Study: Evictions unequally affect Black, Latino renters
Evictions disproportionately affect Black and Latino renters — women in particular — and eviction cases in Allegheny County are most often filed by a small group of landlords, including the county’s three housing authorities, according to a study released Tuesday by The Pittsburgh Foundation.
“We know the cost that eviction exacts on vulnerable people and the larger community itself,” said Lisa Schroeder, president and CEO of The Pittsburgh Foundation. “What has emerged is a picture of the destabilizing effect that eviction has on communities and how it creates a cycle of
poverty from which very few are able to escape.”
The five-year initiative focused on data from 2012 to 2019. It did not include the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on evictions and housing in the region.
As a result of federal and local bans on evictions, the number of filings in Pittsburgh was down 53% from the average in March 2021, according to data from the Eviction Lab, an organization out of Princeton University.
That month, courts in the Pittsburgh region saw 468 eviction case filings, compared to the average of 998 filings.
The federal ban on evictions is set to expire at the end of June. Locally, Pittsburgh City Council passed its own ban on evictions in March but enforcement has been lax, advocates say.
In the meantime, renters are struggling to make their payments, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
In Pennsylvania, about 165,000 households were not caught up on rent payments from March 17 to 29. More than 1 million renters said it was very likely they would face eviction in the next two months.
Amelia Connors, 21, of East Liberty, is facing legal action from a landlord for the second time this year.
The single mother of a 2year-old has been bouncing among family, the foster care system and social services programs, including a stay in a domestic violence shelter, since her teen years.
Ms. Connors was evicted in January from her McKees Rocks apartment managed by Marco One LP, a situation in which she lost furniture and clothes still inside the second-floor unit.
“They changed the locks right in front of my face,” she said.
‘This is disrupting every aspect of their lives’
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Allegheny County courts saw about 13,000 eviction cases each year, according to the Pittsburgh Foundation’s April report.
An eviction filing does not guarantee a tenant will be removed from their home — but the filing stays on a tenant’s record and can impact their future housing options.
“This is disrupting every aspect of their lives,” said Michael Yonas, the vice president of public health, research and learning at The Pittsburgh Foundation. “They lose their furniture, their clothes, some of their most precious belongings … and they leave often maybe thousands of dollars in debt.”
Among its conclusions, the report found:
The number of eviction cases has remained steady in Allegheny County. From 2012 to 2019, landlords in Allegheny County have filed about 13,000 eviction cases annually.
Eviction filings involve small — but growing — sums. The amount of money evicted tenants owed in back rent has grown 35% from 2012 to 2019. In 2012, the average claim amount was $1,502. In 2019, it was $2,029.
The courts usually rule in favor of landlords in Allegheny County. From 2012 to 2019, landlords won 85% of cases. Tenants won fewer than 2%. The remaining cases were settled or withdrawn.
Renters who pay less than $ 1,000 each month were more likely to be evicted. Those who pay less than $500 monthly accounted for 35% of eviction cases filed. Those who paid between $500 and $999 each month accounted for 59%.
A disproportionate impact
Nationally, Black renters experienced the highest average rates of eviction filings at 6.2%, compared to 3.4% for white renters, according to a December 2020 study from the Eviction Lab. The percentage of cases decided in favor of the property owner or manager was 3.4% for Black renters and 2% for white renters.
The risk of eviction was also 2% higher for women than men, the report found. Among Black renters, that percentage jumped to 4%. For Latino renters, it rose to 9%.
Anne Wright, project scientist for Carnegie Mellon University’s Create Lab, which collects and analyzes data on eviction filings in the region, said the demographic data available to the group is limited because the court forms don’t ask questions about information like gender, race, ethnicity or family status.
But by layering data about neighborhoods where evictions are common with census data information about each area, Ms. Wright said it’s likely Allegheny County is following national trends including that single parent renter families, and particularly Black single mothers, are disproportionately being evicted.
“At a minimum, we can say folks in those demographics are disproportionately living in neighborhoods that are affected by a lot of evictions,” Ms. Wright said.
More research is needed to determine the eviction rate for Black and Hispanic renters in Allegheny County, the Pittsburgh Foundation concluded.
