OREGON EVICTION FILINGS

Zoom in to see eviction rates at the tract level. Use the search bar to see rates at an address, place, or county. Choose a different time period below.


Data
Data source: Evicted in Oregon | Lisa Bates | Portland State University
Analysis by: The Eviction Research Network | Tim Thomas & Hannah Moore | UC Berkeley


Eviction case counts in this report are the most recent numbers from the Oregon Judicial Department court records. These counts currently do not include filings from Justice Courts or municipal courts in Baker, Clackamas, Douglas, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Lane, Linn, Malheur, Marion, Morrow, Sherman, Tillamook, Wheeler counties (see the EiO date page for more info).

November 12, 2023

Overview

Evictions have long-term, harmful impacts on a household's future housing, health, and economic outcomes. Despite local, state, and federal moratoriums, over 16,000 Oregon renting households experienced an eviction filing during the pandemic. From September 2022 to August 2023, over 19,000 renting households have faced eviction. In collaboration with Portland State University's Evicted in Oregon team, UC Berkeley's Eviction Research Network and the Urban Displacement Project analyzed these eviction filings in the state of Oregon from 2017 to 2023. We examine the state's eviction filing spatial patterns; trends over time; racial disparities; and related neighborhood rental market, income, and racial dynamics. We end with some explanations for why these trends exist.

For a detailed explanation and diagram about the eviction process in Oregon, visit the Evicted in Oregon FAQ page on eviction. In short, evictions are not a single event. The process starts with a landlord's notice to evict a tenant, which may proceed to eviction court (i.e., eviction filing) if the tenant can not pay back rent or leave. At court, the tenant may be able to negotiate an agreement, move to trial, or end with a judgment of eviction and even a lockout by the sheriff. In few cases households stay.

We consider a household to be displaced by an eviction if they move at any point of the process, which is a difficult number to measure. Notices are not administratively collected and this study only examines cases that went to court. Because a household may leave prior to a filing, the numbers presented here are an under-count of households that have been displaced by eviction.

What we found in the data is troubling, but important to know.

Summary of findings

Eviction filing counts are now at the highest level they've ever been in Oregon's history, particularly for Black renting households.
Over the past 12 months:
  • 1 in 30 renting households experienced an eviction filing (3.3%)
  • 1 in 14 Black households (7%)
  • 1 in 42 Latine households (2.4%)
  • 1 in 37 “Other Group” (Asian, mixed-race, Indigenous, and other racial/ethnic groups) (2.7%) and
  • 1 in 42 White households (2.3%) experienced an eviction filing
Evictions impact both urban and rural parts of Oregon.
  • Multnomah and Klamath County have the highest filing rates in the state.
  • Between the end of the CDC moratorium in June 2021 to the first post-moratoria peak of October 2022, eviction filings increased by 533% (300 to 1900 cases).
  • The introduction of House Bill 2001 in April 2023 cut filings by 54%, but cases rapidly increased by 81% as of August 2023.
  • Since August of 2022, Oregon has been evicting more renters on a monthly basis than it ever has in its history.


Findings

Spatial patterns

The map above shows the yearly average eviction filing rate (filings divided by renter households) for each county and census tract (a loose proxy for neighborhoods) for a given time. For example, the "Post-Pandemic" button shows the yearly average eviction rate between September 2022 to August 2023 while the "All" button shows the yearly average eviction rate from January 2017 to August 2023. You can zoom into the map to see the tract filing rates. The color bar on the upper right shows the minimum and maximum rate for both counties and tracts (the higher rates are located at the tract level). You can use the search bar in the upper left hand corner to type in an address, place, or county name to zoom to that location and see local rate information.

Zooming out to the county layer shows that Multnomah and Klamath counties have the highest post-pandemic eviction rates in the state. Zooming in to the tract layer near Portland shows several neighborhoods in purple (38% and 43%) where almost half of all renting households face eviction in a year. Several census tracts in rural areas at the bottom of the state such as north of Klamath Falls, Jackson County, and Josephine County also have high eviction rates above 10% (1 in 10 households), meaning that evictions are not just an urban issue.

Oregon is evicting more renters per month than ever before

The graph below shows the number of circuit court filings per county since 2017 (Justice Court filings are unavailable at this time). Before the pandemic, there were roughly 1,200 filings per month with seasonal spikes in January and July. Federal and, more so, state moratoria helped reduce evictions down to 100 filings per month at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. But, by the end of the federal CDC moratorium in July 2021, cases increased to over 700 per month and then sharply rose after February 2022. By April 2022, only one of four state Senate Bills (891) intended to curb evictions remained. By its end in June 2022, counts rapidly increased. By October 2022, Oregon reached its first peak of 1,900 cases in a month. In April 2023, HB 2001 was introduced, temporarily stalling counts but eventually increasing monthly county by 81% in August 2023 to almost 1,900 cases.

Note: these trends are under-counts because Justice Court data in 13 counties are missing.



The plot below compares the pre-pandemic monthly filing counts for 2019 (an average of 1,251 filings per month) to counts after January 2020. After the start of the state and Federal moratoriums in March 2020, cases dropped to 92% below historical average. By June of 2022 Oregon reached 2019 historical average levels and have mostly stayed well above historical average. By August of 2023, the state had 43.5% more cases than they did in August 2019.

