Princeton’s Eviction Lab report reveals evictions are more than 50% higher than pre-pandemic average

Freddie Davis, whose landlord raised his rent by 60% in the same month he lost his job as a truck driver, waits for a friend to arrive to help him move his remaining belongings to a storage unit, after receiving a final eviction notice at his one-bedroom apartment, Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021, in Miami. "I never thought I'd be in this situation. I've been working my whole life," said Davis, who lost a leg to diabetes, suffers from congestive heart failure, and is recovering from multiple wounds on his other leg and foot. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Eviction filings skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, four years after the start of the health crisis, data reveals that evictions are more than 50% higher than the pre-pandemic average due to a lack of pandemic resources, rising rents and the ongoing shortage of affordable housing.

On Monday’s edition of “Closer Look,” Peter Hepburn, an associate director at Princeton University’s Eviction Lab, discusses the rental market during the pandemic, the current state of the market and what the Eviction Lab’s tracker reveals about evictions in at least 10 states and more than 30 cities.