A comprehensive demographic profile of the US evicted population

Abstract

Millions of American renter households every year are threatened with eviction, an event associated with severe negative impacts on health and economic well-being. Yet we know little about the characteristics of individuals living in these households. Here, we link 38 million eviction court cases to US Census Bureau data to show that 7.6 million people, including 2.9 million children, faced the threat of eviction each year between 2007 and 2016. Overall, adult renters living with at least one child in their home were threatened with eviction at an annual rate of 10.4%, twice that of adults without children (5.0%). We demonstrate not only that the average evicted household includes one child, but that the most common age to experience eviction in America is during childhood. We also find that previous studies have underestimated racial disparities in eviction risk: Despite making up only 18.6% of all renters, Black Americans account for 51.1% of those affected by eviction filings and 43.4% of those evicted. Roughly one in five Black Americans living in a renter household is threatened with eviction annually, while one in ten is evicted. Black–White disparities persist across levels of income and vary by state. In providing the most comprehensive description to date of the population of US renters facing eviction, our study reveals a significant undercount of individuals impacted by eviction and motivates policies designed to stabilize housing for children and families.

Eviction and the Rental Housing Crisis in Rural America☆

“…4 We find that high percentages of households with children and larger average renter household sizes are highly predictive of eviction filing rates in the full model. This is consistent with past research showing that the presence of children in the household increases the risk that a family experiences eviction (Desmond et al 2013;Desmond and Gershenson 2017;Graetz et al 2023). When we compare estimates for labor market characteristics and housing market characteristics, we find that housing market characteristics are the stronger predictor.…”

“…In fact, eviction risk is higher among children than for any other age group (Graetz et al. 2023). Because the presence of children is known to be one of the strongest predictors of eviction (Desmond and Gershenson 2017; Lundberg and Donnelly 2019), we include variables for percent of households with children under 18 .…”

“…To control for local housing market characteristics, we control for first quartile contract rent. We choose to use first-quartile rent because renters at risk of eviction are concentrated at the bottom of the rental market (Graetz et al 2023). To measure the extent of housing stress, we include a measure for percent of cost-burdened renters, which indicates the percent of renters who spend over 30 percent of their incomes on housing.…”

“…Hispanic renters in urban areas experience higher eviction rates than white renters (Graetz et al. 2023; Hepburn, Louis, and Desmond 2020), but rural Hispanic renters live in a very different situation than the typical urban Hispanic renter. While Hispanic renters can be found in rural counties across the country, the largest proportion of rural Hispanic residents live in majority Hispanic counties in Texas and New Mexico (Rural Health Information Hub 2021).…”

Stopping the Vicious Cycle: Equitable Enforcement Strategies to Achieve Safe, Stable, and Accessible Housing for People with Disabilities

“…More than half (3.9 million people) are part of a household that experiences an eviction judgment. 35 People with disabilities may be more susceptible to eviction than other tenants. For example, a person in a wheelchair who does not have adequate support in maintaining their home may be evicted for violating maintenance-related lease provisions.…”