Clark County had highest per capita rate of eviction filings in state in 2023

About two-thirds of the county’s eviction filings occurred in the last six months after two state-funded rent assistance programs and a mediation program for tenants and landlords ended in June.

In March, people relying on food stamps had about $90 less a month after a rollback of pandemic-era increases to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Some have suggested rent stabilization is the answer to lowering Clark County’s eviction levels. Others say more funding is needed for housing vouchers or incentives for landlords to lower rent.

‘Burned out’

When Carl Snodgrass, an attorney with the Northwest Justice Project, found out Clark County ranked No. 1 for per capita eviction filings, he wasn’t particularly surprised, he said, based on what he’s witnessed around his Vancouver office.

“We have a team dedicated to eviction work and that is all they do right now,” he said.

In 2021, Washington became the first state in the nation to establish the right to a free attorney for tenants who cannot afford one in eviction cases. Advocates lauded it as a major win for tenants, but eviction defense lawyers say it’s been difficult to keep up with the need as evictions have surged.

“It’s hard to keep people. People don’t stay on very long because they get burned out because they’re one person in charge of 100 cases,” Snodgrass said of the high level of attorney turnover.

The Northwest Justice Project, like many other civil legal aid programs in the state, is publicly funded by the state-funded Office of Civil Legal Aid.

However, the program doesn’t receive enough funding to hire the number of eviction defense attorneys needed so that each can have a more manageable caseload, he said.

With most eviction cases taking about a week to resolve, attorneys have little time to prepare.

More than half of the cases end with a court-ordered eviction, according to court records.

Clark County Superior Court was scheduled to hear 67 eviction cases on the unlawful detainer docket this week alone. Due to the high number of cases per docket, the court created two unlawful detainer dockets in recent months.

“That doesn’t help in terms of the number of filings. That doesn’t reduce them in any way,” Snodgrass said. “It’s not helping alleviate that problem that we just don’t have enough people.”

He believes the court should institute docket caps that would limit the number of cases that can be heard in a day. However, landlords want a speedy process because they’re not being paid if a tenant occupies their property while behind on rent.

“I think our court has been reluctant here to really address what the problem is with the huge dockets every day,” Snodgrass said.

Until something changes, the gallery of the unlawful detainer docket will continue to fill with tenants who are part of a grim trend in Clark County.