The tenant had lived in her apartment for years. Then her pension check was stolen, the rent went unpaid, and the standard answer in the apartment business was an eviction filing, for her and the grandchildren living with her. Marjy Stagmeier, her landlord, reached a different conclusion. “Evicting her and her grandchildren made no sense,” Stagmeier says. “No one ‘wins’ in those scenarios.”
That refusal became a fund. The Eviction Relief Fund at Star-C, the Atlanta nonprofit Stagmeier founded, began during the COVID pandemic as a $50,000 GoFundMe campaign. It has now moved more than $16.5 million in rent payments and kept over 5,500 families in their apartments.
A landlord’s case against eviction
Stagmeier has spent more than 30 years as a landlord of affordable housing in Atlanta, and her argument starts from the ledger. “Many renters are stable residents, but they can experience temporary challenges and can’t pay rent,” she says. A stolen check, a medical bill, a paycheck interrupted: temporary shocks that an eviction converts into permanent ones. She and her partners studied Atlanta’s eviction crisis and concluded that nonpayment is not only an income problem.
The strain has not eased since the pandemic. Rent increases and inflation on household essentials have outpaced pay, she notes, leaving tenants “making tough choices between food, rent, and utilities.” When the federal government shut down, Star-C covered Atlanta TSA employees whose paychecks were suspended, the same bridge, offered to a different set of neighbors.
The model other landlords joined
The fund works because apartment owners signed on to it. More than 330 apartment communities, representing 64,000 apartment units, have joined the Star-C platform. Partner owners commit to keeping rents affordable for families earning at poverty level up to 80 percent of area median income, and the fund steps in when a resident hits a temporary gap.
The help runs past the rent check. Star-C connects tenants to after-school programs, summer camps, medical services, Cub Scouts, playgrounds, and food assistance. Stagmeier counts the long results with a landlord’s pride: children who came through the after-school program are now doctors, plumbers, and schoolteachers, and almost 100 families have moved from renting into home ownership because low rents left room to save.
The limit, stated plainly
Here is the measure of the need. Star-C is not accepting new applications for rental assistance. The fund has reached its maximum capacity for the current funding cycle, which means the $16.5 million milestone and the closed door arrived in the same season. The model works, 5,500 families are the proof, and the money ran out before the line did.
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