Eviction gained national attention in 2016 with sociologist Matthew Desmond\u2019s Pulitzer Prize-winning book \u201cEvicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Husker economist Daniel Tannenbaum heard Desmond speak and was blown away by the problem\u2019s magnitude \u2013 roughly 2.5 million evictions, or about four each minute, are filed annually in the U.S. He and colleagues noted the absence of economists studying the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To determine whether eviction causes financial difficulties, household relocations and other problems, Tannenbaum\u2019s team launched a study linking 17 years of eviction court records from Cook County, Illinois, to financial data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s the first research using administrative data \u2013 payday loans and credit reports \u2013 to trace long-term outcomes for people who appear in eviction court. This innovative approach gives Tannenbaum\u2019s team a long-range perspective unavailable through traditional methods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt would be very difficult to do this using survey data,\u201d said Tannenbaum, assistant professor of economics. \u201cWe would have to wait years, then follow up and try to find people who are experiencing housing difficulty. Using administrative data, we can circumvent that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The team found that eviction court appearances reflect deeper, preexisting financial distress. Though eviction reduces credit access and the ability to purchase durable goods like appliances, cars and electronics, those effects are modest compared to pre-court economic strain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEviction is an inflection point,\u201d Tannenbaum said. \u201cWe see declining earnings, falling credit scores and a surge of payday loans in the two years leading up to eviction court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dWin or lose, tenants experience significant housing instability after court, the team found. This suggests that while court outcomes are important, the real culprit may be the financial distress that lands a tenant in court in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Public policy-wise, Tannenbaum said, early interventions to help tenants avoid court may be ideal. He suggested policies such as emergency financial assistance for struggling renters should be evaluated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next, Tannenbaum will access additional data through the university\u2019s Central Plains Federal Statistical Research Data Center to assess other eviction outcomes. He also will study eviction\u2019s effects on children\u2019s education. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The National Science Foundation, The Spencer Foundation, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation and the Kreisman Initiative on Housing Law and Policy fund this work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Eviction gained national attention in 2016 with sociologist Matthew Desmond\u2019s Pulitzer Prize-winning book \u201cEvicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City\u201d. Husker economist Daniel Tannenbaum heard Desmond speak and was blown away by the problem\u2019s magnitude \u2013 roughly 2.5 million evictions, or about four each minute, are filed annually in the U.S. He and colleagues […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[61,59,57,55,56,60,64,63,4,58,62],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-administrative-data","tag-central-plains-federal-statistical-research-data-center","tag-college-of-business","tag-daniel-tannenbaum","tag-economics","tag-eviction","tag-kreisman-initiative-on-housing-law-and-policy","tag-laura-and-john-arnold-foundation","tag-national-science-foundation","tag-public-policy","tag-spencer-foundation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions\/216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}