According to the Eviction Lab, every 15 seconds someone in America is displaced and forced to leave their home. Evictions are often terrifying and traumatic, with the threat of police involvement and losing everything. The most common cause of eviction is the inability to pay rent but there are many other reasons that landlords choose to evict families. 

After an eviction, you are often liable to pay back rent and court fees. The landlords often take advantage of the circumstances, adding additional fees and creating more debt. The eviction shows up on your credit report, causing future landlords to deny you housing. The author of Evicted, Matthew Desmond, says that “eviction isn’t just a condition of poverty, its a cause of poverty.” 

The lack of affordable housing puts low-income families at extreme risk of eviction and, therefore, homelessness. Women of color and domestic violence victims have a particularly high risk of eviction. The majority of the women and families who come into our program have been evicted and CRITI’s case managers try to connect them to agencies who dispute eviction charges and reducing the devastating fees. 

Evictions and debt work against you when you are trying to find housing. It is important to understand and talk about the impact eviction has on the continuation of poverty in our community. Not only do we need affordable housing, we need landlords who care about these issues to come alongside low-income families. 

Watch the video and go to https://evictionlab.org/ to learn more.