Eviction and Segmented Housing Markets in Richmond, Virginia

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the relationship between housing market segmentation and eviction in Richmond, Virginia. Housing market segmentation conceptualizes housing consumption through multiple distinct submarkets instead of a unitary regional market. To examine the production of housing segmentation we rely on an original large-building database for all multifamily buildings in Richmond with more than 25 units, which we complement with qualitative interviews with more than 25 Richmond tenants who have experienced at least one eviction. Our analysis makes three key contributions. First, by placing two different scholarly traditions in conversation—urban economics and critical urban political economy—we foreground the importance of understanding what institutions and actors create and maintain submarkets. Second, the article takes a novel methodological approach to segmentation by analyzing ownership of rental housing and tenant experience. Finally, these approaches allow us to move beyond framing eviction as simply a feature of some rental submarkets and to pose the question about what role eviction plays in creating and maintaining submarkets and class-monopoly rents. We offer evidence that through eviction and the threat of eviction landlords create targeted housing scarcity for specific groups of tenants. We argue for understanding eviction as a formative institution of housing submarkets.