'A lot of fear': Rent hikes across the country mean eviction notices for many Americans
A looming rent increase in New York City is poised to force the most vulnerable renters onto the streets at a time when eviction rates nationwide have been steadily rising, and the worst cities are seeing eviction filings increase by more than 60%.
In New York − one of the country’s most expensive housing markets − the panel that sets rent rates for rent stabilized apartments last month approved increases of 3% for one-year contracts. Last year saw rent raised by a similar amount.
Rent increases anywhere lead to more poor people and struggling families being kicked out onto the streets, Carl Gershenson, the head of Princeton University’s Eviction Lab in New Jersey, told USA TODAY.
"Even 3% is going to hurt a substantial number of people," he said.
Why is rent so high in so many cities?
In recent years, cities across the United States have seen dramatic rent increases. As a result, eviction filing rates are surging, particularly in the South and Southwest, where the increases are among the biggest, according to data collected by the Eviction Lab.
The cost of shelter is increasing in part because of record inflation and the rise in evictions over the past 18 months coincides with the expiration of eviction moratoriums and COVID-19-related rental assistance.
Rent hikes across the country are most painful for working single mothers, retirees and people receiving disability payments from the government, said Robert Desir, a staff attorney with New York's Legal Aid Society who worked on the city's rent stabilization law.
"People are going to be stuck with this extra cost that many are going to have a really hard time meeting. They are going to have to sacrifice other basics to pay for the rent," Desir said. If people can't cut corners, they will fall behind in rent, risking eviction, he said.
Why are landlords choosing evictions?
In big cities and small town across the country, a rent increase can be a "de-facto" eviction, Desir said.
"They can receive a notice from the owner that says, ‘I’m going to raise the rent by 25, 50, 75 or 100%’ − whatever the landlord thinks that the market can bear," he said.
Telling a tenant they must pay that much more in rent each month "can be used as a weapon" if an owner wants a certain tenant out, he said. In New York, the vote to increase rents in stabilized units is completely lawful, but still, "it’s dire and really makes a difference," he said.
Since January 2022, landlords in Las Vegas have been initiating 60% more evictions than they did in 2016 through 2018, data shows. So far in 2023, Phoenix has seen about a 40% spike in filings compared with the years before the pandemic, according to the Eviction Lab.
The rent increases of 20% or more are happening because landlords expect to find tenants in the hot housing market who will pay the higher rents, which pushes more people out of their longtime homes that used to be affordable, Gershenson said.
In New York City, landlords also have pointed to inflation as a reason they're raising rents, citing increasing operational and maintenance costs.
Where are eviction rates the highest in the US?
Here are some of the cities with the sharpest increases in eviction filings:
In, Houston, the Lone Star State's largest city, there has been a 50% increase in eviction filings compared with averages in 2016 through 2018.
Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas' second-largest metro area, has seen above-average eviction rates, with some months reaching about 40% more than 2016-2018 averages.
In Columbus, Ohio, eviction filings have risen 20% compared with 2016 to 2018.
Some cities are helping renters avoid eviction
Evictions in New York City stopped during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, when an eviction moratorium was in place. But rates popped up in January 2022 after the moratorium expired, and they've been on the rise since then, according to data from the Eviction Lab.
One small piece of good news is that eviction rates in the city have decreased since 2016 through 2018, the next most recent time period for which the Eviction Lab has data, because New York City has some of the strongest tenant unions and protections in the country, Gershenson said.
Philadelphia is another city that has had "quite a bit of success" reducing evictions, largely because of an eviction diversion program that launched in 2020, Gershenson said. The program has helped 75% of landlords and tenants who participate avoid eviction, the city says.
'A lot of fear out there' over eviction threats
In Columbia, Tennessee, an hour outside Nashville, tenants have been organizing after seeing their rents explode in the past several years, causing more people to become homeless.
Judy Schwartz-Naber, a Walgreen's employee and organizer with Tennessee for Safe Homes, has seen her rent double from $450 to $900 a month in the past seven years. She said there's "a lot of fear out there" as people face more threats of eviction. Schwartz-Naber, 66, said she knows of one woman who was threatened with eviction because her granddaughter who was temporarily living with her was not on the lease.
“I’ve been told in Tennessee they can evict you if they don’t like the look of your face anymore," she said. "I believe it’s true."
She said landlords have too much power to kick people out of their homes, and that's one reason why rents in the town of just over 40,000 have been increasing so quickly.
“They raise the rent and they raise it so high you can’t afford it," she said.
In nearby Nashville, evictions have spiked since January 2022, sometimes exceeding 2016 to 2018 rates by more than 50%.
"Oh my God, I’m horrified because the human suffering that is connected to that is terrible. My God. It’s horrific there," said Schwartz-Naber, who herself has experienced eviction. In 2003, the single mom and her daughter were kicked out of their home, and the shock forced a cross-country move to Florida.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Evictions on the rise in major American cities as rent goes up
