To shed light on the issue, a study by the Evicted in Oregon project funded by NYU Furman Center’s Housing Solutions Lab analyzed evictions in three small and midsize cities in Oregon: Eugene, Salem, and Albany. Their research analyzed eviction filing rates, the frequency of default judgments against tenants who fail to appear in court, and the significant racial disparities in eviction impacts. 

Background

Historically, challenges linked to housing affordability and instability have often been viewed as primarily a large-city problem, but that is no longer the case. Survey data from 2024 found that most people across the country, including those living in urban, suburban, and rural areas, saw housing affordability as a growing problem in their community. With over 85 million people residing in small and midsize cities, these areas have grown twice as fast as large cities in recent decades. Many renters in these cities face similar affordability challenges, with half of them deemed rent-burdened and about a quarter facing severe cost burdens. Although small and midsize cities have also become more racially and ethnically diverse, stark racial disparities in cost burden remain. Renters in small and midsize cities may also face additional challenges, such as fewer tenant protections, less active tenant‬ movements, or less-developed ecosystems of support services than in larger cities.

Methods: Analyzing case data and observing court cases

Based at Portland State University and led by Lisa K. Bates, a Professor of Black Studies, researchers analyzed evictions in three small and mid-sized cities: Eugene, Salem, and Albany, Oregon. In their report, Beyond the Shadow of Large Cities: Small and Mid-Sized Cities as Hidden Epicenters of Eviction, they addressed two questions:

1. What is the eviction landscape like in small and midsize cities?
2. What can an analysis of justice courts in small and midsize cities add to our understanding of evictions?

Eugene, Salem, and Albany are located outside the Portland metropolitan area. While Eugene and Salem each have populations of around 176,000 people, Albany has a population of about 56,000. The cities all have similar renter racial demographics, median incomes, poverty rates, vacancy rates, household size, median rent levels, and cost burden and severe cost burden rates. To conduct their eviction analysis, the researchers created data sets of state circuit court eviction cases and county-level justice court eviction cases. They also imputed the race and ethnicity of tenants in eviction cases and observed proceedings in six eviction courts. In all, they analyzed over 2,000 eviction cases filed between May 1 and July 31, 2023.

Findings: High eviction filing rates, frequent default judgments

Overall, the researchers found that eviction filing rates in small and midsize cities can be even higher than the rate in a neighboring, larger city. In addition, default judgments were consistently more prevalent in the small and midsize cities relative to the neighboring, larger city.  

The research measured the intensity of eviction impacts using eviction filing rates and the distribution of eviction case outcomes. The eviction filing rates differed across the small and midsize cities in the sample, with some having higher rates than the nearby larger city of Portland (with a population of 650,000). They found that the size of a city and its eviction filing rates are not strongly correlated. This means that the severity of a city’s eviction filing rate is more likely shaped by local housing market conditions and local eviction policies and procedures. Similarly, there is consistency in the reasons for eviction filings across cities of different sizes, with non-payment comprising the vast majority of cases in all studied cities. The amount that tenants in small and midsize cities owe in rent is close to that in large cities, as is the disproportionate impact of evictions on Black and Latino renters and those whose first language is not English.

One aspect of the eviction crisis that was consistent in small and midsize cities was a higher prevalence of default judgments of eviction. This means that, in these smaller cities, a higher portion of tenants with eviction cases did not make it to their court hearing and received an automatic eviction judgment as a result. Further, evictions in some small and midsize cities were more likely to result in a judgment of eviction than in large cities. 

Landlords in the small and midsize cities in this study can file evictions in either state circuit courts or county-level justice courts. Overall, while the vast majority of cases are filed in circuit courts, those filed in justice courts have higher rates of nonpayment cases, higher rates of default judgments of eviction for tenants’ failure to appear in court, and larger disparities in legal representation between tenants and landlords.

Small and midsize cities can take action

While evictions are a complex problem, some cities, like Eugene, show us that high eviction filing rates are not inevitable and that local policy makes a difference. Like‬‭ Eugene, small and midsize cities can implement proactive policies that protect renters‬ and reduce eviction filings.‬ So what can small and midsize cities do?

1. Intervene before eviction cases are filed by expanding tenant protections and creating eviction diversion programs. 
2. Implement a tenant right to counsel to close gaps in legal representation.
3. Improve tenant court appearance rates by restricting landlords’ ability to choose where they file to courts that are closer to the property, and by implementing measures such as text message reminders about upcoming hearings, free childcare at courthouses, or subsidized transportation to court for tenants.
4. Ensure eviction courts have accessible case records.

For questions about this research, contact Alex Farrington, Research Associate in the Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning at Portland State University and member of the Evicted in Oregon research team.

For support on how your city can prevent evictions, contact the Housing Solutions Lab team at Ask the Lab.