Profit Over People
The Creation of Eviction Economies in Dane County
There is a type of housing displacement that many people are unaware of because it occurs outside the most commonly known displacement mechanism of gentrification. Chain displacement is the phenomenon in which displacement happens in a neighborhood not undergoing gentrification, meaning that there is no significant change in residents’ or neighborhood characteristics. It usually occurs at a point where there is not much evidence of physical decline of the property or when rent is first increased, and almost always the neighborhood has a high poverty level. This makes tenants vulnerable to exploitative evictions based on race, gender, socioeconomic status, and other factors ( Sims & Iverson, 2021 ). In recent years, chain displacement in Dane County has been studied by scholars Revel Sims and Alicia Iverson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison which has brought attention to an alarming yet seemingly invincible phenomenon. In order to best understand chain displacement in Dane County we must look at its historical contexts.
Redlining: Some Historical Context
The infamous process of redlining is responsible for many cities’ current neighborhood inequalities and Dane County and the City of Madison are no different. Many segregated neighborhoods that exist today are a result of redlining policies. Redlining began in the 1930s and was developed by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) as a way to help insurers decide what neighborhoods were safe to lend money to for home buying and which ones were not safe because they were located in what was considered the worst neighborhoods in terms of racial makeup and housing quality; therefore, lenders should give loans to homes being bought in these neighborhoods. These maps were called Residential Security Maps. This practice was deeply racist and has had lasting effects on neighborhoods all over the country to this day in regard to where people live, their income levels, health outcomes, and more ( Schill & Wachter, 1995; Gold et al., 2019). It is important to understand these historical contexts as it is likely part of the foundation of structural inequalities that make communities of color more vulnerable to chain displacement.
This is the "Residential Security Map" of Madison described above.
This is a redeveloped Residential Security Map in comparison to a map of Multiple Eviction Filings of the greater Madison Area and Dane County.
Notice the correlation between Multiple Eviction Filings with red and yellow-lined neighborhoods. This is no coincidence. Redlining has been found to contribute to modern-day poverty in formerly red and likely yellow neighborhoods ( Schill & Wachter, 1995 ).
In relation, chain displacement as a result of eviction primarily takes place in neighborhoods with a high concentration of poverty ( Sims & Iverson, 2021 ).
This demonstrates historical contexts that are important for understanding chain displacement as a phenomenon.
This is the map of Multiple Eviction Filings by itself.
Now, let's take a look at the comparison between Single Eviction Filings and the Residential Security Map.
Notice the little correlation between Single Eviction Filings and the Residential Security Map in the previous maps. This is important to note because the correlation between Multiple Eviction Filings and the Residential Security Map are evidence of the lasting effect of redlining in that certain neighborhoods are historically affected and are places where chain displacement can occur due to poverty and other factors ( Schill & Wachter, 1995 ; Sims & Iverson, 2021 ).
Eviction Filing Data courtesy of the Tenant Resource Center , Eviction Filing Maps courtesy of Alicia Iverson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Residential Security map courtesy of Mapping Inequality .
Wisconsin Eviction Data
Below is a graph demonstrating eviction filings across the state of wisconsin in recent years.
Source: Wisconsin Eviction Data Project
Total evictions in the state of Wisconsin are important to acknowledge because it demonstrates that chain displacement could be present in other geographies in Wisconsin. Although this idea has yet to be formally studied, evidence of chain displacement in Dane County could give way to demonstrating its prevalence in other places.
Dane County Eviction Data
Below is a map of the distribution of one or more evictions by block groups within Dane County. Notice where high levels of Multiple Eviction Filings are occurring and explore the map.
When viewing the legend, keep in mind NAMELSAD10 refers to the block group, MultEvicCt shows how many people in the block group had one more evictions filed against them, and TotalEvCt displays the amount of total eviction filings that occurred in the block group.
A look Inside Chain Displacement
It is primarily the case that these phenomena are discussed in terms of statistically significant values, percentages, risk categories, and other less qualitative descriptions. Although this is an instrumental piece in discussing this subject matter, the humanization of a very real and painful process is lost. For privacy purposes, Mara and her experience is not the actual experience of someone in Dane County but a reflection of very similar circumstances many people face. Let's take a look at the story of Mara and her experience with chain displacement.
