(The Center Square) – Maricopa County has partnered with the city of Phoenix to launch a new pilot program to help people facing eviction.<\/p>\n
The Eviction Diversion Pilot Program will focus on Phoenix ZIP codes with the highest level of eviction cases.<\/p>\n
According to Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chair Kate Brophy McGee, county justice courts have processed over 80,000 eviction filings for three consecutive years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis pilot [program] aims to address our eviction crisis head-on with interventions that are sustainable and effective. They are a hand up, not a hand out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Tamara Bridwell, the director of Maricopa County Human Services, told The Center Square that the program would allow the courts to \u201cintervene to see if a landlord is willing to participate\u201d in it.<\/p>\n
If the landlord decides to participate in the program, the county \u201cwould pay back rent on behalf of the tenant,\u201d with the funds coming from a third party, she said.<\/p>\n
In these situations, the third party could be a nonprofit or governmental agency, Bridwell said.<\/p>\n
She noted the county is modeling its eviction program after the Texas Eviction Diversion Program, which was used during the COVID-19 pandemic to help Texans pay rent and prevent evictions. The program ended in 2023.<\/p>\n
Texas\u2019 program used early eviction techniques and collaborated with state courts, landlords, tenants and others.<\/p>\n
According to Bridwell, a stakeholder work group has been working on the county\u2019s program since November 2025. The work group includes a mix of nonprofits, private businesses and local government entities, she added.<\/p>\n
Bridwell said what the program will look like is still being worked out.<\/p>\n
The work group is requesting a one-time budget adjustment of $800,000 for the county\u2019s Fiscal Year 2027 budget, Bridwell noted. Maricopa County\u2019s full budget will be passed on June 22.<\/p>\n
The program could help an estimated 200 households avoid eviction, Bridwell told The Center Square<\/p>\n
The county wants to \u201cserve as many households\u201d as it can, but the program is small, she said.<\/p>\n
Maricopa County seeks to ensure the program can be implemented locally and will \u201cyield the best results for all parties involved,\u201d such as families, landlords and courts, Bridwell said.<\/p>\n
She added that the county will collect data on the program to determine whether it can expand it in the future.<\/p>\n
Vice Mayor Kesha Hodge Washington said eviction, along with housing, disrupts \u201cemployment, education, health and entire neighborhoods.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe data is clear: Preventative measures such as eviction diversion are far more effective and cost-efficient than relying on after-the-fact interventions to address displacement and homelessness,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Bridwell said she did not think the program would hurt landlords because they have been a part of the work group.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel strongly that we\u2019re going to build a program that helps alleviate the impact of evictions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLandlords in Maricopa County face substantial financial losses every time an eviction occurs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Bridwell added that the program helps stabilize matters between tenants and landlords by providing access to supportive services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(The Center Square) – Maricopa County has partnered with the city of Phoenix to launch a new pilot…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":842261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,10094,23861,1588,1589,91326,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-842260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix","tag-america","tag-arizona","tag-az","tag-downtown-phoenix","tag-eviction","tag-maricopa-county","tag-phoenix","tag-pilot-program","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116688177453427100","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=842260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}