Kathryn Luebkeman
Herald Contributor
Cincinnati City Councilman Greg Landsman has submitted two motions to City Council for referral. Together, they seek to improve the process by which service providers––working with the City of Cincinnati on eviction relief and prevention services––get assistance to struggling children and families.
The first motion, “Securing Eviction Filing Data to Reduce Evictions,” requests an update from the Administration on Ordinance 402 [2019], which guarantees eviction filing data from the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts be made available to service providers.
“Thus far, we have struggled to obtain this data in a regular and reliable manner, making it harder for our partners to get help to families in need,” Landsman said.“ We acknowledge that the Clerk of Courts may need assistance from the City to secure this data, and we encourage the Administration to pursue that support, if necessary. With this data our service providers can help families stay in their homes, avoid an eviction, or even avoid having to attend eviction court all together.”
The second motion, “Preventing Evictions through Programmatic Enhancement, Coordinating,” tackles the problem of coordination between service partners. “Even if relevant data is obtained, our partners face even further challenges in the organization of assistance between each other, the City, and the families in need,” he said. “Therefore, we are asking that the Administration pursue a request for information (RFI) to look into the potential of building a shared data system to enhance eviction prevention programmatic performance and coordination. The RFI should inquire into which companies or providers could create such a data system. How much it would cost the city to support the creation of one. How quickly we could build the platform How best to get our eviction prevention support providers onto such a system.
Cincinnatians are facing unprecedented financial challenges, and the fear of eviction looms heavy for tens of thousands of our children and families. As public officials, we should be doing all we can to write good legislation that actually addresses weak spots in social support processes run by our city.
‘’Both of the motions, which have been heavily influenced by community input and eviction prevention experts––have identified weaknesses in our system that we could potentially eliminate.
