Rent Burden On The Rise (2 of 3)

What's the eviction picture in your community?

The Eviction Lab The Eviction Lab at Princeton University explains rent-burden patterns this way: "Today, the majority of poor renting families in America spend over half of their income on housing costs (rent plus utilities), and eviction is transforming their lives. Yet little is known about the prevalence, causes, and consequences of housing insecurity."

Sociologist Matthew Desmond, author of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, discovered that eviction, incredibly prevalent in low-income communities, functioned as "a cause, not just a condition, of poverty."

In 2017, Desmond established The Eviction Lab with the shared conviction that "a stable, affordable home is central to human flourishing and economic mobility." The Lab's nation-wide data bank ] of more than 80 million eviction records going back to 2000 is accessible to the public and researchers at no charge.

The Lab's open invitation to policymakers, community organizers, professionals, and anyone interested in real estate encourages the use of online tools like The Map to understand how eviction, and the associated traumatic and financial loss, are shaping individual communities. The intent is that this participation will contribute to laws, policies, and programs that are effective locally in reducing poverty and eviction and fostering residential security.

How are evictions affecting value in your community?

Researchers believe that sharing data about local housing, eviction, and poverty patterns will raise awareness of local issues and stimulate development of new solutions. This in turn should improve understanding of what drives poverty in America and what can be done to strengthen housing stability for low-income families and communities.