Evictions Surge as Protections End

The surge of evictions predicted after pandemic-era protections expired is growing, with “renters of color and renters with children are facing the brunt of America’s housing crisis,” according to an article by Caleigh Kelly in The Hill.

“The Eviction Lab at Princeton University, the largest nation’s eviction database, reported a 78 percent increase in evictions from 2020 to 2021 in the 10 states and 34 cities it monitors. And the crisis has likely gotten worse since then as remaining eviction moratoriums have ended,” Kelly explains. According to the Eviction Lab, families with children are at higher risk of eviction.

A bill proposed in the U.S. Congress, the Build Housing with Care Act, “would address housing disparities by promoting affordable housing that is co-located with child care,” but has not made much headway in committees. Inequalities also persist when it comes to race. “We’ve been able to demonstrate that Black renters routinely face much higher eviction rates than their white counterparts,” said Peter Hepburn, associate director of the Eviction Lab—sometimes twice as high, Hepburn notes.