Benton County Evictions & Foreclosures on the Rise

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By Chelsea Kopta

Summary

KEPR Action News discovered another result of our super-busy rental market. Fall behind on the rent and you're likely to get evicted right away. Landlords are now much less lenient when you miss a payment.

Story Published: Sep 7, 2010 at 6:10 PM PST

KENNEWICK, Wa. -- Benton County Sheriff's deputies are buried in paperwork and slammed with phone calls as the tide of evictions steadily rises. More families than ever are struggling to pay rent. It means the Benton County Sheriff's Office civil division performs six to 12 evictions a week. On Tuesday alone, at least half a dozen new eviction requests came in.

"It's a lot of work, it's a lot of work," Lieutenant Joe Lusignan said, who works in the civil division of the Benton County Sheriff's Office.

Evicting a tenant is a process that starts in the courts and once a judge drops the gavel on a decision, the sheriff's office is required to follow through on the eviction. Lusignan said most of stops are in apartments, although 90 percent of the time, tenants are gone before deputies show up.

But with apartment occupancy rates nearing 100 percent in the Tri-Cities, KEPR found landlords are less forgiving when tenants miss rent.

"A lot of landlords, this is their business, this is their income so they may not need to be so lenient when it comes to people paying their rent because they've got other people standing in line to take those spots," Lusignan said.

After several calls to managers, KEPR found waiting lists for rentals are still in the 50's or hundreds.

"People can't afford it anymore. The cost of living is going up, it's sky rocketing ridiculously," Cherrie Hunsaker said. "So it doesn't surprise me that people are moving from houses or evicting from apartments."

Cherrie Hunsaker's never been evicted, but when she couldn't find a one-bedroom for under $700 dollars in Richland, she moved back in with her parents. "It was just easier to pay my parents' rent then someone else's rent."

What about those who miss their mortgage payment? Action News also dug into Tri-Cities' foreclosure rates and found those are up as well. It's another trend Hunsaker witnessed first hand. Coincidentally, when she moved back to her parent's home on Camden Street in Richland, she moved across the street from a foreclosed home.

KEPR found foreclosures doubled from last year, jumping from four to eight. While it doesn't sound like a lot, Lusignan said those numbers are substantial because foreclosing on a home is almost always the last resort, which means all other negations with creditors fell through.