Rental ‘Inflation Pandemic’ Prompts Overhaul of Dallas Eviction Ordinance

The rent is too damn high. 

And renters who can’t make their monthly payments are likely to be evicted, which causes a whole new set of problems contributing to Dallas’s homeless rate. 

The Dallas City Council heard Wednesday from officials with Child Poverty Action Lab, who said more than 19,000 evictions have been filed in the city since January. That represents 126 percent of all the evictions filed in 2021. 

Council members agreed to update the city’s eviction ordinance, which was adopted in 2020 to help renters impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Those eligible for rental assistance under the current policy must live in Dallas, earn below 80 percent of the area median income, and prove they’ve been negatively affected by COVID.

The policy is tied to state and federal disaster declarations and was intended to be temporary, said City Manager T.C. Broadnax. 

“Early on, many had reduced work hours and even lost their jobs due to pandemic-related closures,” Broadnax said. “As we have started to recover from the pandemic economically, the issue has shifted as rental housing costs have increased.” 

While people are no longer missing weeks of work because of a positive COVID test, they still can’t pay rent, said attorney Mark Melton of the Dallas Eviction Advocacy Center.

“This is not a COVID-19 pandemic; it is an inflation pandemic,” he said. “Rents in Dallas County are up 30 percent in the last two years, and so is gasoline and food. People are out there working multiple jobs and they can’t pay rent, not because they’re lazy or because they’re choosing not to. They need to feed their kids and put gas in their cars. Every one of those costs has gone up and their income hasn’t. We need to protect these tenants. They’re not being protected by state law, and they’re sure as hell not being protected by the courts.” 

A permanent ordinance is being prepared by city staff with assistance from Melton and other stakeholders for presentation to the city council in November. 

Rental Assistance 

According to data from Rent.com, average rents in Dallas are trending 41 percent higher year-over-year, with a three-bedroom unit costing about $2,343 per month. Using the formula that a renter’s income should be three times their rent in order to qualify for an apartment, the average renter needs to make about $84,000 a year to afford that three-bedroom. 

The average studio apartment in Dallas is $1,330 per month, and a one-bedroom is about $1,442. 

About 65 percent of the evictions in 2022 were due to non-payment of rent, according to data presented at Wednesday’s council meeting. 

Melton said he originally expected that grant funding would be available for rental assistance through the end of the year, and by January a new eviction ordinance would be on the books. 

But the Dallas Housing Authority is running out of federal funds to distribute, Melton explained.

Once someone has an eviction filed against them — even if the matter gets settled — they will have difficulty renting another apartment, explained attorney Farwah Raza with Legal Aid of Northwest Texas. 

“It can have very long-term consequences for these families,” Raza said. “It means there is a record now, and it usually removes them from being able to seek the type of housing they were previously in.”

Jason Simon, director of government affairs for the Apartment Association of Greater Dallas, said evictions and rent increases also have impacted rental property owners.

“Dallas is the only city that still has a COVID ordinance,” he said. “The majority of our owners are mom-and-pop owners, and they’ve been significantly impacted by the loss of rental income. That goes directly to their ability to pay their mortgage, to pay their insurance, to pay their property taxes, to keep up the maintenance on their property. It hurts their ability to provide housing, and it hurts folks who need rental housing to get those units, because they’re occupied by people who are not able to pay rent.” 

District 12 Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn pointed out that most housing is for-profit. 

“At the end of the day, you’re going to get your money, and you’re going to get your money by raising the rents at other properties,” she said. “I think that’s part of the affordability crisis that we’re having. We’ve got a lot of landlords that are housing people for zero dollars. They’re having to raise their rents at other places to cover those costs.” 

Eviction Filings 

When a tenant is late on rent, a landlord can file a “notice to vacate,” telling the tenant they need to leave within three days. If the renter doesn’t leave voluntarily, the landlord can file a lawsuit in a Justice of the Peace Court. The amount of time between filing and a hearing can be as little as 11 days, Melton said. 

Attorneys from Legal Aid and the Dallas Eviction Advocacy Center have been showing up to Justice of the Peace courts on days when an eviction docket is being processed, and have represented thousands of residents who have been evicted since the pandemic began in 2020. 

When tenants show up in court without a lawyer on an eviction matter, the judgment goes in favor of the landlord more than 70 percent of the time, Melton said. If they have a lawyer, that number drops to 10 percent. 

“If 100 percent of those people had a lawyer, there would be 11,000 fewer evictions granted in Dallas County [in a particular time period],” he said. 

Council members expressed concern about a gap of time that may occur before they can get a new eviction ordinance on the books to replace the temporary one tied to COVID.  

“Instead of calling it an eviction ordinance, this is a COVID ordinance,” Mendelsohn said. “We have to recognize that even the president is saying that COVID is over. We need to address other problems in other ways instead of trying to use COVID solutions to deal with current conditions.” 

District 7 Councilman Adam Bazaldua said he wanted to keep the COVID ordinance in place to provide protection until a permanent solution is approved.

“The fact that we’ve invested in our most vulnerable, I would call it a success,” he said. “The fact that we have actually helped our landlords sustain renters and get some of these federal dollars and rental assistance I would also [call a success]. For us to allow this to go off the books and sunset something that is protecting people, and allow for them to be vulnerable and on the street, is absurd. We have an opportunity now to do the right thing, and I hope we are on the right side of history with this.”