In 2022, Warrensville Heights passed an ordinance that allows tenants to stop evictions if they pay back rent, late fees and court costs. It took more than three years for the first tenant to try to use it.

What are known as  “Pay to Stay” laws have gained traction in recent years, with proponents touting them as a way to address housing instability and homelessness. But as Cuyahoga County Council contemplates whether to extend the protections to renters across the county, Pay to Stay has raised questions about how effective such ordinances have been.

Council President Dale Miller said he introduced the bill because he is concerned about so many tenants struggling to pay rents that often are substantially higher than they were before the pandemic. 

“Ohio is not a tenant-friendly state,” he said. “If you’re a day late or a dollar short, you can be evicted. Pay to Stay is designed to help this.”

But Pay to Stay does not provide a lifeline for many tenants facing eviction, Signal Cleveland found. Bedford Municipal Court’s experience, where the Warrensville Heights renter is seeking to use the protection, appears typical. Tenants in Cleveland and in the suburbs with Pay to Stay ordinances rarely use them. Joe Pfundstein, a Bedford Municipal Court staff attorney, declined to discuss the pending Warrensville Heights eviction case involving the law. (Warrensville Heights is the only municipality within the court’s jurisdiction with a Pay to Stay ordinance.)

Ohio doesn’t require courts to keep Pay to Stay statistics, so there is no sure way of knowing how often tenants use the local ordinances. Signal Cleveland interviewed officials in some of the courts handling the largest number of eviction cases in Cuyahoga County municipalities with Pay to Stay ordinances to get a sense of how these laws help tenants. We interviewed the lawyer in charge of the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland team representing tenants facing eviction throughout the county, asking similar questions.

These are the eight municipalities with Pay to Stay ordinances, most passed within the last five years: Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, Euclid, Lakewood, Maple Heights, Newburgh Heights, South Euclid and Warrensville Heights. (Garfield Municipal Court handles cases from Maple Heights and Newburgh Heights.)

In the absence of court statistics, Cleveland Legal Aid perhaps has the best read on how Play to Stay ordinances are being used since the nonprofit has represented tenants facing eviction in all eight municipalities. From 2021 to 2025, Cleveland Legal Aid closed 4,968 eviction cases in which it represented a tenant from one of these municipalities, said Elizabeth A. Zak, the supervising attorney for Northeast Ohio Housing.

“Although we cannot provide an exact number of cases, it’s safe to say that less than 1% of eviction cases handled by Cleveland Legal Aid are resolved through Pay to Stay,” she wrote in an email to Signal Cleveland.

But she added, “This percentage does not lessen the defense’s life-changing significance for those families in our county who could utilize it.”

Suggested Reading

Battle over future of iconic Shaker Square apartments is tipping point for historic corridor 

Cleveland officials and a community group want city to choose owners of 15 foreclosed Shaker Square apartment buildings, instead of Fannie Mae auction.

by Olivera Perkins January 29, 2026January 29, 2026

Mediation may be more effective than Pay to Stay for tenants who don’t have back rent

There is nothing inherently wrong with Pay to Stay ordinances, the court officials interviewed said. It’s just that laws often don’t address why most tenants face eviction: They don’t have the money to pay back rent and other costs. (The court officials Signal Cleveland interviewed took no position on whether the county should pass an ordinance.) 

In recent years, rent hike percentages in Greater Cleveland have risen faster than in many U.S. metro areas. For example, rents in the Cleveland area rose 4.4% annually, while they only rose 2.1% nationally, according to a Zillow report released in January.  Apartment rents in Cleveland neighborhoods range from an average of more than $2,000 a month in University Circle, Ohio City and Tremont to about $1,100 in Euclid-Green, according to a February report by RentCafe. (The averages are based on apartments with three bedrooms and fewer.) 

“Maybe people don’t use Pay to Stay because they just don’t have that kind of money [for the back rent], ” said Garfield Heights Municipal Court Judge Deborah J. Nicastro. “It’s surprising how here renting a house can go for $1,000 to $1,200. That totally never happened in the 32 years I’ve been here.”

Programs started in recent years help tenants who are straining under rising rents. They include Right to Counsel-Cleveland, a partnership between the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland and United Way of Greater Cleveland. It provides free legal help to low-income tenants facing eviction. Cleveland City Council is spending $1 million on a program to help renters understand their rights, organize to fight neglectful landlords and tap into services to pay rent and avoid evictions.

Cleveland Housing Court Deputy Chief Magistrate Tamela Womack has had only a couple of tenants use Pay to Stay since it passed in 2022. She said the other eight magistrates have had a similar number of cases. She said most tenants don’t use the ordinance because they can’t come up with the back rent, late fees, etc. all at once.

