Connecticut: Deploying Eviction Data to Mitigate Imminent Harm while Reshaping the Housing System for the Long Term

In this mini-chat, Peter Hepburn—an assistant professor of sociology at Rutgers University-Newark and research fellow at the Eviction Lab—spoke with Salmun Kazerounian from Connecticut Fair Housing Center about the proactive ways eviction data is being used to further tenant outreach and advocacy statewide during the pandemic.

Salmun and the CT Fair Housing Center have been collecting Connecticut eviction data since it became electronically available at the start of 2017. When the pandemic hit, they pivoted from downloading one-time snapshots of eviction data to tracking eviction trends in real time. Salmun even developed a script that updated a local, queryable eviction database on a daily basis.

It may not have been clear how this data would be deployed at the start of the pandemic, but readily-accessible data became critical when the immediate safety of tenants was threatened just a few months later.

In fall 2020, the Connecticut court system began processing eviction cases filed prior to the start of the pandemic, despite the CDC moratorium in place. With eviction case data at the ready, Salmun generated a list of eviction cases moving through the courts that resulted in a writ of execution (or court-ordered removal from one’s home). By distributing these lists to three of the state’s major housing-related legal service agencies, advocates were able to contact every tenant household at imminent risk of eviction and inform them of their rights under the CDC moratorium.

What made this outreach effort more successful than most was the ability to target resources towards the tenants most at risk. Knowing where to expend efforts on data collection, and when to leverage it to keep people housed, is critical to using housing data proactively. The good news is that with good data, and with ready access to that data, this is something that is within reach for all advocates.

The CT Fair Housing Center used data to show who has an attorney in housing court–landlords or tenants. During the first three months of 2021, 86 percent of landlords were represented by an attorney in court while only 4.7 percent tenants had legal representation. These stark differences were deployed by advocates, journalists and legal aid providers in the growing fight to extend guaranteed right to counsel for every tenant facing eviction, culminating in a Connecticut bill providing attorneys to low-income tenants. The bill passed through the Connecticut House of Representatives in early May and was signed into law in June.

Salmun and his colleagues are also building a disparate impact case to show that using a prior eviction to deny housing to tenants disproportionately harms communities of color and violates the Federal Fair Housing Act. Black and Latinx communities and women are significantly more likely to face evictions, and as a consequence, any screening policy that limits access to housing based on an eviction record perpetuates harm to these communities and bakes racial and gender inequities into the housing system.

Data is paramount to mitigating the harms caused by evictions in the short term while also building the case for reshaping the role evictions play in our housing system over the long term.

For more information on the Eviction Lab, contact Peter Hepburn at phepburn@princeton.edu. To contact Salmun about his work, email skazerounian@ctfairhousing.org.