Shirley Rork is an Eviction Intervention Program Director for Just Neighbors Interfaith Homeless Network, and a very busy woman. “In Allen County, the rent increase in the past year has been up 40 percent,” Rork said. “I had a tenant being evicted at court. The landlord charged him, and his girlfriend, their two kids $750 a month for a downstairs apartment on Wells Street. Well, they had them sign a new lease, and increased their rent to $1,700.” After the audience let loose with a collective gasp, she explained that most local rent increases were less but still substantial, often increasing from $800 to $1,200 for the same apartment. Rork and three other housing experts offered their views on the Fort Wayne rental market and high eviction rate on April 27 at the Fort Wayne 2022 Fair...

 Interview with Dr. Matthew Desmond, Author of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City Fort Wayne is an affordable city in the very affordable Midwest, which suggests stability. However, affordability and stability don’t extend to the region’s rental market. Princeton University’s Eviction Lab ranked Fort Wayne 13th in the nation for the number of renters evicted from their houses and apartments in 2016. That year, an average of 8.35 households were evicted each day, but the challenges renters face have grown steadily since then. With area rents increasing by 40 percent over the last year, average household earnings haven’t come close to keeping up. Pressures like these can force more and more renters to fall behind and end up evicted. What’s happening? Are northeast...