The Homeless in Como

Evictions are an increasingly common phenomenon across the US, and they have a devastating impact on families. They cause psychological trauma, increase emergency room use, and decrease credit access, especially in children.

Sgomberi Como

In the face of a growing social justice climate, renters are organizing and protesting — even forming tenant unions. This is an important step, but it is also important to understand the full scope of this crisis and how it affects the community as a whole.

Homelessness is a complex problem, and addressing it requires a multi-pronged approach that includes housing assistance, legal protections, and community action to reduce the threat of evictions. To protect those who are currently homeless, state and local governments must employ eviction diversion programs to keep families safe by providing legal representation and emergency aid to help prevent their displacement.

The Homeless in Como – The Impact of Evictions on the Community

Reducing evictions can have significant public health benefits, including reducing COVID-19 infections and deaths. In this study, we used an infectious disease modeling framework to estimate the impact of evictions on COVID-19 in Philadelphia.

We estimated the effect of evictions on the incidence of COVID-19 by dividing the city into two sub-populations: a high socioeconomic status neighborhood and a low socioeconomic status neighborhood (see Fig. 1). We also calculated the effect of evictions on the rate of adoption of social distancing measures by residents in each sub-population.

The higher the eviction rates, the greater the risk of infection for individuals living in that eviction cluster. Our models also predict that a 5-fold increase in evictions, predicted by some economic analyses, would increase the incidence of COVID-19 to 2.6%, or 53,000 extra infections. This would exacerbate the economic impact of the pandemic by increasing housing costs and putting a further strain on the already-strained housing markets.

Several studies have shown that the effect of evictions on health is more likely among women, persons of color, and low-income households. This is partly because evictions are more likely to occur in these groups and partly because they often lead to housing instability, which increases health risks such as obesity, depression, and chronic stress.

It is also likely that evictions are more likely to lead to increased health care use among households that have been displaced. This is because displaced households are often unable to afford basic health care needs and must seek treatment at higher cost and with longer wait times, leading to increased health care expenditures.

Additionally, evictions are associated with higher poverty rates and more people entering homeless shelters. This is particularly true for lower-income and non-white families, who are more likely to enter homeless shelters and have higher rates of evictions.

For this reason, limiting evictions should be an essential component of any policy to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Policies that limit evictions, such as the CDC eviction moratorium in late August, reduce the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths. However, evictions can still be a threat to public health, and we need more research on the role of evictions in preventing infection.