CINCINNATI, Ohio — When July came to an end, so did the $600 federal unemployment payments hundreds of thousands of Ohioans have relied on to cover their bills. Now, courts expect eviction cases and those applying for rental insurance to surge, even as coronavirus spread ramps back up across the state.

Hamilton County opened its eviction court on June 8. At the time, the clerk reported more than 1,000 backlogged cases.

Nearly two months later, the court is still seeing dozens of hearings a day whether tenants are ready or not.

Nichelle Jones was one of the early ones.

“Nobody was even expecting court to be open that soon,” she said.

Jones lost her job in early April and with unemployment slow to arrive, she struggled to pay the bills. She got her eviction notice at the end of the month.

"In the beginning, they weren’t willing to work with me," she said. "Nobody.”

She thought she had until the end of July to figure something out or catch up but in early June, the court voted to resume cases. They started more than a month before initially scheduled.

“It was almost like, they had something to gain from it, and I’m trying to figure out what," Jones said. "You’re about to have hundreds of thousands of homeless people walking around the city of Cincinnati.”

At the same time, dozens of Hamilton County landlords, like Dennis Gillespie, were facing a different reality.

"I started having problems with my tenants back in March, and that’s about when the courts closed and everything was shut down," he said. “If this situation was nonpayment of rent, I could’ve worked with the tenant.”

Gillespie said his Springfield Township tenants stopped paying rent and taking care of the property, prompting complaints from neighbors. Due to the moratorium on evictions though, he couldn't get the court involved until late July.

“This whole process should’ve been taken care of back in May,” he said.

Now the tenants are gone. Gillespie said they left without a warning and with no way to contact them, leaving him to clean up everything they left behind.

"I’m out a lot of money plus they trashed the house, holes in the wall and fleas and broken windows, and I absolutely couldn’t do nothing about it,” he said.

Hamilton County judges reopened court to help people like Gillespie, but Clerk of Courts Aftab Pureval opened an eviction help center to help those like Jones.

The center provides resources and refers tenants in need to legal help or rental assistance agencies like Community Action Agency. CEO Mark Lawson said Hamilton County has kept his team busy.

“People are struggling, behind in rent, behind in utilities," he said. "If the federal unemployment the $600 goes away, people are going to be in more dire straights.”

Lawson said CAA has seen a four-fold increase in rent and utility help request and he expects that to get worse over the next month.

"We’ve got at least 900 folks in the pipeline voicemail and email right now that are looking for help that are at risk of homelessness and getting evicted,” he said.

Lawson said the agency is working to keep up but they'll need time.

“That’s not happening without a moratorium," he said. “Somebody shouldn’t be evicted just because they’re waiting in line, because there’s a huge demand.”

Jones said she's proof that when CAA can step in, they can make a huge difference.

"Their response was so quick," she said.

With their help Jones said she was able to make a deal with her landlord allowing her to stay in her home while she gets help with her bills.

Jones said she's been able to find a job in the meantime, but with fewer hours and a lower wage, she expects she'll continue to rely on help until employment prospects improve.

“It’s not over," she said. "By no means is it over.”

Hamilton County has already set aside $3.5 million for rental assistance. The Board of Commissioners is taking up legislation in the coming weeks to bring that number to $7 million.