Clinic helps Indianapolis renters remove evictions from records

Indianapolis renters removed evictions from their records during an eviction sealing clinic Monday.

The event was hosted by Indiana Legal Services, a nonprofit law firm that provides free legal services to Indiana’s low-income residents.

At the eviction clinic, renters were able to meet with attorneys at the Indianapolis Public Library’s Central branch to review their eviction case and hide it from public records.

Indianapolis resident Tammy Olsen attended the eviction clinic. The 43-year-old is homeless and said her eviction from two years ago continues to impact her ability to find stable housing. Evictions can remain on your record for years.

“This is something that is going to affect me for a long time,” she said. “I don’t know if I will be able to ever recover from something like this.”

A bill passed during the 2022 Indiana legislative session allows Indiana residents to seal their eviction case in certain instances: if there is no action on an eviction case after 180 days from the initial filing, when an eviction filing is resolved outside of court, or when a judgment is entered in favor of a tenant.

Patrick Chavis IV is Lawrence Townships’s Eviction Diversion Initiative program director. He said erasing evictions from tenants’ records can be “critical” for their future housing application approvals.

“So it’s like expunging your record saying you shouldn’t continue being punished for problems of the past,” he said.

Eviction sealing clinics, Chavis said, help more cases filed and reviewed by judges and more evictions erased from people’s records.

He also said the next eviction sealing clinic for Indianapolis residents will be in January 2024.