An eviction prevention program modeled after Gwinnett County’s Project Reset is finally moving forward in Athens. Last week, the ACC Commission voted to consider Athenian First Development Corporation to run the program and instructed ACC staff to negotiate their contract and scope of work.
Project Reset is an emergency rental assistance program in Gwinnett County that helps people stay in their homes when threatened with eviction. Tenants at risk of eviction have their back rent and late fees forgiven in a negotiated settlement with the landlord. This ends the threat of eviction and allows them to stay in their homes as if they had just moved in. In exchange, landlords receive a percentage of the back rent the tenant owed, paid for using federal relief funding.
This program is run by Home First Gwinnett, who works with the magistrate court, approves applicants and negotiates with landlords on behalf of the county government.
Delayed start for Project Reset in Athens
In Athens, a similar eviction prevention program was suggested by Commissioner Tim Denson last winter. The Centers for Disease Control had issued a nationwide moratorium on evictions on Sept. 1, 2020 which was scheduled to expire. Denson thought that having a local eviction prevention program would be an important precaution against a potential wave of evictions that could be on the way after the protection granted by the CDC was lifted. The moratorium remained in full effect until July 31, 2021 and was finally struck down in its entirety by the Supreme Court on Aug. 26.
That meant evictions were set to resume, but Denson’s eviction prevention program was not yet ready. That’s because the program was delayed by procedural hurdles, an overworked ACC Department of Housing and Community Development and also commission bickering and dysfunction. Assuming a wave of evictions was on the way, commissioners instructed ACC staff to find a partner to run the program as soon as possible. They ended up putting out a request for proposals on Aug. 30 with only 15 days given for prospective partner agencies to complete the application.
Given the tight timeline of the request and complicated nature of the program, only one potential partner agency ended up applying: Athenian First Development Corporation.
Athenian First is a new organization, established in Oct. 2020, with no experience in providing social services to the public. They are a nonprofit housing developer founded with the intention of building affordable single-family homes for low or moderate-income Athenians. Theresa Omanovic, Chief Financial Officer of Athenian First, told APN that her organization also plans to become a housing counseling agency providing home buyers assistance in financial literacy.
Considering the lack of experienced applicants, ACC staff felt that their request was rushed and done imperfectly. As a result, they recommended that the commission reject Athenian First’s application and reissue a modified request with a 30-day window for receiving applications.
Commissioners push forward
At their meeting last week, commissioners disagreed with ACC staff in a 7-1 vote and tentatively approved Athenian First for the eviction prevention contract. Commissioner Allison Wright made an attempt to support staff’s recommendation to slow down and reissue the request for proposals, but her motion failed in a 2-6 vote with only Commissioner Mike Hamby joining her in voting yes.
Wright’s objections centered on the cost of going with Athenian First, who originally requested $3.85 million to run the program. She said wanted to cast a wider net to find a more competitive bid.
Denson, on the other hand, did not want to turn away the program’s only applicant. He argued there was no way to be sure a second request would be any more successful than the first. He also objected to the amount of time that reissuing the request would take, which could be months. Before the vote, he told his colleagues that “there are many families in this community who can’t wait that long.”
Commissioner Mariah Parker agreed and went further, expressing her confidence in Athenian First. “After having met with the applicant, I’m feeling really confident that with some support both from [ACC] staff and the folks at Home First Gwinnett, where the program has been very successful, that this too can be a good success.”
Fact check: Is a wave of evictions really on the way?
Denson and other commissioners based their support for Athenian First at least in part on their sense that a backlog of evictions was on the verge of being processed by local courts. For example, Denson told APN that “over 900” evictions were pending in Athens (a claim that APN repeated on Athens News Matters).
Commissioner Ovita Thornton, who tried to delay implementation of the eviction prevention program earlier in the year, also supported the award to Athenian First on these grounds. “The longer we keep dragging this out, people are going to be evicted. We need to not let people face the holidays and eviction at the same time,” she said.
However, Magistrate Court Judge Ben Makin told APN that the 900 number was likely exaggerated, saying that many old eviction cases had not yet been removed from their computer system. Makin said the total number of currently pending eviction cases would be impossible to calculate except “by hand review.”
Furthermore, Makin says Athens has seen “a very significant reduction in the number of [eviction] filings this year” compared to the typical average. “There is no reason that I can think of to believe that more people are at risk of eviction in October 2021 than in October 2019, 2017 or any other year,” he said.
Nevertheless, homelessness is perceived by many to be a large and growing problem in Athens. It is a complex phenomenon with more than one cause, but certainly, more evictions would not help the situation.
Next steps
The commission instructed ACC staff to negotiate Athenian First’s contract, including their budget and scope of work. These negotiations should be completed shortly, and the contract will be sent back to the commission for their consideration on Nov. 2.
If approved, commissioners hope that Athenian First could begin the eviction prevention program before the end of the year.
Help APN continue covering local news for the Athens area!
Please consider becoming a member or giving a one-time donation via PayPal.
3 thoughts on “Eviction prevention program moving forward”
If I understand correctly: A Judge stated there were no more evictions this year than in prior years. A Judge that has actual factual knowledge of the procedure/process/mediation involved in the process. But instead, the commissioners decided to ignore his input and decide to use 3.8 million dollars to fund an organization with no experience in landlord tenant mediation.
Someone on this commission is either best buds with this organization and it’s board members or getting a kick back because there is no way anyone with a brain would agree to this.
He wasn’t saying not to award Athenian First with the contract, but I don’t think your conclusions are unreasonable here (I mean I don’t think anyone is getting a kickback, hah). As far as the $3.8 million, I don’t think that will end up being the final number because the commission gave ACC staff freedom to renegotiate the contract.
On the other hand, I do think we have big problems with homelessness. So I can understand wanting to do something to address that problem and help stop it from getting worse sooner rather than later. If you think Athenian First can do the job, then why not award them with the contract.
I agree we do have a huge homeless problem but that/they are separate from people who are being evicted.
Renters in Athens tend to fall into two categories. Students/young families or low income individuals. Currently the Magistrate Court does encourage mediation and payment plans between landlord and tenant. The court did abide by the eviction moratorium and landlords have been willing to work with tenants to keep them housed. Bottom line – the court is already performing the duty that Athenian First would like to provide at a much higher cost.
I am saying do not award this contract to Athenian First. They are not qualified (have you looked at their web page? It also includes their catering business -THEIR CATERING BUSINESS-) They have no experience in civil mediation. NONE. If the commissioners are determined to spend this money then hire a staff attorney for the Magistrate Court and make it their primary job to make sure all efforts have been made by both parties in the landlord/tenant relationship before an eviction takes place. This would also allow the judges more time in actual court. More time to hear civil cases, more time for bond hearings, more time for trial, etc.
Athenian First may not get all 3 million but they don’t need to be awarded anything. No qualifications, no experience, no business plan on how they would spend any money they receive.