In Rochester, a new program helps students’ families avoid eviction
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Last fall was really stressful for Abuk Deng.
She’s a single parent of two kids, one of whom has special needs and requires lots of medical appointments. Deng went without work for a few months last year and fell behind on rent, which led to an eviction notice last December.
“I’m thinking, ‘Where are my kids gonna go,’” she said. “I was just scared for my life, for my kids’ lives. I know that sounds dramatic, but it’s very true.”
As her online eviction court date approached, Deng didn’t have a plan.
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“I said one last prayer before I logged in my Zoom. And when I got there, Shai Nichols was there advocating for me,” she said.
Shai Nichols is Rochester Public School’s new eviction specialist. She and Deng’s legal aid lawyers helped Deng stay in her home.
Each week Nichols scours publicly available court data and cross-checks it with the names of students in the school district’s database. She’s searching for families who may need help avoiding an eviction.
A big part of her job is explaining what an eviction is in the first place.
“For example, like a family who may speak a different language, that’s where I step in to say, ‘OK, the first thing I need to do is get an interpreter to help this family understand the importance and the priority of even showing up to court,’” she said.
As she did with Deng, Nichols helps families find funding to cover back rent, too.
But Nichols’ job doesn’t end once the eviction hearing is over. She may help parents find better paying jobs. She may help them figure out a budget to determine if their rent is actually affordable.
“We don’t just say, ‘We’ve got the funds. We’ll pay your rent, no problem,’” she said.
With housing increasingly unaffordable and in high demand, Nichols said the real goal is to keep families in stable housing so kids can learn.
Affordable is relative
Nichols started her job in late September of last year. It was created after school and county officials noticed that between 2022 and 2023, more than 400 eviction cases in Rochester involved kids in the public school district. Of the roughly 20 eviction cases in court weekly, Nichols said half of them typically involve kids.
Housing in Olmsted County is hard to come by, said Mary O’Neil, associate director housing for Olmsted County. Rents often reflect wages earned by people in higher paying medical careers at Mayo Clinic.
“What is considered affordable, it’s all relative,” said O’Neil. “People are really having a hard time on fixed incomes. When they do find apartments, it’s just harder to keep them because the rent is so high that if they have a crisis of some kind — a car repair, a medical emergency — they have to prioritize what comes first. Sometimes rent is not that priority.”
Evictions can start a long cycle of housing instability, she said. And housing instability can make it hard for kids to learn.
“It’s a disruption to their lives, to their educational experience, which then prompted us to say, ‘What if we had a position that was truly focused on those families going through an eviction so that we could prevent an eviction and help those students maintain their stability,” said O’Neil.
‘We just need some grace’
Nichols has helped more than sixty families avoid eviction. That includes Tiara Tate and her three daughters.
Late last year, Tate said hours at her job were trimmed back, and she fell behind in paying rent on an apartment.
Nichols helped Tate pay back rent. But she also helped Tate figure out that the rent on her apartment was unaffordable in the long run.
“I’m like, I don't want to keep paying this rent, like it’s not worth it,” Tate said. “So I found something the same, but cheaper.”
Tate said if she’d been evicted a relatively easy move into a new place would have been challenging.
“I instantly found something. They approved me,” she said. “I didn’t want [an eviction] on there because I’ve had an eviction on my background, and I know that’s hard to find a place with that.”
Abuk Deng is also really grateful for the help she got from Nichols.
Being able to stay in her apartment bought Deng time to find a new job. Nichols connected Deng with additional resources for her special needs child. And when Deng’s phone broke, Nichols helped her find a program that offered free replacements. It was another financial burden lifted off Deng’s plate.
Avoiding an eviction is a big deal for Deng’s future, too.
“If I do choose to move out of here, most people won’t rent to people with evictions,” she said. “And I know we all go through our stuff just like me. I just went through my stuff, but sometimes we just need some grace.”