A Call to Gather Data on Evictions

In the Spring 2008 Housing Court Monitor, Legal Support Unit Housing Specialist David Robinson makes the case for a national database on evictions, a resource not currently available to advocates who struggle to create awareness around the issue.

As New York City tenant advocates well know, evictions are a major
housing problem, disproportionately affecting lower-income and minority
tenants. This awareness does not extend to the national level, where no
systematic data about evictions are collected. Creating a national
database on evictions– how many, where, who, for what reason, what
happens to those evicted– would be an important first step in focusing
attention on this neglected housing policy issue.

David notes that ideally, such a database would include information
relating to tenants displaced due to landlord actions that are not
technically considered evictions: 

A realistic perspective on the issue must encompass the
full range of other ways in which a tenant household in effect is
forced out, even though no process involving the court system takes
place, or the tenant moves out before that process is completed.

A simple notice of an unaffordable rent increase may trigger a move;
a letter from a landlord alleging violations of the lease or the law
may produce similar results; tenants may be forced to leave as a result
of uninhabitable conditions. Legal tactics with a threatening impact
may give way to harassment that is beyond what the law allows.

[….]Despite the fact the tenant is forced to move in all of these
instances, the outcome may not be "counted" as an eviction because the
marshal/sheriff doesn't actually come to the door. 

Read the full piece by clicking here (PDF).