Providence, Rhode Island

Eviction filings in Providence fell sharply in early 2020 after the state of Rhode Island implemented an eviction moratorium, which was in place from March 17 to July 1, 2020. Filings spiked immediately after the moratorium was lifted.

Data on renter population and median rent drawn from the American Community Survey (ACS). Details of the eviction process from the LSC Eviction Laws Database.

Filing Counts

Filing Rates Over the Past Year

Trends in eviction filings

This plot shows monthly eviction filings in Providence County over the last year. Filings are displayed relative to the pre-pandemic average for the same set of months. You can toggle the plot to display filing counts and to extend the time frame back to January 2020.¹

Eviction filing data for Rhode Island were collected by the Rhode Island Housing Authority. Historical averages cover the years 2016-2019.

Get the data for this figure

Eviction filings by defendant race/ethnicity and gender

There are often large racial/ethnic and gender disparities in eviction risk. Here, we estimate the demographic characteristics of those filed against for eviction over the last year. We compare to data from the ACS that show the share of renters in the same categories.¹

Share of eviction filings

Share of renters

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Statistics rely on imputation of race/ethnicity and gender based on defendant names and addresses. We refer to “gender” throughout while acknowledging necessarily limitations of the imputation process and its inability to capture important subtleties in individuals’ gender identification. A complete description of this process can be found in the ETS methods page. ACS data are from 2015-2019 five-year estimates.

The geography of eviction filings

Providence County is divided into 141 census tracts. In each of those tracts, we map the number of eviction filings over the last year. If you toggle below you can see these numbers as eviction filing rates—the number of eviction filings divided by the number of renter households in the area—or compared to the typical number of filings in the average year.¹ ²

Eviction filing data for Providence County are provided by the Rhode Island Housing Authority. Historical averages cover 2016-2019.
Tract-level breakdown of renter race/ethnicity determined using American Community Survey (ACS) estimates for 2015–2019.

On map, we also plot the location of the top 100 eviction hotspots in the county (see above). Hover over the circles to see more information about filings from these locations.³

Number of filings by the top 100 filers

Get the data for tracts in this figure Get the data for top filers in this figure

The demographics of eviction filings

Eviction filings by neighborhood race/ethnicity

American Community Survey (ACS) data allow us to categorize neighborhoods by their racial/ethnic majority: White, Black, Latinx, or Other/None. In this barplot, we show the distribution of eviction filings over the last year by neighborhood racial/ethnic majority.

When you toggle the figure to see data relative to average, comparisons are being drawn—within the same set of neighborhoods defined by racial/ethnic majority—between filings over the last year and average filings in 2017–2019.¹

Eviction filing data for Providence County are provided by the Rhode Island Housing Authority. Historical averages cover 2016-2019.