The court has a way for tenants to avoid this obstacle. Its mediation program allows eligible renters facing eviction to use a payment program to clear their arrears. Both tenant and landlord must agree to mediation, Womack said.

“When the parties show up for the [eviction] hearing, we explain that mediation is an option where both parties can have a win-win, so to speak,” she said.

The tenant avoids eviction, but there are also potential gains for property owners. They avoid costs for eviction and those associated with preparing the unit to rent again, including painting and repairs, advertising and the tenant selection process.

Womack pointed to statistics showing that mediation has helped lower the number of evictions. Last year, more than 36% of the 5,999 eviction cases filed in Cleveland Housing Court resulted in agreements reached between tenants and landlords through mediation. 

The agreements were either for a set move-out date or for a payment plan. The number for each isn’t available, she said. About half of the eviction actions, or more than 1,000, were dismissed because tenants complied. People with eviction judgments often have difficulty renting again. 

Most tenants can’t use Pay to Stay because they don’t have the back rent, but it is the right fit for some

While Zak agreed that many renters can’t use Pay to Stay because they don’t have the back rent, there is a category of tenants for whom Pay to Stay continues to be crucial.

 “It does make a big difference for the tenant who falls behind because of a delayed paycheck or a family emergency, who is then able to catch up and make the landlord whole,” she said.

In other cases, tenants don’t need to use Pay to Stay because courts already are prioritizing resolving cases without evictions. 

 “We don’t have a formal mediation program, but we do give tenants an opportunity to talk to landlords and see if they can work something out with the back payment of rent,” said Pfundstein of Bedford Municipal Court.

There may be a practical reason why tenants seldom have to use Pay to Stay, Nicastro said. 

“I’ve had cases where a tenant has had the money to pay the back rent,” she said. “The landlord has gladly accepted it.”

Miller said that, with a Pay to Stay ordinance, whether or not to accept rent won’t be left to a landlord’s whim.

Cuyahoga County may consider mediation and other eviction protection programs to help tenants

In 2023, Miller introduced a similar Pay to Stay ordinance, which died in committee. At the Feb. 2 public hearing on the current legislation, Community Development and Housing Committee members raised some concerns similar to those from three years ago. Some wanted to know whether municipal Pay to Stay ordinances are being used enough to warrant countywide legislation. (No one at the hearing offered numbers.) Others questioned whether the number of times a tenant could use Pay to Play should be limited, for fear that frequent use would put property owners at financial risk.

Council Member Sunny Simon offered the scenario of a tenant who is chronically late with the rent. The property owner responds each time by filing an eviction action, incurring such costs as attorney fees. 

 “Don’t you think there should be a limit to which this can continue month after month after month after month, and potentially put the landlord in a position not to be able to pay the mortgage or the real estate taxes – and the house goes into foreclosure?” she said. “That’s going to impact good landlords.”

Many landlords and associations representing them expressed similar sentiments in their testimonies about the proposed ordinance.

 “From an operational standpoint, the ordinance raises concerns,” wrote Mike Valerino, chief executive officer of the Akron Cleveland Association of Realtors. Valerino’s letter cited data from the National Apartment Association that approximately 93 cents of every dollar a landlord gets goes toward fixed operating costs. “When rent is delayed or unpaid, these costs persist.”

Zak, who testified in favor of the ordinance, said Pay to Stay doesn’t encourage tenants to be chronically late with the rent. Being habitually late carries steep consequences, including allowing a landlord to legally not renew a lease.

Some landlords testified in favor of Pay to Stay, including Scott Kroehle, who primarily rents duplex units in West Side Cleveland neighborhoods.

 “For most of us, this law changes nothing,” he said of the proposed ordinance’s potential impact on landlords.  “But for the small number of folks who churn tenants, refuse payments, and treat eviction like a business model, it levels the playing field. It stops rewarding bad behavior.”

Miller said tallying up how often Pay to Stay is used isn’t the most effective way to determine whether the municipal ordinances have been effective.

“Much of the benefit of Pay to Stay comes before a case gets to court, as it encourages landlords who might not otherwise accept rent, when presented, to do so,” he wrote in an email to Signal Cleveland.

Miller acknowledges that Pay to Stay may not be having a broad impact on addressing housing instability. He said he believes a mediation program would be helpful. While Cleveland Housing Court has two staffers dedicated to mediation and others trained in the process, Womack said a program can probably be started with volunteer mediators. 

It will take “considerable time to work through the various issues, concerns, and suggestions regarding this legislation,” Miller said. Broadening the proposed legislation or introducing other ordinances could be an option.

“Pay to Stay is not a silver bullet,” he wrote. “It’s only one tool in the toolbox. Other tools such as mediation, rental assistance and financial counseling are part of an effective program.”