We wanted to understand how these filing fees affected eviction patterns. We found that higher filing fees lead to lower eviction rates, and that effects are largest for renters in majority-Black neighborhoods.
In addition to fostering housing insecurity and creating hazardous living conditions for their tenants, landlords who rely on extractive strategies make their properties and neighborhoods less safe.
Responding to the unfolding emergency of COVID-19, policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels enacted a range of new policies. These policies drove eviction filing rates to historic lows.
The U.S. needs more housing—lots of it. We have millions fewer housing units than we need, particularly affordable housing units. This shortfall has devastating impacts, especially for low-income renters.
Over the last three years, eviction filing rates across the United States fell below levels that were normal prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. But evidence from 2022 shows that this exceptional period has come to an end.
American suburbs have changed dramatically over the last several decades. Over time, they’ve become poorer, more diverse, and the site of a growing share of eviction cases.
We describe and analyze the unprecedented eviction prevention housing policies enacted at the state level in response to COVID-19, where protections worked very differently from state to state.
Eviction is often seen as a city problem. This overlooks what’s going on outside of inner cities, leaving us blind to eviction patterns in suburban areas.
Over the last two years, the federal government intervened in the eviction crisis in a serious and unprecedented way. Our data show that that intervention has paid off.
