The Effect of State Housing Policies on Eviction Filings and Judgments in the United States, 2001–2018

Abstract

Housing instability is a significant problem in the United States, with a long literature documenting its impact on the social well-being of Americans. A relatively new line of research has illuminated the degree to which eviction is a substantial contributor to health risks, including “deaths of despair” from alcohol or drug-related accidental poisonings. Although eviction is a persistent threat in the United States, there is comparatively less research that is both longitudinal and that evaluates multiple policies simultaneously to guide decision makers about which policies are more or less effective at lowering eviction activity. In this study we test the association between housing policies and eviction processes for a large proportion of U.S. counties from 2001 to 2018 using a panel of state-level landlord–tenant laws and a panel of local housing-specific investments by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. We find evidence that some state and local policies are effective at reducing the number of eviction filings and the incidence of multiple filings to the same household, although there is less evidence that actual eviction judgments can be mitigated with these policies.