New city specialist helps reduce evictions

While landlords recently filed 821 eviction notices in St. Petersburg, the city’s first community support specialist helped keep 117 residents in their homes and contacted all but eight.

In July 2022, city officials reallocated resources within the codes department to create a new community support specialist position. Beatriz Zafra embarked upon her new role the next month.

Her focus is connecting tenants facing eviction with available resources. Council members heard how the initiative is already a resounding success – despite a massive workload spread throughout the entire city – during Thursday’s Youth and Family Services meeting.

“Beatriz has knocked it out of the park,” said Amy Foster, neighborhood and community affairs administrator. “We are thrilled with the work that she has done, so much so that we repurposed another code’s position to add another community support specialist based on the need we’re seeing.

“I’m seeing more and more that we’re having serious issues with landlords, and the work is really important.”

A graphic showing eviction data through the first five months of the initiative. Screengrab.

Joe Waugh, codes compliance assistance director, highlighted the program’s success in its first five months and explained some of those issues. In addition to providing vital information to renters, he and Zafra collect and analyze relevant data.

They collaborate with Community Law Program, Bay Area Legal Services, 211 and Homeless Leadership alliance officials to better connect tenants with resources provided by each organization. The two also search clerk of court records daily to identify St. Petersburg residents facing evictions.

Waugh noted that Zafra left information with all but eight of the 821 people facing evictions from Aug. 26, 2022, through the end of January.

Zafra direct contacted 350 renters and conducted over 700 follow-up phone calls. Waugh said 27 refused assistance, and 19 retained private counsel.

“That’s 350 tenants facing eviction that likely would not have been connected to these resources if we did not have this position,” he added. Nearly 25% of those at risk of losing their homes resided within the South St. Petersburg Community Redevelopment Area (CRA).

Landlords filed about 91% of evictions due to nonpayment. Data shows the average past due amount was $3,159, and Waugh relayed that many people lack access to computers, the internet and transportation, making communication procedural responses exponentially more difficult.

He said that some residents were too overwhelmed to reach out for assistance, and the number of eviction filings and the size of the city could have the same effect on Zafra.

“We did not anticipate the workload,” Waugh said. “And the knowledge gap regarding tenant’s rights and the eviction process was greater than we anticipated.”

He explained how tenants are often reluctant to share income information and are unaware their landlord filed an eviction. The time it takes to receive rental assistance is typically longer than the window to deposit necessary funds.

In addition, the programs require active participation from landlords. Waugh called that a challenging task during eviction proceedings.

The codes department oversees tenant’s rights enforcement, and he said they typically discover violations through renter complaints. The department directly issues violation notices to the property owners, who have 15 days to prove they met ordinance requirements.

“We’ve had a 48% increase in tenants reaching out to codes and asking for inspections because of properties that are not in proper working order,” Foster said. “We do have some repeat offenders in that area.”

The department issued $2,300 in fines to landlords over the past five months and saved renters $3,300 in late fees.

A graphic showing the number of evictions filed according to zip code. Screengrab.

Councilmember John Muhammad expressed his happiness with the program’s success and level of detail. He also appreciates that the codes department is working to help residents rather than just “coming down and bringing the hammer.”

Muhammad applauded Zafra for her effectiveness and efficiency while attempting to assist people facing their darkest moments.

“In that slide, we don’t see the tears of residents, the panic and the trauma,” Muhammad said. “So, when we look at the 350 that we helped, the other 400 that you couldn’t really do anything about – they still have stories, they still have lives and they’re still impacting – that doesn’t go away when you clock out.”

The codes department will welcome an additional community support specialist in March and split the city into two zones.