The majority of U.S. renters are in danger of losing their homes this year without even knowing about the risks they’re facing. At this point, protection programs have expired, prices have ballooned and the number of evictions is rising at an alarming pace all over the country. In many cities, eviction filing rates have more than doubled already, and a set of factors will further complicate affordability issues and push more Americans into the streets in the next few months. It is being reported that the long-feared eviction tsunami is here, and new data provided by the Princeton Eviction Lab the depth of this crisis that is upending many people’s lives in 2023.
After a pause caused by the pandemic’s renter protection programs, eviction fillings by landlords are roaring back in recent months, fueled by soaring rent prices and a long-running shortage of affordable rental units. According to the Eviction Lab, a research group at Princeton University, of the 44 million renters nationwide, about 23 million are low-income tenants carrying elevated levels of debt, and they are just one emergency or job loss away from falling behind on rent and facing eviction.
Countrywide, eviction fillings are more than 50% higher than the pre-pandemic average, and in some metros, evictions have already doubled, and cases continue to pile up. Since January 2022, landlords have filed more than 5 million eviction cases. In fact, researchers found that in 20 out of 32 major cities tracked by the group, court filings rose by double- or triple-digit percentages in 2023. In October, Nashville evictions also doubled. Local firms, such as Clever Real Estate Company, report that rent prices in the city shoot up nearly 256% from 2000 to 2022. In the past two years alone, average rents rose from $500 to $1000, according to data provided by the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office. “There’s been an uptick in people getting kicked out of their homes in Nashville in recent months,” one local official said.
But the truth is that numbers are up everywhere. Compared to 2022, eviction filings increased by nearly 80% in the 10 states and 34 cities that the Eviction Lab tracks, ad revealed by Peter Hepburn, associate director at the Eviction Lab and an associate sociology professor at Rutgers University, Newark.
This impressive surge could spell disaster for tens of millions of tenants. On top of the immediate threat of homelessness, many landlords do not rent to people with an eviction on their record, limiting housing options for struggling Americans for years to come. This year, Zillow estimates the national average rent has ballooned some 26 percent. That means rent is more than $400 a month higher than it was in early 2020.
This is a national tragedy that may reach catastrophic proportions if nothing is done to support renters and prevent these companies from price gouging their tenants. An eviction crisis could certainly make our streets more dangerous, weaken our economy and cause an immense amount of suffering in our society. We should be heading towards a path of growth of prosperity, but instead, the agencies that were supposed to serve and protect Americans are leading our nation to the wrong direction, and pushing our citizens to utter financial ruin.