Squeezed by high costs, US tenants grapple with eviction

ALEXANDRIA - An increased number of US tenants are confronting eviction risks in the face of high inflation, elevated rents and with the end of pandemic-era aid.

The country sees 3.6 million eviction cases filed in a typical year, said Peter Hepburn, associate director of Eviction Lab at Princeton University. But that number slowed to a trickle during the pandemic.

Now, with Covid-era legal protections and assistance lifted, it is surging again, Eviction Lab's figures show.

At courthouses in Virginia, tenants living paycheck-to-paycheck told AFP how an unexpected accident or medical bill was enough to land them before a judge with an eviction filing.

There has been a "steady increase" in eviction filings over the last year, and nationwide numbers are now close to where they were before the pandemic, said Hepburn of Eviction Lab.

In the 10 states and 34 cities that the group tracks, the number of such cases filed rose from around 6,600 in April 2020 during the pandemic to over 96,800 in January.

Over a third of the US population rent their homes.

Growth in rental prices has cooled but shelter costs still accounted for over 70 percent of the increase in consumer prices in February.