Hundreds of Delaware families have been able to avoid eviction and remain in their homes thanks to legislation passed by Senate Majority Leader Bryan Townsend.
Passed with bipartisan support, Senate Bill 1 (S) gave thousands of Delaware renters free legal representation during eviction proceedings and other landlord-tenant actions. The bill also created a pre-trial diversion program aimed at resolving landlord-tenant disputes before they reach the courtroom.
A 2020 study of pre-pandemic eviction data by the University of Delaware’s Biden School of Public Policy found that 14 tenants in Delaware are evicted from their homes on an average day – a rate 2 percentage points higher than the national average. And At $45 per case, eviction filings are relatively inexpensive and easy for Delaware landlords to file.
Previously, only about 2% of tenants had legal representation in Delaware eviction proceedings, compared to about 86% of landlords who were represented in court by an attorney, a property manager or other agent, according to the Biden School. Nearly a third of Delaware tenants facing eviction proceedings felt so powerless that they didn’t even show up to court, resulting in a default judgment.
SB 1 (S) addressed these issues in two key ways.
First, the legislation created a Right to Representation Coordinator position appointed by the Attorney General and empowered to contract with one or more nonprofits — like Delaware Community Legal Aid Society — to offer legal representation to tenants facing eviction proceedings whose household income is less than 200% of the federal poverty guidelines. More than $1.3 million in funding to build out this program was included in Governor Carney’s recommended FY2024 budget.
Second, the legislation established a residential eviction diversion program modeled after Delaware’s Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program, which has helped more than 62% of participants stay in their homes since its creation in the wake of the Great Recession. Tenants in the mediation process also would be provided with a designated housing counselor, and many landlord-tenant disputes would have to pass through the diversion program before any formal legal action could be taken.
