Eviction filings are down in Maine, but threat is still high

The News Guy

2 months ago

Eviction filings are down in Maine, but threat is still high

Attorneys David Chamberlain, front left, representing a local landlord, and Katie McGovern, from Pine Tree Legal Assistance, representing a tenant, speak with District Judge Peter Darvin about their clients’ eviction case at the Cumberland County Courthouse in December 2022. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

Statewide, evictions were down in every month so far this year, and housing policymakers and lawyers in Maine have no clear explanation as to why.

Data from the state court system shows that the number of eviction cases filed from January through June of this year is down by about 28% from the same period in 2023 – and 1.2% from 2019, before pandemic-related rental relief programs went into effect.

But lawyers who take on eviction cases say the data doesn’t reflect the severity of Maine’s housing crisis. Other experts said the decline may indicate that several affordable housing policies and improvements in the economy have started to help people.

“It’s interesting because it just doesn’t reflect the kind of heightened housing insecurity that I think people have felt since the pandemic and post-pandemic,” said Oriana Farnham, a staff attorney at Maine Equal Justice, a nonprofit that pushes for progressive legislation and offers legal aid on housing issues.

“Whatever these numbers show, I don’t think it speaks to the need that low-income tenants in particular are facing,” Farnham said. “Rents are higher than they’ve ever been in Maine, and wages aren’t keeping pace.”

Scott Thistle, the communications director for MaineHousing, was also surprised by the data but thinks it actually does reflect a slight lessening in housing need because there are fewer evictions than in 2019, before the federal eviction ban and Emergency Rental Assistance Program went into place.

“Some of this decrease from 2023 to 2024 is a reflection of the spike in evictions that was a result of these eviction moratoriums coming to an end … so ’23 to ’24 is not a great side-by-side,” Thistle said. “Importantly, though, what you’re seeing is that the averages are below pre-pandemic filings, so we think that is a reason to see these current numbers as an encouraging sign.”

In 2023, the state saw 5,819 eviction cases make it to the court system. In 2019, there were 5,125. The monthly statewide data tracked by the judicial branch doesn’t include judgements, only the number of initial filings.

Thistle and his colleagues think the decline may be the result of greater development across the state and a number of programs designed to relieve low-income tenants of some of the costs of housing.

“There’s a large number of things that have combined that we believe are having a gradual impact,” Thistle said. “A lot of housing is coming online. … We’ve had more landlords who are willing to accept housing vouchers. … There’s been more resources to go toward housing navigators and diversion programs to help people avoid getting into an eviction filing to begin with.”

Greg Payne, the state’s senior adviser on housing policy, wrote in a statement that the office is “pleased to see the number of eviction filings decline, and are optimistic that our collective efforts to increase the supply of housing in Maine and engage in partnerships with communities, nonprofit organizations, and MaineHousing on housing solutions have contributed to this positive trend.”

Maureen Boston, the director of intake for Pine Tree Legal Assistance, which offers free legal aid to renters and other low-income people, said the level of tenant demand for service has only marginally declined from last year. Pine Tree has received about 1,500 requests for service though July 30th, only a 6.25% decrease from last year’s 1,600 from the same time period, she said.

“When I talk about people who ask us about evictions, I’m talking about a much more broad picture than just cases that are filed in court,” Boston said. “So there’s a lot more people who get notices to quit … people who are legally evicted, who are never served with court papers. … And those numbers appear to be pretty similar to what we’ve been seeing for the past couple of years.”

“So I don’t really know the answer about why the same number of people aren’t ending up in eviction court,” she said.

Boston said the data is likely an incomplete portrayal of the state of housing availability and affordability in Maine.

“In order to really give an opinion about the status of evictions, I’d really want to know data about the number of people who are unhoused, the number of people who get the notice to quit and just don’t want to even fight it and they leave,” Boston said. “We do talk to people every week who have vacated units, even though they might not have had to legally, and are living in their cars or sleeping on a friend’s couch or have moved in with family members.”

David Chamberlain, an attorney in Portland who represents landlords, said he’s only seen a slight drop in eviction cases in the city.

“Evictions are slightly down in Portland, but not that far off from the normal range,” Chamberlain said.

This year, evictions in Portland are down about 43% from 2023, but only 3.5% lower than the same time in 2019. He isn’t sure why, but said it may be because the economy has improved.

“It seems like we have a relatively stable economy and unemployment is down, so that’s probably why,” Chamberlain said.

James Myall, an economic policy analyst at the Maine Center for Economic Policy, had a similar guess.

“One thing that could be playing a role is that we have seen inflation kind of cooling and wages continuing to rise,” Myall said. “I don’t know if that’s been enough to keep up with the rising cost of rent … but it is possible that if people are earning more and the unemployment rate is low, that’s it’s taking some of the pressure off of families, in terms of rent.”

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