The Problem

Since the housing crisis of 2008 and recession of 2009, the realities of poverty and housing in American society have changed dramatically. In fact, changes to housing policies in the decades prior to the recession (touted as urban renewal) resulted in many poor and low income households either being pushed out of the city or forced to dedicate more of their income for housing. Constraints on affordable housing have never been greater. In 2009, Atlanta, which was the first city to erect public housing, announced it would become the first city to demolish its public housing. By 2011 the process was complete. Other cities followed suit. Hope IV and other federal policies also contributed to the shortage of affordable housing in the city. Today, housing evictions are on the rise. This is because the problem of affordable housing in the city is pressing, so pressing in fact, that evictions are no longer rare.

Rising rents, stagnant incomes, and limited public housing assistance combined to form a perfect storm creating our current affordable housing crisis. Throughout much of the 1990s median asking rents rose at a rate consistent with increases in income; however, in the 2000s the median asking rate for rent soared nationwide. In the southern U.S. rents rose about 20 percent, but in parts of the northeast it went up almost 40 percent. While the trend of rising rents can be traced back to the early 2000s, it shows no sign of dropping. The Portland Oregon Community Alliance of Tenants called 2015 “The summer of evictions.” The San Francisco Chronicle reported a similar crisis, but the problem of rising evictions is not limited to the west coast. In 2014,

CNN reported that both rents and evictions were “soaring.” Rents nationwide grew by 7 percent while incomes have remained relatively stagnant. The same CNN report stated one in five renter households in Georgia received an eviction notice during 2014.

When families are evicted there are many and multidimensional losses. Certainly there is a loss of home and physical possessions, but there is potentially a loss of community and emotional well-being. Children may lose their school. Eviction compromises many things— emotional, economic, and social psychological.