Patrick Chavis IV slips quietly into his small office at the back of a courtroom on a recent Wednesday morning.
Outside his door in the Lawrence Township Small Claims Court, renters facing eviction walk to a podium in front of the judge. There, they’ll admit that they’re behind on rent.
Most will have three weeks to get caught up or move out.
But inside Chavis’ office, renters have a chance at finding a middle ground.
Chavis is a facilitator for the court’s Eviction Diversion Initiative, which offers free legal services and referrals to other resources, such as rent assistance.
He mediates between the tenant and their landlord, and often the landlord’s attorney.
The parties might agree to a “pay and stay,” where the renter can pay what they owe and avoid eviction. Or the landlord may accept a payment plan.
And because the two sides are negotiating away from a judge, with Chavis playing referee, landlords sometimes will agree to give renters more than the standard three weeks to leave.
Are you facing eviction?
If you think your landlord is going to file an eviction against you, or if you’ve already received an eviction notice, reach out to the Tenant Information Hotline: 317-327-2228.
Go to your eviction hearing, and you can speak with attorneys and tenant advocates for free through the Eviction Diversion Initiative and Tenant Advocacy Project.
His pitch to landlords: “If you give us some time, that’s a higher possibility you get paid.”
The Lawrence Township court launched the eviction program in 2022 with a grant from the Williamsburg, Virginia-based National Center for State Courts, which helps courts handle high caseloads while also lessening the impact of eviction on renters.
The program also recently got support from the Indiana Bar Foundation, which gave about $1.5 million.
Chavis said the program — which operates in every Marion County small claims court except for Perry Township — has enough funding to continue through most of this year.
After that, though, they’ll have to find more money to keep it going.
“The goal,” he said, “is to sustain the program forever basically.”
Is it working? Look where landlords file.
It isn’t just the Eviction Diversion Initiative at work in Lawrence.
The Office of Public Health and Safety’s Tenant Advocacy Project also has attorneys and court navigators there to help renters. The two free programs are similar, although attorneys with the advocacy project can represent renters.
And as a testament to the difference made by these added supports, just look at where landlords file their eviction cases.
In the first eight months of 2024, landlords filed 513 evictions in Marion Superior Court that otherwise would have gone to the Lawrence Township court, according to data from Tenant Advocacy Project. That’s more than half of all eviction cases filed in Superior Court, where dockets are otherwise packed with criminal cases.
It’s part of a trend where landlords take their cases out of the traditional township court setting and into the more formal Superior Court.
But even Superior Court looks different now for renters than it used to.
Get the backstory
The Tenant Advocacy Project team started working there last fall, offering help to renters who otherwise would have been on their own.
The advocacy project didn’t have filing data available for the months following the change. Anecdotally, though, Chavis said he’s noticed more landlords coming back to Lawrence, with Superior Court not offering as much of an advantage as it used to.
There, Judge Kimberly Bacon presides calmly, explaining in detail what renters should expect throughout the eviction process.
When one landlord dismissed an eviction case, Bacon sealed it from public view — a burden typically left to the renter.
And Bacon doesn’t allow landlords to pile on late fees after they file for eviction.
She also gives renters a measured piece of advice when telling them how long they have to pay up or move out.
Start paying as soon as possible, she tells them, because money can run out quicker than you expect.
“But,” she says, “you need this roof over your head.”
Mirror Indy reporter Tyler Fenwick covers housing and labor. Contact him at 317-766-1406 or tyler.fenwick@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @ty_fenwick and Bluesky @tyfenwick.bsky.social.
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