Study: Eviction, Foreclosure Twice As Likely In Maricopa County Than Rest Of U.S.

Tim Robustelli was interviewed by Lauren Gilger from KJZZ, a local NPR affiliate in Phoenix, about FPR's research on housing loss in Maricopa County amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

GILGER: Right. So as we look at the end of this moratorium at the end of the year, like you're predicting, the eviction rates could skyrocket then in a couple of months here and across the country?

ROBUSTELLI: Yeah, we think so. You know, the number one reason based on the research and the interviews we've done around the country, why people are evicted, is quite simply that they can't pay their rent. And we're seeing skyrocketing unemployment around the country, in Arizona in particular. So with that inability for households to budget for housing, unfortunately, I think we're going to see quite a significant uptick in eviction filings and actual evictions.

GILGER: Let's talk about scale. Like you mentioned, the phrase a moment ago, 'a tsunami of housing loss' due to COVID. What can we anticipate here? Are you talking about another sort of recession of 2008-style housing crisis?

ROBUSTELLI: I think so. And there was actually a great report published by the Aspen Institute a few weeks ago that placed about 30 to 40 million Americans at risk of eviction due to COVID-19.

GILGER: Wow. So let's talk about what segments of the population will be hardest hit. Looking at this data, you point to very specific, even census tracts, areas of our community here in the Valley that might be hardest hit. It seems are mostly to do with income level and then race and ethnicity.

ROBUSTELLI: Yeah, we were able to run some analysis at the census tract level — looking at households and different census tracts and who is most at risk of eviction. And what we found is that minority communities are most at risk. You see it in the west side of the Valley of the Sun, in Phoenix in the Maryvale neighborhood and Alhambra. Latinx households and Black households are significantly more at risk than white households when it comes to eviction and housing loss more generally.

Listen to, or read, the complete interview here.