Like most individuals facing eviction, Mara is a woman of color. She is the single provider for herself and her two kids as an in-home caregiver. As a result, she lives below the Official Poverty Measure ( Sims & Iverson, 2021 ).
Evictions that cause chain displacement are occurring outside the context of gentrifying areas and in neighborhoods that suffer from persistent poverty, making tenants vulnerable to housing exploitation, often due to race, gender, financial status, or other factors creating an "eviction economy"( Dana, 2017 ; Sims & Iverson, 2021 ).
Although deeply harmful, Mara's eviction history does not come as a surprise due to the neighborhoods' compositions and eviction targeting that can happen to people of color ( Sims & Iverson, 2021 ).
Due to predatory aspects of eviction, single African American Women with children comprise 9.6% of the pool of renters but comprise 30% of all evictions, according to a study conducted in Milwaukee, WI ( Hoke & Boen, 2021 ).
Tracing the Path of Chain Displacement
Below is a map of Mara's displacement history as a result of her evictions. Take a deeper look into Mara's story.
10/9/2001
This was the first eviction filing Mara experienced. With it being the first time she lived alone, she struggled to pay her rent. Although an eviction was filed against her, she was able to stay in her apartment after making a deal with her landlord and making up the rent payments she missed.
05/07/2002
Mara was doing well for a while. She got a new job with better compensation until she got laid off due to company cutbacks. She is beginning to feel inadequate, but these circumstances are largely out of her control. Because of this, she falls behind on rent payments again and another eviction is filed against her.
01/12/2010
Mara's movements between 2002-2009 are unknown. However, by 2010, Mara is in her thirties and there have been lots of changes. Mara now has two children who are 6 and 8 years old. A couple of weeks prior to her latest eviction, her mother was diagnosed with cancer and now is unable to care for her two children when she works nights. On top of that, Mara is the sole source of income for her two children and serves as an informal caregiver to her mother and has to cut back her hours at work to care for her mother while finding another source of childcare for her children. Because of this stress and reduced income, she falls behind on rent payments, and an eviction is filed against her.
04/06/2010
Mara was able to get a lawyer this time doing pro-bono work which helped her stay in her apartment for the time being although she still struggles to make her rent payments. By April she has fallen so far behind that she owes her landlord over $1000 in late rent and she simply cannot afford to pay it. Another eviction is filed against her.
01/11/2011
Mara was forced to move out of her apartment and luckily found a one-bedroom apartment in the same district as her children's school in early May after that last eviction. However, this move means that Mara and her two children must all share one room and it's very cramped. In December of 2010, Mara's mother passed away. Mara is left heartbroken and is responsible for the entire funeral costs. With this added financial responsibility and the deep depth of her depression, she cannot pay rent or afford to feed her children. Once again, an eviction is filed against her.
12/27/2011
After five previous evictions, Mara is beginning to feel incompetent and hopeless. She worries her children resent her for having to change schools because the new studio apartment she found is out of the district. To keep up with her bills she works overtime every night but the cost of child care, food, rent, and transportation is more than she makes a month. Mara is filed against for the 6th time but negotiates with the courts to let her stay in the same apartment contingent on a payment plan to put her on track to pay back her missed payments.
06/05/2012
Similar to eviction number 4, she finds a lawyer willing to represent her for free when she is filed against for the 7th time. She is permitted to stay but must pay interest in her payback plan for rent.
09/25/2012
Even with these plans put in place, Mara still cannot make rent due to physical and mental health conditions she has dealt with as a result of previous evictions and the stress of living in poverty. An 8th eviction is filed and this time she and her children are displaced from her apartment.
02/10/2015
After Mara was displaced to this location in 2012, she was able to receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) which is a means-tested welfare program. TANF was able to help Mara stay current on all her bills but after her lifetime limit was up, as she was on TANF in previous years, she could not make her payments and was filed against the 9th time.
04/25/2017
Mara and her children were displaced from their school district again and the transition was extremely difficult for her children. Additionally, Mara's daughter became very ill and with unexpected medical bills, money is tight but she is able to keep up with her bills. Due to being back and forth from the hospital to stay with her daughter, garbage piles up, and the general upkeep of the house is neglected in order to be with her daughter. Her landlord unexpectedly files for eviction, but Mara suspects it is racially motivated. She is evicted and displaced for the 10th time.
