Over 16,000 Oregon renters have had evictions filed against them this year. And in recent months, eviction filings have surpassed pre-pandemic levels.
That’s according to “Evicted in Oregon,” a new project led by Portland State University researchers who have been collecting court data on Oregon evictions and publishing it online.
Colleen Carroll, community research partnerships coordinator at PSU, said the goal is to help people understand evictions as a process rather than a single event.
“We see that there are lots of ways that displacement by the eviction process happen, and understanding them helps us think about how we can prevent them,” Carroll said.
Eviction procedures vary by state, but in Oregon, the only visible parts of the process occur in court — meaning researchers can’t track every eviction that occurs.
For example, Oregon tenants that choose to leave their home after receiving a termination notice and move-out date from their landlord will have no record of an eviction judgment.
“We only see what that looks like, what exactly is communicated, if the tenant does not move out at that point and the landlord ends up filing the court case of eviction,” PSU urban studies professor Lisa Bates said.
Using available court data, the project also looks at eviction filings by county and by the cause listed on the court filing.
Nonpayment of rent was the biggest reason, appearing on 65% of filings from January to July of this year. But Carroll said the other 35% could offer insights into what new diversion programs could help offset evictions.
“Looking at the scope of the reasons that people are being evicted — what we can really say with confidence is it is not just a rental assistance issue,” she said. “There are many more things happening in our communities and people are losing homes.”
PSU researchers are also working with a team at UC Berkeley to track racial disparities in eviction filings on a separate website.
Colleen Carroll and Lisa Bates spoke to “Think Out Loud” host Dave Miller. Click play to listen to the full conversation: