Thousands of renters face the threat of eviction in Greenville County each year.
It’s an issue that has only grown since the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Legal Services Corp., a publicly funded nonprofit corporation, 55,252 eviction cases have been filed in Greenville County since March 2020 to August 2024 — the second-highest number in South Carolina.
The eviction process can be emotionally and financially challenging, resulting in far-reaching consequences for both the tenant and landlord. Evictions also create obstacles for people trying to access housing and are known to increase homelessness.
In 2024, the Greenville Homeless Alliance, in partnership with Catalyst Community Consulting, began working on a community strategy paper to examine the impact of evictions in Greenville County. Various stakeholders — including people who have experienced evictions, landlords, eviction law firms, judges and more — were brought together to provide insight for the paper.
“Eviction in Greenville County: A Solutions Oriented Approach” was published in November 2024, along with a resource website for tenants and landlords. The paper outlines several strategies to help prevent, improve and mitigate the effects of evictions.
“The solutions will only happen if the community decides it’s an important issue that we need to address,” said Heather Gatchell, partner engagement director for Greenville Homeless Alliance.
Widespread impact
A landlord can decide to file an eviction against their tenant for three reasons: the resident fails to pay their rent, breaches the lease agreement, or doesn’t leave after the lease term ends. Mark Fessler, deputy director of litigation and training with South Carolina Legal Services, said 70% of the eviction cases typically involve nonpayment of rent.
The strategy paper examines how circumstances often out of the tenant’s control, such as the widening gap between housing costs and earned income, can lead to nonpayment of rent. Unexpected expenses such as hospital bills or car repairs can also make it challenging for tenants to pay rent on time.
Fighting an eviction filing in court can be intimidating, especially if the verdict ends with you losing your home. The legal process also contains several barriers that stack the odds against tenants.
For example, tenants are required to retain their own legal counsel for the hearing due to evictions being a civil matter. This is not always possible if a person doesn’t have the resources or funding to hire a lawyer.
Tina Belge, founder of Catalyst Community Consulting, said that around 25% of eviction cases are won by the tenant. However, a filed eviction stays on the tenant’s public record despite the outcome of the hearing.
For local resident Quentoria Jones, the eviction notices on her record — all of which were dismissed by a judge — made it difficult for her to find a new home for her family when they ultimately decided to move. She spent weeks searching for a new home and spent the majority of her savings on housing application fees.
Jones eventually found a smaller rental home in a different neighborhood for her and her four children. She explained that their new neighborhood was less safe, and her children had to change schools.
“I don’t think people really look into just the depth of how far it goes when you serve that little piece of paper,” Jones said.
Landlords can also be negatively affected by the eviction process. Mario Brown, cofounder of Affordable Upstate, said evictions impact his company’s revenue, which in turn impacts its ability to have a feasible business model. According to the strategy paper, landlords can lose between $5,000 and $8,000 per unit from eviction-related costs. This includes the loss of rent, the costs to turn over a unit and the legal fees.
“So not only do we have less revenue to operate the property, we then have higher costs to process the eviction,” Brown said.
Strategic change
More than 30 organizations in Greenville County helped compile a list of initiatives that would reduce evictions and lessen their impact on tenants and landlords. Belge said the strategies outlined in the paper emulate best practices from across the country.
Education was highlighted as a main strategy for preventing evictions. The paper shares that many landlords and tenants aren’t aware of their rights and responsibilities regarding the eviction process.
Both parties can also lack understanding of the impacts an eviction can have on one another. For example, Brown said the forums for the Greenville Homeless Alliance eviction paper educated him on how evictions remain on a person’s record even if the tenant won the case.
“A lot of the prospective residents that we place have evictions on their record,” Brown said. “What we’ve done is really ramp up our ability to underwrite residents so that we can accept residents that have an eviction.”
To help educate landlords, the Greenville Homeless Alliance has held several landlord lunch-and-learn sessions to discuss alternatives to filing an eviction. Brown spoke at these events and provided insight into some of the strategies used to help tenants struggling to pay rent. For example, Affordable Upstate provides flexible payment terms, deposit alternatives and onsite rent resources for residents.
Improvement of the expungement process in South Carolina was also identified as a way to minimize the impact of evictions. Fessler explained that laws have been passed in several states creating an expungement process. However, this currently doesn’t exist in South Carolina.
As an example, the paper highlights an expungement program in Utah, where automatic expungements are granted at court for evictions. This occurs if the tenant wins the case, the case is dismissed, or both parties agree to the expungement.
The paper also suggests that a housing court be established in Greenville County to help improve the legal process of evictions. A housing court would provide tenants facing eviction access to legal representation.
Housing courts have been created in Charleston and Richland counties. Gatchell explained that connecting a tenant with an attorney can speed up the court process, resulting in an agreeable settlement for both the landlord and the tenant.
“We need to have the infrastructure and personnel to make it happen here and so I think it’s just a process of getting the right people on board,” she said.
This story was filed as part of an editorial partnership between South Carolina Public Radio and the Greenville Journal, which is responsible for its content. You can learn more about the Greenville Journal here.