Examining the Impact of Pandemic Eviction Prevention Policies on Racial Inequalities in Mortality

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Project Summary We propose to evaluate the effects of pandemic eviction prevention policies on individual- and area-level death rates, leveraging variation in policies over time and between locations to gain new insight into the relationship between eviction and mortality. Stagnant wages and rising rents over the last several decades have resulted in unprecedented levels of housing cost burden in the U.S. and, in turn, forced millions of renters to face the threat of eviction each year. The pandemic worsened this crisis, resulting in catastrophic job and wage loss, especially for Black, Hispanic, and female renters who already experienced the highest rates of housing insecurity. To prevent a surge in evictions, federal, state, and local policymakers established a range of eviction prevention policies, most notably eviction moratoria and emergency rental assistance (ERA). These policies varied across the country in how and when they were implemented, creating large exogenous variation in eviction risk. We exploit that variation to evaluate the effects of eviction on mortality and inequalities in mortality. In so doing, we provide insight into the potential for eviction prevention policies to advance health equity. Our project has three aims: 1) We examine the effect of eviction filings on all-cause adult mortality by age, race/ethnicity, and gender using a unique linkage of individual eviction filing records and Census Bureau microdata. We also estimate the number of lives saved by eviction prevention policies and project mortality gains had more protective measures been comprehensively implemented. 2) We analyze the effects of eviction prevention policies on county-level mortality using a difference-and-differences framework. We analyze how the staggered lifting of eviction moratoria (2020) and disbursal of ERA (2021-22) affected all-cause, cause- specific, and age-specific adult mortality, with a focus on racial/ethnic and gender variations in these associations. 3) We explore the lived experience of eviction prevention policies using in-depth interview data collected with a diverse sample of renters across two distinct policy landscapes. Our project combines the strengths of multiple approaches. Our unique linkage of individual-level eviction-filing and mortality records allows us to produce precise estimates of deaths averted due to eviction prevention policies. We also leverage natural experiments to examine the causal impact of these policies on county-level measures of mortality, capturing potential spillover effects. And our qualitative data help to clarify mechanisms underlying these impacts. Housing policy has played a significant role in producing racial inequalities. Our project identifies the potential for housing policies to redress these harms and advance health equity.