problem. Eviction courts are overwhelmed because demand for housing in central Ohio is rising, says Jyoshu Tsushima, senior attorney for Legal Aid for Southeast and Central Ohio. He says rents in the city have risen 35% since 2015.

This and the housing shortage have put many tenants in a precarious situation.

“It will be much harder for people who do not have competitive incomes to pay rising rents when it is so easy to find new tenants who can pay higher rents,” Tsushima said.

And it’s not just in major metropolitan areas like Columbus that eviction rates have returned to pre-pandemic levels. Rural and suburban communities are also affected, said Amy Riegel, director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO).

“(Rural counties) no longer have access to emergency rental assistance,” Riegel said, “which is why we’re also seeing a more steady increase in evictions and homelessness and housing instability in these rural communities.”

Ohio’s Eviction Laws

Tsushima said Ohio’s eviction laws are stricter than many other states. He said the state lacks some tenant protections that could curb the number of evictions.

For example, Ohio does not have a “pay-to-stay” policy, Tsushima said, which allows landlords to evict tenants if they fall behind on rent, regardless of when the eviction occurs.

“Even if you are a minute, an hour or a day late, the landlord can often refuse to pay the rent, even if a late fee is charged,” Tsushima said.

Tsushima also said that Ohio law currently prohibits the state’s municipalities from implementing rent controls. Cities like Columbus have considered regulating rents, but two years ago state lawmakers made it illegal to do this.

“Rent control measures are ineffective and counterproductive tools that do not help the housing market or the current shortage of affordable housing – they only exacerbate the problem,” said Vena Jones-Cox of the Ohio Real Estate Investors Association in her Certificate 2022 for the law. “Although these measures are well-intentioned, they generally create a ‘black market’ that seriously disadvantages those who most need quality, affordable housing.”

Against the trend

Despite the nationwide trend, eviction rates in some Ohio communities, such as Cleveland and Toledo, have actually declined in recent years. In Cleveland, eviction rates fell by nearly 20% from 2019 to 2023.

Tsushima suspects this has to do with local housing policies in these communities. In 2020, Cleveland passed a right to an attorney law that ensures low-income tenants have legal representation in eviction cases. Toledo followed suit a few years later.

“These tenants can go to court knowing that they actually have a lawyer to support them,” Tsushima said.

Cleveland also has a specialized court with judges who have expertise in housing law.

“So the process may be a little more thorough than, for example, in a rural district where the judge or justice of the peace has jurisdiction over a very broad range of legal issues and doesn’t necessarily have the time to focus on the specifics of every type of housing legal issue that comes their way,” he said.

A lasting impact

As evictions increase, low-income communities are hit hardest, according to COHHIO’s Riegel. She said it can lead to homelessness and affect a person’s ability to achieve stable housing in the future.

“It stays on your record for life. It never goes away. It’s not even like a bankruptcy or a bad debt that can be erased after a certain number of years. These evictions stay and haunt you forever,” she said.

Tsushima said evictions also have emotional consequences: children must miss school to find new housing, tenants’ physical and mental health can deteriorate, and families can be uprooted from their communities.

“We know it’s affecting tenants in a real way that has very serious consequences, both for their financial ability to keep their housing and their social ability to stay in the community and really live a normal life,” Tsushima said.