A report by the Seattle Women’s Commission and the Housing Justice Project of the King County Bar Association, Losing Home: The Human Cost of Eviction in Seattle, investigates the policies, demographics, and impacts surrounding evictions in Seattle. Through its analysis of court documents and survey data, the report finds that evictions disproportionately impact marginalized communities and people of color, occur as a result of very small missed rent payments, have lasting impacts on mental health and homelessness, and can prevent tenants from benefitting from public housing in the future.
The increasing unaffordability of housing has significantly contributed to evictions in Seattle. Almost 87% of eviction filings in the study were for non-payment of rent. In 2017, the average rent in Seattle was $1,906, and almost 46% of renter households paid more than 30% of their incomes towards rent. Among survey respondents in the report, nearly 84% indicated that their rent had increased in the past two years. Additionally, units financed with Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTCs), where rents are based on the area median income (AMI), have become increasingly unaffordable as the AMI in King County increased by nearly 20% in the last five years. These rent increases have created significant difficulties for the lowest income tenants and those living on fixed incomes.
Evictions in Seattle disproportionately impact households of color. Almost 31% of Seattle’s population are people of color, yet nearly 52% of people facing evictions in 2017 were people of color. Black tenants experienced an eviction rate 4.5 times what would be expected based on their share of the population in Seattle. There are likely multiple factors contributing to these disparities, including poverty. People of color disproportionately experience poverty in Seattle with 34.4% of black, 34.7% of American Indian or Alaska Native, 18.6% of Asian American, 26.1% of Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and 17.5% of Hispanic or Latinx residents living below the poverty line, compared to just 8.9% of white residents. Furthermore, Washington law allows tenants to be evicted over small missed payments. Just over 10% of all cases were initiated for less than $500 in back rent and the lowest amount sought by a landlord was $10. People of color were more likely than whites to face evictions for arrears of $500 or less.
Most respondents in the study who reported an eviction became homeless: 37.5% were completely unsheltered, 25.0% were living in a shelter or transitional housing, and 25% were staying with family or friends. Ultimately, 43.5% of evicted respondents had to leave the city as a result of their eviction. Regarding health outcomes, 36.7% of respondents experienced stress and 8.3% experienced increased or newly-onset depression, anxiety, or insomnia because of their eviction. About half of the respondents had children, and among those families, 55.6% said their children’s health suffered “very much” because of the eviction, 85.7% said that their children had to move schools after the eviction, and 87.5% reported their children’s school performance also suffered “very much.”
Losing Home: The Human Cost of Eviction in Seattle is available at: https://bit.ly/2O3OB3s