Eviction filings fall after Trump moratorium: study

Eviction filings fell in 16 cities after the CDC’s nationwide eviction moratorium took effect in early September.

Data from Princeton University’s Eviction Lab shows that filings dropped in 16 cities during the second week of the month, according to Bloomberg’s City Lab.

In some areas, the drop was immense: Richmond, Virginia, for example, saw an 89 percent decline — 30 filings compared to almost 300 in the first week of September. In Cincinnati, fillings fell 79 percent.

“New filings did drop in all sites, in some cases dramatically,” Peter Hepburn, a research fellow at Eviction Lab, told City Lab. “With that being said, we’re still seeing a larger number of new filings in several cities. So clearly some effects of the guidelines are being felt, but there’s also significant variation in how they’re being implemented, which is leaving a large number of families potentially unprotected.”

The pandemic has put millions more tenants at risk of eviction — a threat that disproportionately affects minority communities.

The Centers for Disease Control’s eviction moratorium — a wide ban that applies to all residential properties through December — requires renters who qualify to provide a declaration detailing their situation to the landlord.

After it was announced, the order faced pushback from both sides, with tenants arguing it excludes too many people and would merely postpone other evictions until January, and landlords saying it will push them to the brink. The Trump administration initially claimed that it would be accompanied by funding for landlords, but nothing has been allocated by Congress. [Bloomberg] — Sylvia Varnham O’Regan