In 2023, Franklin County experienced 23,900 evictions. Despite this being an increase of over 12,000 from the previous year, evictions are rising again in 2024. Needless to say, this is a major issue in Central Ohio. Mya Frazier, a journalist based in Columbus, researched evictions in the city for a story in Harper's Magazine published in 2024. Jyoshu Tsushima, Managing Attorney at Legal Aid of Southeast and Central Ohio, supports tenants facing evictions in Franklin County Municipal Court. Through a conversation with CURA, Frazier and Tsushima will help attendees understand the reasons for the growing eviction crisis and what is being done to combat it.

Mya Frazier is an independent journalist based in Ohio whose work focuses on the power of the U.S. financial system in the lives of low-income Americans. She has written features and cover stories on credit scoring, housing insecurity, and inequality for The New York Times Magazine and Harper’s. She is at work on a book for Knopf about the credit scoring system and poverty. She has received journalism fellowships, including: the Knight-Wallace House at the University of Michigan, the McGraw Center for Business Journalism at CUNY, the 11th Hour Food and Farming Program established by Michael Pollan at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and the Ira A. Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights at the Columbia Journalism School. She is a 2024 fellow at the Watchdog Writers Group at the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism. She previously worked as a business reporter for The Cleveland Plain Dealer, American City Business Journals, and Bloomberg Businessweek. 

Jyoshu Tsushima is a managing attorney at the Legal Aid of Southeast and Central Ohio. In 2017, Jyoshu started the Tenant Advocacy Project, also known as “TAP,” an eviction prevention clinic at Franklin County Municipal Court. TAP has provided thousands of tenants and their families legal representation in a court where over 90% of landlords are represented by eviction specialists. In addition to eviction litigation, Jyoshu has an interest in consumer protections for tenants, automation in property management, landlord-tenant policy, and rental market systems.

This fall, CURA and MORPC are hosting a series of presentations featuring national and local leaders to dive into the issue of housing and its impact on communities.

This event is approved for 1 AICP CM credit. To claim your CM credits, log into your My APA account on the APA website and enter the event into your online CM event log.