Stabilizing Home to Stabilize Community
Council, County Commissioners and The Ohio
State University unite to understand the reasons behind eviction
[COLUMBUS-OH]
It’s the headline no one wants. The Franklin County Municipal Court processes
the largest volume of eviction cases in the state of Ohio. It is a crippling
reality that Columbus City Council and the Franklin County Commissioners want
to understand.
Councilmember
Jaiza
Page, Franklin County Commissioner Marilyn Brown and Trevor Brown, Ph.D., dean of The Ohio State University’s John Glenn College of Public Affairs will announce the commission of an eviction study at Page Hall, 1810 College Rd., on Thursday, July 13 at 1pm.
“Our
City has an unusually high rate of evictions, and we need to ask why,” said
Page. “In Franklin County, nearly 18,000 eviction notices are filed each year,
making our eviction court the busiest in the state. Before we can offer
solutions we must identify these underlying causes of eviction.”
By
creating partnerships with Commissioner Marilyn Brown and The Ohio State
University, Columbus and Franklin County can begin to take an ethnographic
approach to finding the root causes of eviction. Ethnography is the study of
people in their own environment through the use of methods such as participant
observation and face-to-face interviewing.
“There
is almost nothing more important to well-being and development, especially for
children, than having a safe, comfortable place to live,” said Commissioner
Brown. “Evictions cause instability and homelessness and, ultimately,
they’re even more costly for landlords than other processes like
mediation. I’m glad that we’re beginning to focus on this important
issue.”
Masters
and doctoral students from the Glenn College will interview evicted tenants and
landlords to begin to identify the causes leading up to eviction. The team will
also work to identify policy recommendations the City and County could
implement to help alleviate the triggers.
The
goal of this study is to:
- Research the underlying causes of eviction through
interviews with landlords and tenants.
- Create policy recommendations that can positively
change the eviction outcomes in the City.
Councilmember
Page, County Commissioners and the Ohio State University are excited to be
supported by first lady Ginther and the Women’s Commission as a partner to
combat the eviction crisis.
Homelessness
and evictions are on the rise in the Capital City. The Franklin County Municipal
Court processes nearly 130 cases a day. It is time to come together as a
community and focus our energy and resources on fixing these issues.
“We
need to explore why there is so much instability in our community and how we
can move forward to strengthen our neighborhoods and keep families in their
homes,” said Page.
For additional information contact:
- Lee Cole, director of communications, Columbus City Council,
614-645-5530, [email protected]
- Tyler Lowry, director of public affairs, Franklin County
Commissioners, 614-525-6630, [email protected]
- Deidre Woodward, communications and marketing coordinator,
The Ohio State University John Glenn College of Public Affairs, 614-946-2122, [email protected]
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