It is May 1, which means the rent is due despite record job losses and economic strain during the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting June 1 the Dayton Municipal Court will start hearing eviction cases again, a new date the court set this week.
Before the pandemic, the Dayton Municipal Court could hear around 50 eviction cases in a day, which meant a lot of people were in the courtroom at the same time. Now, Clerk of Court Mark Owens says the court is figuring out how to safely space out eviction cases when they restart on June 1.
“If you’d asked me in February whether we would be postponing cases until June, I’d have looked at you like you were from Mars or something,” he said. “But circumstances change and they change quickly.”
Even though hearings have been pushed back, landlords can still file for eviction. People who have lost their jobs, have not gotten their stimulus checks in the mail, or cannot get through to unemployment are not off the hook when it comes to rent.
“At some point down the road, they’re either going to have to find someplace new to live or they're going to have to come up with ways to pay the rent.”
Resources and updates on Miami Valley area courts and evictions can be found here.
