Help with Housing

Housing assistance providers are listed below for each county. We encourage people to stay as close as possible to where they have family, friends, job connections, school history, etc. Transportation is expensive and many shelters do not provide it. However, you may need to stay further away because of shelter restrictions. Call in advance: shelters are sometimes full. Also, some may not accept:

• all genders
• children of certain ages or who have only an opposite sex parent
• people with any violent history
• people with certain felonies
• non-veterans
• registered sex offenders
• active substance abusers
• people required to leave shelters for rules violations

Are you being Evicted?
(If not skip to table, below.)

Many people do not understand the future difficulty that an eviction will cause them. Eviction requires multiple stages and the more states you go through, the more trouble you will have renting housing in the future. Anyone who is or might be evicted needs to know these things:

1. Knowing your landlord wants you to leave. If your landlord verbally tells you that he wants you to leave, immediately make plans to go elsewhere. If the notice is not in writing, you are still responsible for 30 days of rent after notice is given. If you have having financial trouble paying rent, the best thing is often for you to give a 30-notice to your landlord This will keep the total rent you will owe him to a minimum. If you give him notice in the middle of a month, you will only have to pay through the middle of the next month. Arrange to store your possessions and thoroughly clean your unit—ask someone for help if you need it. You might be able to use some of your deposit as rent rather than for cleaning fees. Homeless shelters will often accept you if you explain that you are leaving because you know you cannot pay rent. However, some "homelessness prevention" programs cannot give you funds until you are further in the eviction process. Check with the HARA Agency in your county to see if you qualify and if they program presently has funds available. If you have no future source of income, you may not qualify.
2. Receiving a “Notice to Quit” This notice can give you 7 days to leave for non-payment or rent or 30 days for almost any other reason to ask you to leave. This paper is not filed in court. If the cause is non-payment of rent or some lease violation (too many people, too much noise, too dirty, etc.), the landlord's company will certainly keep a record of it and such information is shared with other landlords through landlord associations. Without a very good explanation, most landlords that find out about these Notice to Quit will not want to rent to you. On the positive side, most shelters and some government programs will provide immediate help to you when you have a Notice to Quit.
3. Court case filed. A landlord may file a court case simply to get possession, to recover unpaid rent, to receive restitution for property damage or dirtiness—or all of the above. This writer found conflicting information as to whether the simple filing of a case causes an entry to be made on your credit report: some sources said no, other said yes. If you, the renter, can pay for the rent or damages due (plus court costs) before the case comes to trial, the case con be dismissed rather than finding you guilty. Judgments for money can be removed from credit reports when they are paid in full. Even if the judgment still remains on a credit report, being able to show a landlord that the judgment has been paid is a good way to get one's case reconsidered. If you cannot pay everything owing, it is best to pursue housing programs or move to a shelter as quickly as possible. Usually, rent continues to accumulate day by day. They less you have to pay, the quicker you will be able to pay it off.
4. Case goes to trial--usually a writ of eviction is issued giving the landlord possession in 10 days. If you win the trial because the landlord was not following the law, a record of your eviction case will still likely appear on your credit report. Some tenant associations are introducing legislation to remove credit report entries when a tenant wins the case. That does not always happen now, so you may still to explain an eviction to a new landlord, even if you won the case. But losing an eviction case will stay on your record for seven years and many good rental companies will not rent to you. Small, private landlords or landlords desperate for renters are the best places to rent if you lose an eviction trial. On the positive side, almost every hosing program and shelter will help you if they have availability.
5. Writ of eviction carried out—your possessions put on the street by the Sheriff. About 10 days after an eviction trial, if you have not left your unit, the landlord can have the Sheriff require you to leave the unit or be arrested for trespassing. All of your possessions still in the unit will be taken to the curb of the street where anyone is free to pick them up. Yes, somebody can walk off with your favorite stereo, music collection DVDs, video games, clothes, furniture or anything else, and law enforcement will probably not help you. It is obviously better to seek help well before this happens. While credit reports may not show whether or not the eviction process was carried out, landlord association databases probably will. Landlords are very unhappy with renters that put them through this difficulty!

Housing Help for Nearby Counties

Registered sex offenders may also consider the resources on this page.