Evictions

Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin all ranked among the top 10 cities for new eviction filings in early April, among the 31 cities tracked by Eviction Lab.

Volunteer Legal Services of Central Texas is running a new program where lawyers show up in most Travis County eviction courts to offer representation for tenants.

County staff told commissioners on Tuesday they'd received nearly 3,400 applications for rent and mortgage help in just one week, which is the number of households they expected to be able to help.

The county hoped to use additional federal money to prop up the program. That money isn't coming in.

Starting in January, residential landlords and their tenants will have to wait at least 30 calendar days between filing an eviction and a trial. Typically, cases must be heard within 21 days of a filing.

The bans were intended to help prevent the spread of COVID by keeping people housed. Housing advocates question whether now is a good time to end them.

Eighty-seven families were forced to move from the Rosemont at Oak Valley over the summer. Last week, the county said repairs were complete and residents could safely return.

The program could come back, but that hinges on federal funding that, as of now, hasn't yet materialized.

The county has seen a crush of applications since the City of Austin and the state closed their rent relief programs. It doesn't have enough money to cover all the applications for help it has received.

It's not the tsunami of evictions that some experts had feared, but eviction filings are rising sharply in many cities. Meanwhile, $47 billion from Congress to help is finally reaching more renters.