This text was produced for ProPublica’s Native Reporting Community in partnership with the Bangor Every day Information. Join Dispatches to get tales like this one as quickly as they’re revealed.
When Jasmin Belanger agreed to a plan to pay $750 in again lease, she had no concept how the choice would hang-out her.
It wasn’t till 10 months later, whereas residence searching to distance herself from an ex-boyfriend she mentioned had abused her, that she found an eviction on her report. She hadn’t ever been ordered to maneuver out, having paid her again lease on schedule. However it turned out that the 2023 deal she made in courtroom along with her landlord to assist her keep away from eviction created a paper report that made it appear like she had been evicted. That black mark saved her from discovering a brand new place to dwell.
Belanger’s landlord was the Bangor public housing authority, which operates residences for low-income residents. The U.S. Division of Housing and City Growth strongly encourages public housing authorities to supply so-called compensation agreements to tenants who’ve fallen behind on lease in an effort to assist them keep of their houses. It recommends that authorities attain these offers earlier than circumstances attain eviction courtroom.
However housing authorities have flexibility as to how you can design and implement such agreements. And the way in which these second-chance alternatives are executed in some components of Maine — verbally in eviction courts with little judicial oversight — has come again to hurt even tenants who meet each time period of their offers.
That’s as a result of judges right here don’t pause eviction circumstances even when tenants and housing authorities attain agreements. The truth is, these judges usually grant landlords possession of properties on the time that compensation offers are made — expediting the method of kicking out tenants who violate the agreements.
Some states have taken steps to stop this, requiring landlords to return to courtroom to evict tenants who don’t fulfill the phrases of their compensation plans. Housing authorities additionally may select to pause or shut eviction circumstances if compensation agreements are made in courtroom, however they hardly ever achieve this in Maine, mentioned Erica Veazey, an legal professional with Pine Tree Authorized Help, a authorized assist group primarily based in Portland that represents low-income tenants all through the state.
Most housing authorities in Maine, together with Bangor’s, instructed the Bangor Every day Information and ProPublica that they observe HUD’s steering and attempt to attain agreements with tenants outdoors of courts. However courtroom information present that’s not all the time true in Bangor, the state’s second-largest housing authority. There, 54 tenants had compensation agreements made in courtroom, in response to the newsrooms’ examination of eviction filings between 2019 and 2024. All 54 tenants ended up with eviction judgments in courtroom information, together with those that could have repaid their money owed. (If a compensation settlement was made outdoors of courtroom, it will not seem in any official report.)
Maine’s courtroom system is without doubt one of the final within the nation to depend on paper information, making a holistic accounting of such ghost evictions tough. However the Bangor circumstances present for the primary time how these compensation agreements can backfire for tenants in opposition to the intent of the HUD steering.
Introduced with these findings, Mike Myatt, government director of Bangor’s housing authority, mentioned he didn’t know public housing residents would robotically find yourself with evictions on their information in the event that they entered into compensation agreements in courtroom.
“I don’t fairly perceive or understand how these processes could also be modified,” Myatt mentioned, “however we would definitely lead an effort or be a part of an effort that will change these guidelines.”
Mike Myatt, government director of Bangor’s housing authority. He mentioned he didn’t know that public housing residents would robotically find yourself with evictions on their information in the event that they entered into compensation agreements in courtroom.
Credit score:
Linda Coan O’Kresik/BDN
HUD, throughout President Donald Trump’s first time period, started urging housing authorities to succeed in compensation agreements earlier than taking tenants to eviction courtroom in July 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic. In January, simply earlier than President Joe Biden left workplace, the company reemphasized that steering as a part of new safeguards for public housing tenants; that doesn’t embrace a advice about whether or not evictions needs to be included on tenants’ information as a part of such offers.
“HUD’s intent appears fairly clear: Eviction submitting needs to be a final resort for housing authorities and never basically a method to strong-arm tenants into agreeing to no matter phrases you wish to put them below,” mentioned Hannah Adams, a senior legal professional on the Nationwide Housing Legislation Challenge, a nonprofit authorized advocacy heart for low-income tenants and householders. She practices in Louisiana, the place judges repeatedly log out on compensation agreements with out coming into an eviction judgment.
