The Mountain Mediation Center will hold two clinics Friday and Saturday to educate tenants on how to expunge evictions from their records.
Director Gretchen Lee said it’s part of the mediation center’s wider effort to prevent homelessness.
“If you have an eviction on your record, you are more likely to have difficulty finding future housing and are more at-risk for homelessness,” she said.
Being named as a defendant in an eviction case—even if that case is dropped or dismissed—goes on a tenant’s record future landlords will see during a background check.
Eviction Expungement Intern Lance Rothchild, a sophomore at Brandeis University and Park City High School graduate, is helping set up the clinics.
He said a new state law passed in 2022 has gone into effect, H.B. 359, which allows tenants to get evictions removed from their records. Rothschild said a key requirement is paying off the unpaid rent or other money owed to the landlord.
“Most people who would be seeking expungement have an amount of debt that they owe as a result of the case,” Rothschild said. “And so what the clinic exists to do is figure out how much people owe individually and create a plan for them to come up with a payable amount between the tenant and the landlord, to hopefully resolve that eviction.”
According to Rothchild, further provisions of H.B. 359 allow for certain evictions to be expunged automatically, but that part of the law hasn’t yet gone into effect.
The Christian Center of Park City will host the clinics Friday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Mountain Mediation hold two more clinics Oct. 6 and 7 at the Wasatch County Library, too.
Tenants in the Wasatch Back facing eviction may also benefit from a $100,000 federal grant won by Utah’s Third District Court, which includes Tooele, Salt Lake and Summit counties.
Much of the money will go toward People’s Legal Aid, a statewide nonprofit law firm that provides legal services and education to people facing eviction or debt collection.
People’s Legal Aid would use it to hire a coordinator to compile resources related to legal assistance, social services, rental assistance and mediation all in one place. Many of those services would also be available on Zoom.
Nathanael Player directs Utah State Courts' Self-Help Center. He said 60% of all Utah eviction cases get filed in Salt Lake County.
“I think part of the reason they chose us is that, in Salt Lake City, they handle the majority of eviction cases statewide,” Player said. “And so an impact that happens in Salt Lake County has an outsized impact on the citizens of Utah.”
Player noted that the court has an obligation to defendents and plaintiffs alike, so money will also go toward legal assistance to landlords who represent themselves in court.
He said the state courts’ data from fiscal year 2023, which ended in June, show 8% of landlords represented themselves during eviction proceedings compared to 95% of tenants.
Paperwork is being finalized, and Player expects the money could become available this fall.
Click here to learn more about People’s Legal Aid.
Click here to visit Mountain Mediation Center online.
