Study: Households With Children Face Highest Risk of Eviction

A recent study from Princeton and Rutgers reveals that adults with children are more likely to face eviction than their childless counterparts, reports Genesis Obando in NJ Spotlight News. “The study linked 38 million eviction court cases to census data to show that 7.6 million people, including 2.9 million children, faced the threat of eviction each year between 2007 and 2016.”

The rate of eviction threats for households with children was more than twice as high as that of those without children, at 10.4 percent compared to 5 percent. “The data also shows racial disparities, especially for Black women who were threatened with eviction at a rate of about 28% with children and 16% for those without. Between 2007 and 2016, roughly one in five Black adult renters was living in a household filed against for eviction and roughly one in 10 was evicted each year.”

Eviction can have long-lasting impacts on children, the article explains. According to Nick Graetz of the Princeton Eviction Lab, “Having an eviction filing on your record makes it a lot harder for those families to find new housing. Especially these families have constrained housing choices given that most affordable units are not large enough to comfortably house children.”