Of the greater than three dozen tenants contacted by the Bangor Every day Information and ProPublica, solely Belanger agreed to publicly share her expertise in regards to the penalties of getting an eviction on her report.
An eviction, even one which by no means really occurred, can hang-out an individual’s monetary report for years, seen to lenders and potential landlords and hurting alternatives to acquire credit score or lease a house, Adams mentioned.
Requested to touch upon a variety of questions, together with the impact of housing authorities deviating from federal steering, HUD spokesperson Kasey Lovett issued a press release saying the Trump administration is reviewing all guidelines finalized over the last administration.
“Many artificially raised the price of housing and administration of HUD applications,” Lovett mentioned. “HUD is trying into this particular rule and contemplating obligatory choices to revise or take away this burden.”
The company didn’t reply to follow-up questions on whether or not or how it will revise the steering about compensation agreements.
Perils of Courtroom-Primarily based Offers
Belanger mentioned she fell behind on her lease in 2023 as a result of she was paying to remain at a lodge to dwell away from her ex. She had additionally misplaced earnings as a result of she was now not exhibiting up repeatedly to her cosmetology job because of the stress.
An eviction discover delivered to her door in Could 2023 prompted her to fulfill with a monetary counselor on the Bangor housing authority. The counselor suggested her to hunt a compensation plan in an effort to stay in her residence and keep away from eviction courtroom, Belanger mentioned. However the housing authority initially refused, telling her that she may solely get a compensation plan in courtroom, in response to a textual content message from a housing authority consultant to Belanger. The textual content message seems to contradict Myatt’s characterization of his company’s customary follow.
Myatt wouldn’t clarify why Belanger was not allowed to enter into an settlement earlier than courtroom, saying he couldn’t discuss particular person eviction circumstances even with Belanger’s permission.
“Each eviction case is exclusive and has totally different circumstances,” he mentioned. “We go above and past to assist individuals keep of their housing.”
When her courtroom date arrived two months later in July, Belanger mentioned the method moved shortly. The choose known as her identify, and he or she was ushered to a convention room off the courthouse hallway the place the housing authority’s legal professional, Joseph Bethony, verbally provided her a deal: She may stay in her residence if she paid her again lease. She mentioned he by no means talked about something about an eviction occurring her report. Bethony declined to remark, referring the Bangor Every day Information and ProPublica to Myatt. There isn’t any steering on what housing authority attorneys are supposed to inform tenants when making compensation agreements, Myatt mentioned.
“Our objective is to maintain households housed and gather the crucial lease we have to pay our bills,” Myatt mentioned. “Our counsel works with everybody to perform that objective.”
Belanger, who didn’t have an legal professional, mentioned she agreed to the compensation plan with out seeing it in writing.
Maine judges sometimes don’t evaluate compensation agreements made in eviction courtroom between housing authorities and tenants.
Credit score:
Linda Coan O’Kresik/BDN
She returned to the courtroom, the place a choose requested if she had reached an settlement with the housing authority. She responded sure and the listening to ended, Belanger mentioned. She believed the deal had been easy: Pay what she owed, make the funds on time and the housing authority would let her keep.
The compensation agreements are drawn up by attorneys for the housing authority and aren’t sometimes reviewed by judges, in response to Barbara Cardone, a spokesperson for the Maine Judicial Department. Cardone mentioned the courtroom’s authority in eviction circumstances is restricted to figuring out whether or not the owner can take possession of the property.
The housing authority mentioned it doesn’t give tenants the agreements to check in courtroom. After the listening to, the company sends a letter to the tenant outlining the compensation settlement and phrases of the courtroom ruling. Myatt mentioned he doesn’t evaluate the agreements.
