TUCSON, Ariz. - Every year there are more than 15,000 people who are evicted from their homes in Pima County, according to Step Up to Justice, a local organization working to help families facing those kind of issues.
Step Up to Justice fellow Amanda Rutherford said the problem of evictions in Pima County is such a big one the organization started hosting clinics meant to help those going through evictions.
Eviction can happen for a few different reasons which include, nonpayment of rent, breach of lease, misrepresenting information to the landlord, allowing someone who is unauthorized to live in the home, or committing a crime.
The majority of evictions however, happen because tenants fail to pay their rent on time, according to Rutherford.
"The most common reason that people come in where they've been served with an eviction is for nonpayment of rent and that can happen really quickly. One thing can go wrong, they could have to do a hospital visit or maybe they've lost their job or something like that and maybe they weren't able to make rent that month," said Rutherford.
Rutherford added the reason nonpayment of rent is the hardest to fight is because the eviction process moves so quickly.
Typically, after a landlord serves a tenant with an eviction notice, that tenant has five days to try and correct the issue. If the issue is not fixed within that time span, the landlord is free to move forward in the eviction process.
Pima County has also taken notice in the eviction problem happening here at home, so much so they've organized events to highlight the issue.
Some of those events entail reading about evictions, others hearing from law professionals about the topic.
