Eviction crisis may hit Black women most
Experts warn of fading pandemic protections for renters
AUBURN, Wash. – The green-sided house with the manicured lawn and juniper trees was more than a home to Nicole Chambers. It was proof she was a good woman, a good nurse, a good mom. h The eviction order on the dark green laminate countertop signaled she was about to lose the life she had worked so hard to build. It was taped to the red storm door that afternoon, but a part of her didn’t want to believe it was true.
Chambers lost her nursing contract several weeks earlier, days before rent was due. A week later, Chambers asked her landlords for four more days to pay the rent.
The 44-year-old nursing assistant said she had paid her $2,490 monthly rent for four years without incident. And her landlords knew how hard she had been working in COVID-19 wards treating intensive care patients up and down the Pacific Northwest.
But the letter in her hand stated she had 60 days to find a new place.
Several months later, the mother of three was living in the only apartment she was able to find with a new eviction on her record in north Seattle – it had no heat, no hot water in one of the bathrooms and no yard.
“I worked all my life, I have raised my kids alone, with no help and no child support, and now I have lost everything,” Chambers said.
Chambers is far from the only Black woman whose life was upended after a landlord quickly pursued eviction. Black women are more likely than any other group to be evicted, according to a USA TODAY analysis of four years of local and national housing records and data from the University of California, Berkeley. Black women renters get filed against at twice the rate of white women renters nationwide. King County in Washington state has one of the highest eviction filing rates for Black women: Landlords file against Black women at five times the rate of white renters, in some cases over less than $10 in back rent.
For Black women, an illness, car trouble, noisy children, hours cut at work or losing a job altogether could become grounds for eviction. Experts warn that fading pandemic protections may cause an avalanche of evictions in the coming months – and it’s highly likely Black women will once again suffer the most.
“It’s always been the case that evictions turn families’ lives upside down and make it even harder for families to find safe, stable homes in the future. These devastating effects fall disproportionately on Black and brown women and children,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-ohio, chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.
Other findings of the USA TODAY investigation:
h In King County, Washington, Black women accounted for 16%of evictions while making up only 5% of renters.
● Eviction proceedings are mostly formalities – even if a tenant can come up with the money owed. Hearings often last minutes, and tenants are rarely given relief. It takes three weeks on average to get evicted in Washington state.
● Among the top evictors in King County were corporate landlords who received subsidies and tax breaks for affordable housing.
● Many tenants who receive eviction notices leave their homes without challenging the eviction, often because they don’t know how. When they don’t respond or show up to court, this leads to a default judgment in favor of the landlord, meaning tenants have days to vacate the property. Of the King County filings reviewed by USA TODAY, 44% resulted in a default judgment.
“This kind of disparity doesn’t happen by chance,” said Diane Yentel, CEO and president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition in Washington, D.C.
Chambers had bills: car payments, insurance, utilities and three cellphones. Her sons were eating more because of COVID-19 school closures.
To find a new place, she needed to pay first and last month’s rent and a security deposit, meaning Chambers would have to save nearly $7,000 and was already starting at a deficit.
Many assisted-living facilities didn’t want to hire new nurses and preferred to keep staffing low because of the high risk of spreading COVID-19.
Chambers was among millions of women taken out of the workforce after the onset of the pandemic. The massive loss of jobs saw the highest number of Black women unemployed in 40 years.
During the first two years of the pandemic, the halt in residential evictions ordered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was intended to keep about 40 million people safely housed.
But there were loopholes.
Chambers’ landlords could evict her if they intended to sell the property. This was one of the only ways owners could circumvent the patchwork of national and local protections.
Long before the pandemic, the eviction system was designed to be fast, cheap and easy – for landlords, not tenants. In Seattle, if tenants want to contest an eviction, they have to send a letter via fax or mail. They might want to gather supporting documents and make photocopies, costing more time.
In most states, tenants respond to an eviction summons by appearing in court. Research has found many tenants confuse summons for eviction orders and leave their homes.
“Anytime you add an administrative step that people take by themselves, you are increasing the risk of an informal eviction,” said Michele Thomas, director of policy and advocacy for the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance.
When women do reply, few to no safeguards exist to prevent the eviction.
In one King County case, a Black woman who is legally blind, uses a wheelchair, has congestive heart failure, diabetes and kidney disease, and is on dialysis treatment three times a week, was being evicted for nonpayment from her apartment. Rent was paid in part with a $1,000 federal housing voucher commonly known as “Section 8.” She needed to pay the remaining $711 each month.
She was behind two months and owed $1,589.75, including charges.
The woman faxed a letter from the public library to her landlord’s lawyer explaining that her attempts to repay within the 14-day notice had been rejected and how an eviction would disrupt her and her two children with autism.
In a letter dated Jan. 1, 2020, another Black woman in King County asked if she could come up with a payment plan. She owed $1,500.
“Truth is I fell behind in rent due to having car issues that resulted in paying for the repairs so I will have adequate & reliable transportation to travel to daycare, school and work. I’m working with some other agencies that are willing to help pay the balance so my daughter and I don’t become homeless,” the woman said.
Records show both cases resulted in evictions.