Looking back at her past evictions she wonders whether her race or socioeconomic status allowed her to be taken advantage of and played a significant role in her displacements.
Mara's Displacement Pattern
Looking at Mara's displacement process, it is important to notice that between a handful of displacements, she does not move far from the last place she was evicted from.
This is evidence of the creation of eviction economies. Sims and Iverson note "tight and exclusionary housing markets that limit the housing opportunities for groups of renters at the urban scale may provide certain monopoly powers to property owners in specific neighborhoods with particular housing types...in a way that produces the opportunity for an “eviction economy” ( Dana 2017 ) that is evidenced in repeated and concentrated eviction records"( Sims & Iverson, 2021 ).
Health Outcomes of Evictions and Displacement
Mara is now left in distress and despair looking for another place to live for her and her two children. The trauma from her recent racially-motivated eviction has made her susceptible to a variety of adverse health effects.
With the pressure of providing for her and her two children while navigating the most recent eviction and her daughter's illness, Mara is feeling overwhelmed and hopeless. As a result, she begins to suffer from high blood pressure and weight gain.
Mara's children must also change schools because the shelter they have been staying at is out of district of the school they currently attend. The upheaval of displacements along with navigating their new school and making new friends has caused both her children to show signs of childhood anxiety as well as high cortisol levels. Unfortunately, this is not a uncommon experience.
Recent studies have found that housing insecurity, like an eviction, is associated with "poorer self-reported health...elevated blood pressure and weight gain...reduced diabetes self-efficacy...greater presence of chronic medical conditions...and higher all-cause cardiovascular-related mortality rates" in adults ( Hoke & Boen, 2021 ).
Studies have also demonstrated poor health outcomes as a result of an eviction in children as well. Some of these outcomes include increased chance of being hospitalized due to physical abuse and overall higher cortisol levels (Hoke & Boen, 2021).
Policy Solutions
Research on the effects of chain displacement and how it occurs provides valuable knowledge to Dane County and the State of Wisconsin in order to begin thinking about how this disparaging issue might be at least partially alleviated. Some of these policy solutions include relocation assistance and legal assistance ( Ghaffari et al., 2016 ).
Relocation Assistance
In the state of Wisconsin, relocation assistance is only provided when a person or business is displaced as a result of a public project, e.g. land acquired through eminent domain. However, relocation assistance should be expanded to evictees and displaced people in Dane County and across the state as a tool to remedy some of the financial, physical, and mental costs associated with displacement. Relocation assistance is a strategy in which local government supports the evictee in finding a new place to live, selling properties to the evictee at an affordable price, or locating a new place for the evictee to live. This strategy, in turn, has been proven successful in reducing the harmful costs of displacement in cities like Washington D.C. and Hong Kong ( Ghaffari et al., 2016 ).
Legal Assistance
A right to legal counsel on eviction cases is another solution to help prevent chain displacement as a result of eviction. This is a useful strategy in that it increases advocacy for the evictee and helps negotiate a plan to prevent displacement. In one study, providing a right to legal counsel in the case of evictions helped lead to an "Eviction Free Zone"( Ghaffari et al., 2016 ) which could also help prevent future evictions as well, combating the issues of chain displacement ( Ghaffari et al., 2016 ).
Policy Solutions and Mara's Story
If Mara had had access to free legal or relocation assistance her story could have been a lot different. If she had access to free legal assistance each time she was evicted, her counsel would have been able to point out racist causes of eviction that would likely prevent her from being displaced. With relocation assistance, she may have been able to keep her kids in the same school district preventing the stress of switching schools or she may have been given the opportunity to move to a neighborhood free from predatory landlords. Armed with advocates, the outcomes of individuals with evictions filed against them give them a better chance from being displaced and proceeding poor life outcomes.
Future Research
Undue harm to vulnerable populations in urban geographies is not a new phenomenon but this mechanism in which it may occur provides valuable insights into how displacement as a result of eviction can be remedied. Further research in this topic is looking towards the connection between exclusionary displacement and direct chain displacement. Future research should investigate whether people evicted as a result of exclusionary displacement in a gentrifying neighborhood are displaced to high eviction neighborhoods where direct chain displacement often occurs.
