This is part of our strategic overview of how eviction systems could be improved in different jurisdictions.
Key numbers and data points of eviction in Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio
These statistics are taken from an eviction report, “You are being asked to leave the premises”: A Study of Eviction in Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio, 2014-2017, by Elaina Johns-Wolfe, Sociology Department, University of Cincinnati
- What is the proportion of residences in Hamilton County that are renter-occupied? 42.3%
- What percentage of renter-occupied units experienced an eviction filing? 8.7% — above the nation’s average of 6.3%
- How many evictions are filed in Hamilton County? There were 49,757 eviction filings from 2014 through 2017. That’s an average of about 12,000 filings per year, or more than 230 per week.
- How do tenants fare in court, after being sued for eviction? The court decided less than 1 percent of eviction filings in favor of tenants, according to a sample of last year’s filings. Landlords won nearly 48 percent of those cases; nearly 50 percent got dismissed.
- Who is represented in court, when a landlord sues a tenant for an eviction? More than 88 percent of landlords have lawyers during eviction proceedings, but fewer than 3 percent of tenants do. The law requires landlords to have lawyers in court if their properties are owned by an LLC or corporation.
- Which neighborhoods and demographics of people are most likely to face an eviction lawsuit? Neighborhoods with the highest eviction rates also tend to have the highest rates of poverty and heaviest rent burdens. The racial composition of neighborhoods was a strong predictor of eviction rates, too. Mount Airy had the highest eviction-filing rate of all Census tracts in Hamilton County. Other high eviction neighborhoods include Winton Hills, Avondale and west Walnut Hills.
Press, research, and narrative reports on eviction in Hamilton County
June 2018: “You are being asked to leave the premises”: A Study of Eviction in Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio, 2014-2017, by Elaina Johns-Wolfe, Sociology Department, University of Cincinnati
June 2018: What Nearly 50,000 eviction filings in four years have done to Hamilton County, Lucy May and Craig Cheatham, I-Team 9
April 2018: These Cincinnati neighborhoods suffer the most evictions, by Nick Swartsell, CityBeat
Eviction/Displacement Video interviews, by Affordable Housing Advocates and Northern Kentucky University:
Part 1: Faces of Displacement (6:25 minutes)
Part 2: Housing Court (5:40 minutes)
Legal System and Stakeholders of the eviction system in Hamilton County
The legal system of eviction in Hamilton County
An overview of all of the statutes and rules about Landlord-Tenants and evictions, from the Hamilton County Law Library
The Ohio Tenant-Landlord Law of 1974,
- and see a user-friendly guide to this law from the HOME group
- and see a deep-dive law review article from 1975 on this law, by John Campion
An FAQ from the court clerk on eviction process in Hamilton County
Organizations working on eviction in Hamilton County
Hamilton County Clerk of Courts
Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio: http://www.lasswo.org/
Housing Opportunities Made Equal: http://homecincy.org/
Affordable Housing Advocates: https://affordablehousingcincinnati.org/
Hamilton County Human Services Chamber
Ohio Housing Finance Agency
Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio
The Cincy Project: http://thecincyproject.org/; TCP harnesses the expertise and resources from the University of Cincinnati faculty and students, and from Cincinnati community members, non-profits, governments and agencies in order to conduct research that will directly benefit the community.
Return to our strategic overview of how eviction systems could be improved in different jurisdictions.