Research shows evictions are a public health problem. Can eviction prevention be a solution?
Housing rights advocates have long argued that housing instability is a public health crisis, and that eviction prevention programs — whether eviction diversion, rental assistance payments, right to counsel, Good Cause or other interventions — are more than a personal safety net.
And new research offers additional proof that the impact of court-ordered or illegal evictions run deeper than previously thought, going far beyond individual hardship.
In Detroit, rising rents, rapid gentrification and illegal evictions are pushing low-income renters to the brink. Now, social epidemiologist Shawnita Sealy-Jefferson and a team of researchers from The Ohio State University found that Black mothers who live in Metro Detroit neighborhoods with increasing eviction filings face a 68% higher risk of premature birth, which is a leading cause of infant mortality.
Worse yet, a pregnant woman does not need to be facing eviction herself to feel the impacts, according to Sealy-Jefferson’s study. The chronic stress brought on by seeing a neighbor get evicted appears to be enough to trigger the physiological symptoms that can lead to preterm birth — which in turn can cause long-term health issues for their children.
"We're talking about spillover effects from the social environment of a neighborhood," Sealy-Jefferson, who was born and raised in Detroit, tells Next City.
A growing body of research about evictions shows that the event can significantly hinder an individual’s mental, physical, and financial health. However, most studies about eviction discuss the impacts on an individual level. Sealy-Jefferson’s study is one of the first to identify community-wide impacts of evictions on Black families.
While her study does not prove causation, it adds to a growing body of evidence linking housing instability to poor health outcomes and points to policies like rental assistance and tenant protections as potential tools to protect maternal and infant health.
The study, known as Social Epidemiology to Combat Unjust Residential Evictions, or SECURE for short, analyzed data from 808 participants who lived in Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties in Michigan for at least two years before the study commenced.
Over five years, Sealy-Jefferson and her team conducted 16 focus group interviews and 55 in-depth interviews with participants. One-quarter of participants reported experiencing evictions as a child, and those who had experienced evictions were up to 37% more likely to experience negative health impacts later in life.
“It is a source of neighborhood disorder; it’s a source of neighborhood violence; it’s a source of vicarious racism,” Sealy-Jefferson says. “We know that the root cause of inequities at the population level, where Black people do worse than other racial and ethnic groups, the root cause of that is structural and institutional racism.”
Impact of evictions on Black mothers
Researchers have been tracking the impact of evictions on Black women for decades. Studies have shown that Black women face disproportionately high eviction rates compared to their white counterparts. For instance, a study published in 2023 by Princeton University found that Black households account for 51% of all eviction filings and 43% of all people who are evicted. Research from Princeton University's Eviction Lab also found that Black women are 36% more likely than Black men to be evicted.
Scholars have also identified several factors that contribute to these disproportionately high eviction rates. For example, poverty scholar Matthew Desmond authored a report for The MacArthur Foundation in 2014 that found "women's nonconfrontational approach with landlords and their tendency to dodge the issue [of evictions] are two reasons" why Black women face significantly higher eviction rates than their white counterparts. Other studies have identified issues like structural racism and the lasting impact of redlining as reasons why Black households face higher eviction rates.
“The inequities in preterm birth and the inequities in eviction are not because of behavior or people’s poor choices,” Sealy-Jefferson says. “It’s because of the limits of opportunity and the limits of resources that people who so happen to be in this racial, ethnic group experience.”
Even so, the trend appears to be getting worse following the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Center for American Progress, 24% of Black renters remain behind on rent after the pandemic compared to just 11% of white renters, as of August 2023.
Already, the SECURE study has informed at least two other peer-reviewed papers. It was the basis of a paper published in The American Journal of Epidemiology concluded that evictions increase psychological stress among pregnant Black women. And another study published in the Journal of Urban Health used data from the SECURE study to show that more than half of pregnant Black women have experienced a court-ordered or illegal eviction.
The importance of renter protections
To Sealy-Jefferson, the SECURE study also points to the importance of tenant protection policies like emergency rental assistance, stronger landlord-tenant laws and fair housing enforcement.
Sealy-Jefferson adds another to the list: reparations.
“If we want to solve this problem, we got to start with reparations, because if we focus on individual solutions to a structural problem, it’s going to fail,” she says.
Lawmakers across Michigan appear to be listening as well. State Sen. Sarah Anthony introduced two bills this year that would require Michigan landlords to address habitability issues within 48 or 72 hours. The legislation would also allow tenants to withhold rent if their landlord does not repair the property within the allotted timeframe.
"We've heard directly from renters across Michigan — families being pushed out, seniors struggling to stay housed, and tenants living in unsafe conditions through no fault of their own," Anthony told local news station Local 4. "That's why this legislation matters."
In Detroit, tenants are fighting for “right to renew” legislation, or laws that would allow tenants to extend their leases and provide protections against eviction and rent increases.
"We need to fundamentally change city policy to give renters more rights," Steven Rimmer, co-founder of the Detroit Tenants Association, told People's World earlier this year. "Right now, tenants are at the mercy of landlords, who can raise rents or refuse to renew leases with little notice. The Right to Renew would give us the security we deserve."
This story was produced by Next City and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
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