The copy of the settlement that Belanger ultimately acquired was dated seven days after the courtroom listening to and was signed by Bethony however not Belanger, in response to the doc reviewed by the Bangor Every day Information and ProPublica. The one-page doc mentioned Belanger had agreed that the choose dominated in favor of the housing authority, which might have the ability to instantly evict her if she doesn’t pay her lease — and again lease — on time over the following 12 months.
She wouldn’t perceive the implications till March 2024, whereas attempting to maneuver away from her ex, when a potential landlord knowledgeable her she wouldn’t get the residence as a result of an eviction judgment had been entered in opposition to her in courtroom. Belanger even had a reference letter from the housing authority saying that she had fulfilled her compensation settlement and her earlier struggles paying lease “have been because of the monies she has needed to spend staying away from her residence to be protected,” in response to an e mail reviewed by the Bangor Every day Information and ProPublica.
“I had paid off all of my debt,” Belanger mentioned in an interview. “I’d have fought this if I had recognized this was a consequence.”
Myatt, head of the Bangor housing authority, mentioned he trains his workers to make use of court-based agreements as a final resort. He mentioned tenants shouldn’t be punished with eviction information in the event that they’ve fulfilled their agreements.
“If the obligations are met,” he mentioned, “the eviction needs to be lifted.” There’s presently no method to expunge an eviction report in Maine.
A housing advanced managed by the Bangor public housing authority. It’s the state’s second-largest housing authority.
Credit score:
Linda Coan O’Kresik/BDN
In contrast to in Maine, different locations throughout the nation have arrange extra guardrails round compensation agreements and evictions. Massachusetts requires all compensation agreements made in courtroom to be in writing and accredited by judicial officers. As well as, landlords can’t robotically evict tenants who don’t abide by their agreements; they have to return to courtroom to show tenants didn’t uphold their aspect of the offers earlier than acquiring enforceable eviction orders.
In SeaTac, a Seattle suburb, native ordinances require eviction proceedings to cease in courtroom if a tenant and landlord comply with a compensation settlement, so tenants don’t wind up with evictions on their information. In Portland, Oregon, the general public housing authority permits residents to signal compensation agreements at any level earlier than eviction hearings.
Nicole Summers, an affiliate professor at Georgetown Legislation who has extensively studied eviction settlements, refers to compensation agreements as “civil probation.” That’s as a result of these agreements usually embrace guidelines and circumstances governing tenants’ habits nicely past paying off again lease.
In Maine, Veazey mentioned that below some agreements, violating public housing guidelines by failing to mow your garden or smoking too near the constructing can result in a tenant’s compelled removing with out having to return to courtroom for an eviction order.
In Presque Isle, the housing authority gave a public housing resident 48 hours to pack up and go away after she missed a lease fee. The lady, featured in a narrative by the Bangor Every day Information and ProPublica in December, was homeless for 3 years after violating the compensation plan she had made in courtroom. When there isn’t a compensation settlement in place, landlords usually should present tenants 30 days’ discover for many lease violations earlier than submitting eviction circumstances in courtroom.
The USDA Wouldn’t Let Her Give Up Her Home When She Couldn’t Pay Her Mortgage. As a substitute, It Crushed Her With Debt.
Belanger’s settlement in Bangor featured an identical set off for eviction. She wasn’t simply required to pay what she owed, she additionally needed to make future lease funds on time for 12 months.
Within the two years since Belanger agreed to the compensation deal in courtroom, she mentioned she has felt trapped.
Regardless of a constructive reference from the Bangor housing authority’s director of property administration, landlord after landlord rejected her rental software due to the eviction. It took the only mom of a toddler 9 months to get into one other residence distant from her ex, who was out on bail after being arrested for allegedly beating and threatening to kill her. (He was later discovered not responsible after a trial.)
Belanger mentioned she’s afraid to maneuver once more as a result of the paper eviction hasn’t gone away.
“I’m in all probability nonetheless going to have this trouble coming together with me wherever I’m going.”
This story was supported partially by a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism.
Mariam Elba of ProPublica and Christina Wallace contributed analysis.
