Beaufort County nonprofits inundated with requests for help with rent during pandemic
In 2019, the Deep Well Project, a nonprofit financial assistance organization on Hilton Head Island, gave out $150,000 in emergency rent and mortgage payments.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, “We burned through $150,000 in about 50 days,” Deep Well executive director Sandy Gillis said. Between March 1 and July 31, she said, the nonprofit contributed $450,000 toward rent and mortgage payments for 550 families.
In total, she estimates the organization helped 1,925 people, most of whom needed help with rent. The average rent or mortgage payment at the height of the pandemic was $850, she said, a figure that indicates how high the cost of living is in the Lowcountry. The average has dropped to $700, Gillis said, but many clients pay higher rent than that and need Deep Well to help make their rent payments whole.
“[Housing] has been by far the most stark impact [of COVID-19] in our area,” Gillis said. “When you look at how high the costs are in Beaufort County, that’s the first break in the dam, that’s where it’s going to burst first.”
She said she has not seen many people on the verge of eviction here, but that may be because nonprofits are here to help. In more rural areas, such financial help may not be available, she said.
South Carolina has the country’s highest eviction filing rate, at 18.7%, according to the Eviction Lab at Princeton University.
“There’s just too many people who live paycheck to paycheck,” Gillis said.
In addition to the aid, many renters were protected from eviction by federal and state eviction bans as coronavirus swept across the United States in the spring and summer. Eviction actions were banned statewide from March 17 to May 15, meaning that landlords could not file to evict their tenants during that period.
Covering as many as 12.3 million rental units nationwide, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act’s eviction ban, in effect from March 27 to July 24, kept many tenants in their homes by prohibiting landlords who received federal aid, such as housing choice vouchers or low-income housing tax credits, from filing evictions for nonpayment of rent. The CARES Act also prohibited evictions from homes with federally backed single-family or multifamily mortgage loans, including those from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration.
Eviction filings do not necessarily result in tenants being forced to leave their home, but are a required step in ejecting a tenant.
But now, landlords of properties receiving federal backing can start giving tenants who are behind on rent 30 days’ notice to vacate. They can file for an eviction once the 30 days have passed, meaning evictions can start in late August. Renters in single-family homes with loans backed by the FHA, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac are protected from eviction until Aug. 31 through separate bans.
Now, as federal protections against eviction for renters expire, Gillis and other nonprofit organizers say they expect to see more requests for help as more renters are at risk.
“We do think we are going to see some more grave situations,” said Kim Hall, executive director of Bluffton Self-Help, which provides emergency financial assistance and basic resources to individuals and families in the area.
Hall said her organization has assisted about 500 families with rent and mortgage since March. In all of 2019, she said, they assisted 250 families with rent and mortgage.
“Our goal is to prevent hunger and homelessness in Bluffton as best as we can do it,” she said. “So we’re going to continue to support folks as long as we have the funds that are available.”
Evictions in Beaufort County: By the numbers
At the front end of the pandemic, when the state ban on evictions was in effect, nearly all eviction cases pending in Beaufort County magistrate courts were dismissed, according to data from the court system’s public index. No new cases were filed in court. Only one person was formally evicted.
As the state ban lapsed, landlords and leasing companies began filing and executing evictions. Between May 15, when the state ban ended, and July 24, when the federal CARES Act ban ended, landlords and leasing companies filed 183 evictions in Beaufort County courts — significant, but much fewer than in comparable time periods. In the two months before the state ban took effect, 267 evictions were filed, and in the same time period in 2019, 369 evictions were filed.
An average of roughly 153 evictions were filed monthly in Beaufort County in 2019. Evictions tend to rise and fall in cycles.
In spite of the CARES Act ban, three evictions were filed by two federally funded, multifamily apartment complexes in June and July. Neither company responded to multiple phone calls requesting comment. The tenants may have been evicted for reasons other than nonpayment of rent. The Beaufort County public index does not list reasons why a case is filed or dismissed.
In the two months before the state ban went into effect, 77 evictions were filed against tenants in properties with federal loans or assistance. Ninety-eight evictions were filed against tenants in federally backed housing during the same time period last year.
Chrystie Turner, vice president of community impact at United Way of the Lowcountry, said she expects more people who have been protected by the eviction ban to be facing expulsion if they aren’t able to pay back rent by the time landlords start filing evictions. She said it is unclear what aid families can expect from the federal government that may help them pay rent.
“I think a lot of Americans, a lot of our community members, are waiting to see what’s going to happen in Washington before they figure out how they are going to get out of this situation,” Turner said. “If they lost employment, they’ve had protection, where they [couldn’t be evicted]. Now we’re three months into it.”
As of Aug. 5, 13 evictions have been filed in Beaufort County courts since the federal moratorium ended. None has been for apparent federally backed properties.
Because of the lack of public data on homes with federally backed loans, it’s impossible to know the number of evictions that may have been illegal under the CARES Act. No comprehensive database exists of single-family rental units, and data on federally backed multifamily housing is scattered across websites. One database published by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition lists dozens of multifamily properties in Beaufort County subject to the CARES Act moratorium, but notes that it is not comprehensive.
“I don’t think people realize how many evictions are legal,” said Lavar Edmonds, a research specialist with the Eviction Lab at Princeton University.
At the root of the problem, Edmonds said, is America’s lack of affordable, stable housing. He said many renters live close to the edge, with no cushion in case of emergency.
“For some people, you don’t need these deeper investments, you need something to get back on your feet,” Edmonds said. “This is where emergency assistance funds can come in.”
Helplines
It is 10:35 a.m. on July 29, and Leigh Garlington, a board member for the nonprofit Help of Beaufort, has already received two calls from people requesting rental assistance. These calls come daily but haven’t increased since the pandemic started, she said.
Unfortunately, she is not able to help, as the organization has run out of grant money for tenants.
She refers them to SC Thrive, a Columbia-based nonprofit operating the COVID-19 Rental Assistance Program with the state’s housing authority.
Both organizations are listed on United Way’s free 211 service as rent assistance resources for Beaufort County. Also included are the Salvation Army, Beaufort-Jasper Economic Opportunity Commission, Bluffton Self-Help, Deep Well and the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society. 211 visitors can search for resources related to housing and utilities or other needs.
Chrystie Turner runs the HELPLINE service at United Way of the Lowcountry, which provides callers with referrals to other community resources, direct financial assistance and advocacy.
She said that 90% of the calls the service has received lately have been for rent, and that the United Way provided $40,000 in increments of $500 or less through its COVID-19 relief fund between April and the end of June.
“We provided $124,000 in direct financial assistance in the past year,” Turner said. “We’re going to blow that number out of the water just with the COVID relief we’re providing.”
Turner said she has noticed that many of the people calling for assistance have never had to call before and often struggle to communicate their needs because they’re embarrassed by their situation. Before the pandemic, the average call length was five minutes, Turner said, now it’s 15 to 20.
Many callers, she said, are hospitality and service industry employees who were able to stay afloat before the pandemic. The virus and shut-down hit those industries particularly hard as tourism slowed.
“They don’t know the agencies that can provide assistance,” Turner said. “They don’t know the process. They need more help.”
When people call for rental assistance, Turner said, a fuller story unravels of what their needs are. Some report that they are feeling depressed. Some say they have been eating only one meal a day.
“The number of needs that we are providing has increased,” she said. “It’s not usually just rent.”
Have you been impacted by eviction during the pandemic? The Island Packet would like to talk to you. You can reach reporter Kate Hidalgo Bellows at kbellows@islandpacket.com or 843-706-8140.
