Franklin County eviction filings increased by about 6% in 2024 compared to the previous year.
Landlords in Franklin County filed 25,329 eviction notices last year, compared to 23,904 eviction notices in 2023, according to Franklin County Municipal Court records. Filings don't show whether evictions went through or if cases were settled or dismissed.
Jyoshu Tsushima, a managing attorney with Legal Aid of Southeast and Central Ohio, said he isn't surprised by the rise in eviction filings.
"Really the biggest problem is the housing shortage and the lack of access to ownership," Tsushima said.
Tsushima said there are more renters than in the past, and that leads to competitive outbidding and rising costs.
At the same time, people are flooding to Columbus because it's cheaper than other big cities like New York or Seattle, he said.
"Because of that, you're getting folks who have larger incomes who can outpace the folks who are already here and established," Tsushima said.
That leads to lower-income families being pushed out of their rentals.
Tsushima said there also aren't a lot of legal protections for tenants. While home foreclosure can take a year or more, landlords can remove tenants who fall behind on rent in less than a month.
Unlike in some other states, Ohio doesn't cap the amount that landlords can raise rents, he said.
Those circumstances, along with central Ohio's housing crisis, leads to an unbalanced relationship between landlords and tenants. Tsushima compared it to medieval feudal lords.
"People aren't growing crops for the landlords anymore, but the majority of their livelihood is going towards landlords. It doesn't really seem that different," Tsushima said.
He said reducing evictions is complicated, but attorneys like those at Legal Aid can make sure the legal rights tenants do have are upheld in court. Tsushima said Legal Aid attorneys were even in eviction court on Christmas Eve representing clients.
"The expectation is that eviction court will always run," he said.
He stressed that anyone facing an eviction must show up in court to defend their rights.
