Housing advocacy groups see hope in bipartisan evictions legislation

The full Senate is set to consider legislation that would free some renters of evictions that stain their records in what housing advocates see as a rare win.

Senate Bill 142 would require courts to expunge evictions for individuals who have paid the amount required in their judgment, and in cases where the judgment didn’t require payment, courts would be required to expunge evictions after seven years.

The latter portion of the law would become effective in January 2028, seven years after the courts began using an online court system that will allow the tracking needed for automatic expungements.

Sen. Liz Brown, R-Fort Wayne, authored the bill, which the Senate Judiciary Committee approved 10-1 on Jan. 15. It’s now eligible for amendments in the full Senate.

The lone “no” vote came from Sen. Aaron Freeman, R-Indianapolis. Freeman authored an amendment that would have required tenants to request the expungement. He said the committee needed to value “personal responsibility.”

Brown acknowledged that the bill put “a little bit of the administrative burden on the courts” but said that making individuals seek expungement goes against the intention of the legislation. She said many of the eviction claims that will be expunged involve instances in which landlords have made baseless claims against a tenant. 

“You could be the tenant who was wronged and you have that over your head,” Brown said. “You actually were found blameless, but because it’s filed, that can carry on and be like a black cloud as you’re trying to get housing.”

Sen. Greg Taylor, D-Indianapolis, expressed support for the bill. Fellow Democratic Sens. Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago and Rodney Pol, D-Chesterton, voted in favor of the legislation in committee.

Advocates say the legislation will help reduce the harm eviction filings can have on renters seeking housing, particularly in Marion County where the eviction rate is high.

Statewide, there have been nearly 71,800 eviction filings in the past year, which equates to about one in 10 Hoosier renters. Andrew Bradley leads a group of about a dozen organizations focused on homelessness and housing called the Hoosier Housing Needs Coalition. He told IBJ the legislation is an “easy, slam-dunk way to lower some of the burdens and costs” of evictions on both courts and individuals.

It’s unclear how many Hoosiers could receive automatic expungement under the legislation. However, Bradley said that demographic data on Hoosiers with evictions on their record show that many are lower-income working families. Often, these families are Black, single-parent families led by women, he said.

Indianapolis’ eviction rate is double the average of 34 cities studied by the Eviction Lab at Princeton University. The lab, which collects data and creates interactive tools to help understand the impact of evictions, reported that, as of Jan. 1, 25,245 evictions had been filed in the past 12 months in Indianapolis.

That’s about 15 eviction filings for every 100 renter households. The average eviction filing rate in the 10 states and 34 cities the group studied is 7.8%, or nearly eight filings for every 100 households.

The coalition was behind an effort in 2022 that created an eviction sealing process, meaning the records are publicly hidden. Bradley said that the program has been successful. Indiana courts have processed 31,635 eviction sealing requests since it took effect in July 2022. Having these be automatic, rather than requiring a court process, would “unclog the court system” he said.

The 2022 legislation easily sailed through the House and Senate. Bradley and the advocates he represents are hopeful this legislation will be similarly successful.