What 11 Local Leaders Wish They Knew About Evictions in Their Area

While millions of evictions are filed each year in the United States, targeted eviction prevention is stymied by a lack of quality local eviction data and analysis. In response, the Future of Land and Housing program (FLH) at New America has teamed up with local governments, universities, and nonprofits to improve eviction data analysis in 11 communities across the country through the Eviction Data Response Network (EDRN). This initiative is motivated by the understanding that improved access to and analysis of local eviction data can help local leaders pass responsive policies, target resources, and otherwise intervene to keep families stably housed.

Over the next year, FLH will provide mentorship and technical assistance for these network partners to access, analyze, and report their local eviction data, and ultimately build a local culture around using eviction data for data-driven policymaking and interventions. Drawing from conversations with our EDRN partners, this blog post shares what we’ve learned thus far about what these local leaders wish they knew about evictions, and what they hope to accomplish.

Understanding the Full Picture

At the outset of joining the EDRN, multiple network partners have expressed a desire to “understand a full picture” about the experiences of people facing eviction in their communities. Although there’s so much about the tenant experience they don’t capture, court records are the primary source of data on evictions, and are a starting point for understanding the local context in which evictions happen. But the inaccessibility of court records – which may be stored on paper at the courthouse, unavailable in spreadsheet format, or plagued by data quality issues, for example – impedes many EDRN partners in understanding the big picture of evictions in their area, let alone more granular information on individual households.

For example, most EDRN partners know more about the beginning of eviction cases (i.e., how many evictions were filed) than they do about the ending (i.e., how many cases were dismissed, were decided in the landlord’s favor, or resulted in a household being displaced). Understanding how a case ended, or case outcomes, at a high level is a crucial component of getting a sense of how tenants are faring in court. Identifying how many filings lead to judgments in favor of landlords or to actual displacement can shed light on which phases of the eviction process (i.e., pre-filing, post-filing, post-hearing) to look towards for the most effective intervention.

In addition to knowing what happens in court, several EDRN partners are also wondering what happens to defendants before and after their court cases. Before an eviction filing, what municipal or nonprofit institutions do they interact with regularly, through which they could access resources to avoid falling behind on rent? After an eviction, where does the household move to? Do they double up with friends or family, or experience homelessness in any other way? Which landlords might approve an application for someone with an eviction on their rental history?

EDRN partners, particularly nonprofits supporting tenants in the courtroom, also expressed a desire to know more about their clients’ financial status: How far behind on rent are they? What is their income? Do they use public benefits? Similarly, questions abound among EDRN partners about the gender, race, ethnicity, and family size of tenants facing eviction in their area.

Court records may not provide the information to answer all of these questions. However, exploring what is already collected by local courts and service providers – as well as using tools like FLH’s Foreclosure and Eviction Analysis Tool (FEAT) to identify economic and demographic markers associated with evictions at a census tract level – can shed some light on the “full picture” of people facing eviction.

Sharing Insights to Spur Intervention

In addition to closing these information gaps, EDRN partners are planning how to lay the groundwork for translating eviction data analysis into effective eviction prevention strategies. Each partner’s goals are informed by their community’s own context, shaped by unique organizational missions, political landscapes, funding opportunities, relationships, and local court practices. But the similarities in many of their goals speak to the fact that challenges accessing eviction data and driving down evictions with limited funds are areas of concern for many different jurisdictions and partner types. As such, many EDRN partners are aligned in their plans to study existing eviction prevention efforts in order to make the case for funding new ones.

The similarities in many partners' goals speak to the fact that challenges accessing eviction data and driving down evictions with limited funds are areas of concern for many different jurisdictions and partner types.

Network partners described a variety of programs currently working to prevent evictions in their communities. Depending on the locality, these include legal representation for tenants, landlord-tenant mediation, assistance paying rent or security deposits, tenant education campaigns, and more. Most of these programs have shrunk in scale significantly or even shuttered as pandemic relief funding from the federal government winds down.

Eviction data, particularly when combined with data from the organizations administering these programs, can allow EDRN partners to take stock of which programs had the biggest impact in helping residents avoid displacement. For example, data on the outcomes of cases that did or did not use mediation services can suggest whether mediation was effective. When it comes to program evaluation, findings are only as good as the data available, and so data access and quality issues may not allow for truly rigorous evaluation at an academic level. However, high-level analysis can still be meaningful in making the case for continuing pandemic-era programs using local, state, or philanthropic dollars.

Whether working in the courtroom, in city hall, or in a university, most network partners are interested in using eviction data and analysis to tell a compelling story about the importance and effectiveness of eviction prevention interventions. While service providers working on the ground know anecdotally about a recent spike in evictions, for example, their grant application or advocacy in front of City Council will be more meaningful when backed up by the right facts and figures. EDRN partners hope to produce meaningful insights that they, or their allies in advocacy, can use to demonstrate to grantors, philanthropy, and local and state elected officials why implementing and funding housing stability efforts is so essential.

Putting Goals Into Action

In addition to addressing information gaps and developing their goals, our initial conversations with EDRN partners have surfaced their tremendous strengths and skills. Some partners are crucial hubs of information or resources in their local homelessness services or legal aid spaces, with a wealth of stakeholder relationships to leverage in coordinating action at the local level. Several partners have data visualization expertise and are well-versed in developing dashboards or other products to communicate insights to stakeholders. And some network partners, as staff of local government, are well-positioned to connect with existing public programs aiming to support residents’ housing stability.

While there’s a lot to learn about evictions in the 11 jurisdictions represented in the EDRN, what we know about our partners’ strengths suggests that the individuals participating in the network have the data skills, systems knowledge, relationships, and drive to uncover eviction insights and use them to push for change in their city, county, or region.

Notes

[1] See the case study on the “eviction displacement rate” in FLH’s “Understanding Evictions” report for more applications of this type of data analysis.