'Things aren't getting better for people.' Latest report on Indianapolis' eviction crisis – WFYI

‘Things aren’t getting better for people.’ Latest report on Indianapolis’ eviction crisis  WFYI

A report from the Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana shows high numbers of people were evicted after financial hits, including job loss, an unexpected expense, paying another debt and rent increases. Marion County’s eviction rate remains high, and new data from the Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana examines landlord eviction filing rates, highly impacted demographics and reasons most often given for not paying rent. Executive Director of FHCCI Amy Nelson says this new report, ‘Marion County’s Top Evictors,’ expands on an earlier one this year. Both encourage more tenant protections. She says Indianapolis is in an eviction crisis. "Things aren't getting better for people,” Nelson said.

“In some cases, they might not be getting worse, but having 25,000 [24,938] eviction filings in a single year is not anything that we want to have continue to happen." Indianapolis’ relatively high eviction rate isn’t new. High rates across the state are also widely seen to be a problem. In 2020, Indiana launched a program to address the burden on courts. It encouraged landlords and tenants to use mediation instead. Evictions continued to pile up, leading the Indiana Supreme Court to set up an eviction task force in 2021 to handle the backlog. Federal rent assistance in 2021 appeared to briefly lower eviction rates. Indianapolis residents experienced a brief downturn, with