Op/Ed: I learned why Indianapolis' eviction rate is so high and what we can do to fix it.
Op-Ed originally published by the Indy Star on February 25, 2023.
Written by Dr. Patricia Basile.
Two months ago, on Nov. 30, 2022, the IndyRent program stopped accepting applications. The state of Indiana created IndyRent in 2020 with funding from the CARES Act to provide rental assistance to Marion County residents who lost their income in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. In its duration, IndyRent provided a lifeline to 45,000 approved applicants who could no longer pay rent during the pandemic because of lost income. However, Indianapolis’ eviction crisis predates the pandemic as it has long had high rates and numbers of evictions. While IndyRent might return in the future, thousands of people facing the threat of eviction now are left without emergency support, confronting possible displacement and homelessness.
Why do evictions happen?
In fall 2022, students of the qualitative methods in geography class I taught at Indiana University-Bloomington focused on understanding evictions in Indianapolis as a research project for the course. The students conducted observations at the Pike Small Claims Court, interviewed tenant navigators from the Tenant Advocacy Project (TAP), and listened to their stories, experiences and perspectives connected to the TAP program and evictions in Indy. What students saw and heard was devastating. They were struck by the gross imbalances of power expressed in the court by the fact that most tenants do not have legal representation, while around 90% of landlords do.
Overall, students uncovered three key findings in their research. First, they identified the main reasons why people are evicted in Indy, including vast gaps between high, continuously increasing rents and low, non-livable wages. The lack of permanently affordable, stable housing accompanied by low, stagnant salaries creates conditions under which any unexpected expense or increase in rent precludes residents from paying their rent. Second, the students found that the populations most affected by evictions are Black, women and single mothers, often Black single mothers. Unfortunately, this finding does not come as a surprise. Decades of racism, sexism, racial segregation and violence make Black, women and single mothers the most vulnerable populations to housing insecurity and evictions.
Third, students determined that the work done by the tenant navigators goes far beyond their job description. Under IndyRent, tenant navigators provided technical support and advice for tenants facing the threat of eviction. They also offer general guidance for clients, acting as case managers and relentlessly working to keep tenants in their homes by finding alternative resources, recommending social services and helping navigate the bureaucracies of accessing such services. Tenant navigators offer moral support and encouragement to tenants during difficult times, listening to their struggles with care and respect. They care deeply about their work, the people they support and the communities they try to keep together despite so much adversity.
What should be done?
We need stable, permanently affordable housing and rent increase caps to prevent evictions. We need tenant protections to stop predatory landlord practices. We need systems in place to keep people in their homes and efficient and robust social safety nets that can offer support in times of emergency. We need livable minimum wages. We need legal representation for all tenants under the threat of eviction. Housing must be a fundamental human right for all, not a privilege for some.
Evictions are often seen as individual, personal failures. Failure to pay rent, find a job with a livable wage, save for an emergency, to care for your mental or physical health. What I learned from teaching this class was that evictions are a societal and systemic failure, not an individual one. Our society does not provide the most basic conditions for people to survive and thrive. Instead, Black people, women, single mothers, immigrants and the poor have no path to escape the prisons of generational poverty, deep racial and gender inequalities, inequities, injustices and economic and political dispossession that often result in evictions.
When I moved to Indiana, I repeatedly asked people I met why Indianapolis has some of the highest numbers and rates of evictions historically and today. The answer I received was always the same: Indiana protects the landlord and has zero protections or support for tenants. Protecting landlords makes it very easy for them to evict people. In turn, the state also attracts corporate (and often predatory) landlords that take advantage of the lack of protection for tenants. While this answer makes sense, it does not paint the whole picture. As a researcher, I was trained to ask questions about the world. So, I conclude with two questions: why does the state of Indiana protect the landlord instead of tenants' stability and security? Perhaps more importantly, who benefits from Indiana’s deep protections of landlords and disregard for the stability and security of tenants?