‘Frequent-filing landlords’
A tenant can be at risk of an eviction filing just 11 days after missing a rent payment, according to the April report. The entire process — from filing to court proceedings to order of possession — takes an average of 42 days.
In Allegheny County, about 1/3 of all eviction cases involved just 15 landlords, the Pittsburgh Foundation report found.
Those 15 landlords each filed 100 cases or more in 2019. Comparatively, about 90% of landlords in the county filed five cases or fewer.
The county’s three housing authorities — the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh, the Allegheny County Housing Authority and the McKeesport Housing Authority — accounted for three out of every 10 eviction filings.
“Three out of 10 cases filed are filed by organizations or companies who own or manage or otherwise operate properties that are receiving public assistance, rental subsidies,” said Rachel Rue, an analyst with the Allegheny County Department of Human Services.
An eviction filing does not always lead to the tenant’s removal. In some cases, the result is a settlement or a new agreement that outlines terms for moving forward.
The Housing Authority of Pittsburgh said in 2020 it had 185 eviction filings but only 33 evictions.
The rate of evictions for nonpayment also has fallen over the years, the agency said. In 2014, it had 112 evictions. In 2019, it had 68 and in 2020 it had 33.
Frank Aggazio, executive director of the Allegheny County Housing Authority, said the group “goes above and beyond to prevent evictions.” It emphasizes repayment agreements, reaches out to the tenant’s emergency contact to look for financial assistance and looks for outside funding sources to make up for the missed payments.
Stephen Bucklew, executive director of the McKeesport Housing Authority, said the high rate of filings is a byproduct of the nature of their organization.
“We just house the poorest of the poor,” he said.
The agency has worked on offering resources like financial literacy programs and access to credit agencies to help tenants avoid evictions, but few people come and the housing authority doesn’t have the resources to devote to those efforts, Mr. Bucklew said.
The group has stopped evictions amid the COVID19 pandemic, except for those that are a result of criminal behavior.
Evictions as a business model
Ms. Wright, from CMU’s Create Lab, said landlords and property owners who file large numbers of evictions all at once are likely using evictions as a business model.
In other words, those companies are using the court system as a way to “strong arm” rent payments and generate profits from tenants.
Based on Create Lab’s data, eviction filings used to be more random than they are today, Ms. Wright said. From 2012 to 2019, a pattern started to form. The rates of eviction filings climbed — to about 13,000 per year — and followed the same trajectory each year.
“This is what eviction as a business model looks like,” she said. “Peaks and troughs at different times of years, related to seasonality of work and school, and pretty much the same number every year and approximately the same number at each phase of the year.”
Like Mr. Bucklew said, the high rate of evictions could be reflective of the tenants that live in the building, Ms. Wright noted. In the county’s housing authorities, for example, tenants might not have much flexibility with their budgets.
But some groups put barriers in the way that seem to set tenants up to fail, she said. In some cases, evictions are filed days after the first missed rent payment. In others, tenants are required to drop off payments in cash in person during a short time window during the work day. “It’s like making people run through an obstacle course and then evicting them if they trip,” Ms. Wright said.
‘I feel like we’re always bouncing around’
Ms. Connors, who had been evicted from her McKees Rocks apartment in January, wrote in a motion to file late appeal that she was being evicted because of the use of a therapy animal, and that the unit had been infested with cockroaches and mice, which she reported to the health authorities.
Marco One LP did not respond for comment by press time.
Ms. Connors said she was then placed in an East Liberty apartment by a program called Sojourner House MOMS. “I’m sleeping on a mattress on the floor. I never had to live like that,” she said. “At least my daughter has a bunk bed. It was there when I moved in. I just disinfected it.”
According to court records, RJM Property Management LLC, filed for eviction on March 11.
Ms. Connors said again the landlord’s complaint is around her cat, Iris, as well as noise complaints because of her young daughter and an abusive partner who she said harassed her at the building.
Rudy Martineck, owner of RJM Property Management, declined to comment on the active case.
A hearing is scheduled for May 4.
“I’m scared. I feel like we’re always bouncing around,” Ms. Connors said. “I feel like we’re going to keep bouncing around until I’m able to buy a house.”