With eviction filings having quickly resumed after the lifting of the statewide moratorium, Jacksonville Area Legal Aid has seen a 50% increase in requests for help with landlord-tenant matters over 2019 levels.

Mary DeVries, division chief of JALA’s housing unit, said she’s hearing from people who are thousands of dollars in debt after suffering the economic fallout of the pandemic.

Having foreseen the surge in eviction filing, JALA last summer launched a new online tool to help Floridians create a legal response based initially on the state’s moratorium on evictions for nonpayment directly related to COVID-19, as well as the CARES Act, and later on the CDC eviction moratorium.

Supported by a grant from the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the tool at FloridaEvictionHelp.org enables Floridians eligible for a delay to avoid being evicted because of an inadequate answer to the eviction filing. It has been accessed by nearly 3,200 Floridians since August, more than 1,700 of whom created a legal response using the tool, which will be continually adapted to changes in state and federal eviction protections.

JALA created the online self-help tool to supplement its Eviction Defense Self Help Project, which serves Duval county through a one-on-one clinic every Wednesday to help tenants prepare their defense.

Now it in its second year, the project focuses on ensuring stable housing to help families move out of poverty and towards financial health. This project is made possible through a Pro Bono Innovation Grant from The Florida Bar Foundation and is headed by attorney Suzanne Garrow.

“When families are evicted, they are destabilized financially, socially, and psychologically. There is a lack of affordable housing in the areas JALA serves, and Florida law does not offer strong tenant protections,” DeVries said. “The ability to offer legal services to families so that they can remained housed is vital for both those families and their communities.”

Looking ahead to 2021, the Jacksonville Business Journal reports that 20.2 percent of Florida renters are behind on payments and more than three-quarters of those expect to be evicted within two months.

“For those we aren’t able to provide court representation, we to try to equip tenants with accurate information and self-help tools they can use to advocate for themselves,” DeVries said. “Unfortunately, we aren’t able to meet the demand for our services to represent every tenant who has a meritorious case.”