Quick answer
Repay kindness with harm and the harm takes up residence. The verse describes something that settles in rather than something that strikes.
Read both lines
The offense named is specific and worse than ordinary wrongdoing: not evil for evil, which at least has a logic, but evil in exchange for good, which breaks the basic reciprocity a community runs on. The consequence is described as permanence rather than punishment. Evil "will not depart," which pictures a resident rather than a visitor, and the household rather than the man is what it occupies. This is the book's usual account of consequence growing out of conduct, and the choice of image makes it long.
Related: Proverbs 20:22 · Romans 12:17 · Proverbs 17:5
New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. Full copyright information. Scripture provided by API.Bible.
Go Deeper
If this verse has been used to put weight on you that it was never carrying, ask about it directly.