Eviction is both an urban and rural problem

Between September 2022 to August 2023, the 12 month eviction filing rate is at 4% (1 in 25 renter households) as compared to 3% in 2019 (1 in 33 renter households). The table below shows the county filing trends where the mostly urban Multnomah County and mostly rural Klamath County have rates at 5.6% and 5%. Almost all counties have relatively steady monthly counts, with a few increasing over time. In the past seven years, roughly 1 in 5 Multnomah renter households faced eviction while almost 1 in 3 Klamath County renter households faced eviction.



Racial Disparities in Eviction

Black Renters Have Been Hit Hardest

Racial, ethnic, and gender disparities in eviction are high in Oregon, which is the result of decades of discrimination and economic inequality among households of color. In 2022, eviction rates among Black male and female headed households were over 6% (roughly 1 in 16 households) across the state, which is more than twice as high as the rate for White male headed households and almost three times as high as White female headed households. The majority of the states renters are White male headed households and have the third highest eviction rate of 2.9%. All "Other" race and ethnic groups (householders that are Asian, bi-racial, Indigenous, or another race or ethnicity) are next, followed by Latine, and finally White female headed householders at 2.2%.

You can also choose to look specifically at race or sex of the evicted using the buttons below the plot.



What Type of Neighborhoods See More Evictions?

We looked at racial and ethnic compositions, poverty, and rent across all the neighborhoods in the state and evaluated how eviction rates relate to these trends. We found that evictions happen most often in communities with more racial diversity and more poverty but are evenly distributed across low, medium, and high rent areas. However, Black eviction rates are much higher in Whiter and more affordable neighborhoods.

Eviction rates are higher in more diverse neighborhoods, but Black eviction rates are higher in Whiter neighborhoods.

The plot below shows the overall and various group eviction rates for different racial and ethnic neighborhood types. These types are categorized by the groups that have more than a 10% composition in the census tract. The x-axis is ordered with Whiter neighborhoods on the left to more racially diverse neighborhoods (4 to 5 groups have more than a 10% racial composition) to the right.

When comparing community racial and ethnic compositions to eviction rates (plot below) the overall eviction rate (red line) shows that Whiter neighborhoods have lower eviction rates (3.2%) while more diverse neighborhoods see much higher rates (6.9%). Six out of the seven neighborhood types we analyzed show Black households having a much higher eviction rate as compared to other groups. The highest being in "Mostly White" and "Asian-White" neighborhoods. What is troubling about this finding is that these neighborhood types have a small percentage of Black renting households (less than 10%) and also evict a larger share of that group. An 8.5% Black eviction rate in majority Asian and White neighborhoods equals to 1 in 12 Black evictions over the past year.



We also find that eviction rates are higher in poorer neighborhoods. The plot below compares eviction rates to the percent of households making less than 80% of the county median income in a community (a monetary threshold that allows renters to start qualifying for housing and welfare subsidies). Neighborhoods with less than a 10% share of low-income renters have lower eviction rates (1.4%) while neighborhoods with more low-income households have higher eviction rates. Neighborhoods where more than half renting households are low-income have a rate that is almost 5 times higher than wealthier neighborhoods (5%). Black households are evicted at a higher rate than any other group. In the poorest neighborhood their rate is 8.2% (1 in 12 households).



Finally, the plot below examines the relationship between rent and eviction rates where more affordable neighborhoods are towards the left. In other states, low-rent neighborhoods tend to see the highest rates. However, that's not the case in Oregon. Evictions are relatively even across each neighborhood median rent group (3.4% to 4.4%). Black households have a very high eviction rate in more affordable neighborhoods (roughly 8%).


Why Do These Trends Exist?

Evictions occur at the household level when welfare support and wages can't meet rising rents, especially in more affordable spaces. When there's not enough money for rent, households have to make a difficult choice to either pay for food, healthcare, or shelter. Households are often paying upwards of 80% of their income to rent with little hope for support.

At the neighborhood level we have found that rental markets and racial composition are two massive predictors of eviction. We ran a country wide model showing that census tracts that are more affordable or located in counties with a lot of gentrification see higher rates of eviction. Furthermore, tracts that have more Black renters have higher eviction rates, especially if those tracts are located in counties with a large White population. This helps explain a lot of the racial disparities that we saw in Oregon. This also relates to the history of racial segregation and discrimination.

Households of color, particularly Black and Latine households, have faced longer periods of discrimination in the housing market than most other groups. In the early 1900's, laws were established to protect property values, particularly for White households. These laws used race as a determinant factor on who could get loans and where investments should be made. In tandem with other social and legal discriminatory practices, these events made it difficult for households of color to participate in the growth of the middle class, forcing them to live in segregated spaces, and ultimately leading to a massive home-ownership and wealth gap between them and White families. Today, Black and Latine households rent more than any other group and have had fewer opportunities to accrue wealth. These factors contribute to a generally higher risk of eviction.

Another driving factor for eviction, which effects every renter, is the rapid increase in rent over the past decade. Rent increases, even in high priced neighborhoods, generally raise the bar across all neighborhoods. But rent increases are particularly difficult for renters in low-income neighborhoods. Even the slightest increase can add a lot of economic burden on a household, forcing them to make the difficult sacrifices.