GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A new program at the 61st District Court in Grand Rapids hopes to strengthen eviction diversion efforts.
The 61st District Court received part of a $10 million grant from the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) and the Wells Fargo Foundation.
It was one of 12 courts nationwide to get this type of award.
According to Tanya Todd, 61st District Court administrator, the court will use the money to fund two temporary positions. The people in those positions will reach out to landlords and tenants involved in eviction filings and connect the parties to needed community resources.
“I think it’ll give them the tools they need,” Todd told FOX 17. “If somebody has problems with employability, there’s different places out there where you can have resume building workshops or interview building workshops [that the facilitators could help a person find].”
Todd hopes to fill the positions by mid-July.
She hopes the court will be able to incorporate the resources developed through the program into normal court procedures for evictions by the time it ends.
The grant lasts up to two years.
“Unstable housing is a detriment to families and communities,” Todd added. “You don’t want people homeless. If kids are moving around, they have to switch schools.”
Todd says the 61st District Court heard 4,000 eviction cases in 2021.
The court launched an eviction prevention program in 2018, but Todd says it only gives people money to pay back rent and stop proceedings.
While critical, she says the same landlords and tenants often returned for another proceeding.
“This new initiative, the EDI, the eviction diversion initiative, is more about taking it a step further to say, ‘What can we do to help you have some continuity and consistency in your payments, so you don’t end up back where you are?’”
Todd hopes by addressing the “why” of evictions, people find themselves in better places than her courtrooms.
“I think when people are empowered with the resources that they need to succeed, they end up feeling more positively about the situation,” she added.
