North DSM News

Polk County has implemented a new eviction prevention program to keep residents in their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Evictions have been banned through December by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but Iowa saw an increase in evictions when unemployment payments expired, Iowa Public Radio reported. 

The Iowa Legal Aid staff and Polk County Housing Trust Fund officials have been helping Iowa residents who show up for eviction hearings at the Polk County Courthouse. 

“Tenants can come to us, and we’ll analyze their case,” Nick Smithberg, executive director of Iowa Legal Aid, told Iowa Public Radio. “And critically, we can help connect them with resources to help them pay the rent. Because right now there’s a CDC moratorium in effect, but it does not relieve tenants of the obligation to pay rent.”

The program began on Sept. 2 and will help tenants who show up for an eviction hearing. But in order for the program to work, people must show up for their hearings. 

“It is of vital importance that tenants engage in this process, deliver the CDC [eviction moratorium] notices to their landlords, and show up for their court cases,” Smithberg told Iowa Public Radio. “They will not win if they don’t show up.”

Smithberg said it's the first program of its kind in the state and he hopes to expand it to more counties. 

“The landlords get income that they would have lost and don’t have vacancies, the tenants keep a roof over them and the public gets the benefit of avoiding the adverse health crisis of having people become homeless during the middle of a pandemic,” Smithberg told Iowa Public Radio.