New York’s Monroe County launched on September 30 a new Eviction Diversion Resource Center (EDRC) – the first of its kind in a New York State court located outside of New York City. The EDRC is situated inside the Rochester Hall of Justice and is linked with the Housing Court. Tenants who visit the EDRC can receive help applying for rental assistance and other public assistance programs and work with paralegals to resolve problems with landlords. Advocates are pleased to see Monroe County investing in a comprehensive approach to support tenants facing challenges related to hunger, childcare, and housing in a single location.
Eviction rates exhibit marked racial disparities, and eviction diversion programs play an important role in keeping marginalized groups housed. According to ACT Rochester, in 2022, approximately 50% of households in Monroe County were rent-burdened, with 53% of rent-burdened tenants living in Rochester, and Black and Latino neighborhoods were found to have twice the number of notices of eviction sent as white neighborhoods in New York. Moreover, while Monroe County was able to stave off a wave of evictions during the pandemic through its successful implementation of nearly $22 million of Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) funds, eviction filings are rising now that federal ERAP funding has been depleted. In 2024, Rochester Housing Court handled more than 5,000 cases involving eviction, according to Judge Melissa Barrett. The Housing Council at PathStone, an NLIHC member, received 667 calls on its housing hotline from people facing eviction in the past year alone.
The EDRC builds on many years of collaboration across the housing and supportive services sectors, including the implementation of Monroe County’s ERAP program. County Executive Adam Bello and Rochester Mayor Malik Evans have both prioritized addressing the area’s affordable housing crisis and its disproportionate impact on communities of color and have worked in close collaboration with service providers, legal aid organizations, and advocates to craft solutions. In 2020, former Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren and Monroe County Executive Bello established a Commission on Racial and Structural Equity to review existing policies for racial equity and recommend changes. The commission’s report “No Time for Excuses: It’s Time for Action” included nearly 40 recommendations, including the enactment of several tenant protections. Soon after, a right-to-counsel program began in Rochester according to which tenants could phone an eviction hotline for help and receive legal consulting at no cost. The City of Rochester created a Housing Quality Task Force in 2021 which has also made strides in addressing the concerns of low-income tenants. The Rochester Monroe Anti-Poverty Initiative has convened a Housing Working Group since 2021 focused on long-term, systemic changes needed in the area’s housing market.
Advocates say that the desire for the centralization of community services as well as navigation support have been consistent themes heard during community feedback sessions. Advocates are pleased to see the County investing in programs that respond to this feedback and offer holistic solutions to the affordable housing crisis. In March, for example, Monroe County announced plans to allocate $7.8 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to pilot several affordable housing initiatives, including the EDRC. Details about additional projects, including expanded funding for housing navigation and emergency rental assistance, are expected to be announced shortly.
“The Eviction Diversion Resource Center is an innovative and vital initiative that brings multiple critical services together at a single point of intervention in a family’s housing crisis,” said Mary Leo, executive director of The Housing Council at PathStone. “At The Housing Council, we know that preventing the disruption caused by eviction must be addressed holistically – eviction is not just a legal or financial issue, but one that affects every aspect of a family’s stability, from employment to health and education. The strength of the EDRC lies in its ability to provide legal aid, financial supports, and social services in one place, addressing the multifaceted challenges families face as they struggle to maintain a home. We are deeply grateful to County Executive Adam Bello for his administration’s visionary leadership in developing this service. As members of the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), we stand firm in our commitment to meeting communities where they are and removing the barriers that perpetuate housing insecurity.”
The EDRC is an example of how communities are innovating to continue the eviction prevention programs created during the pandemic while existing infrastructure and relationships are still intact. NLIHC has called for Congress to pass the bipartisan Eviction Crisis Act (S.2182) to create a permanent emergency assistance fund. Tenant protections included in the National Tenants Bill of Rights are also needed to rebalance the power between landlords and tenants which fuels racial inequity. To learn more about these and other federal advocacy opportunities, please visit https://nlihc.org/take-action.