Evictions

Welcome to the 9th volume of the Housing First Research Digest!

This time we will dig deeper into evictions.

In short, an eviction is a process initiated by a landlord which results in the dweller having to leave one’s home involuntarily. The chosen articles present recent research done in Sweden and France that help us better understand the nature of evictions from both individual and structural points of view.

As getting evicted often becomes a pathway to homelessness, eviction prevention and effective aiming of services are essential. The articles below expand our knowledge on what should be considered in the planning of these actions in diverse situations. Like seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, preventative measures can be executed rapidly if there’s a political will to do so.

 

1. Nilsson, I. (2024). Self-initiated Moves During the Formal Eviction Process: Findings from Swedish Register Data. International Journal of Social Welfare, 1–15.

The study examines self-initiated moves during eviction processes that are not later seen in the statistics when looking at the number of enforced evictions. Data in this research consists of Swedish register data of juridical processes in summary proceedings. The findings offer perspective to earlier research conducted on official statistics, as the results of this study indicate four self-initiated moves for every enforced eviction. Also characteristics of the group of people self-initiating moves are presented.

 

2. Stenberg, S., Brännström, L., Christine, Lindberg, & Almquist, Y.B. (2020). Risk Factors for Housing Evictions: Evidence from Panel Data. European Journal of Homelessness 14:2, 115-135.

This study assesses risk factors for eviction found in prior research utilising Swedish longitudinal municipal-level data, as most of the previous research has been constructed on individual cross-sectional data. The variables include unemployment, economic strain/hardship, educational attainment, crime, family disruption, family composition, and ethnic background. Especially the negative correlation between a larger number of evictions and foreign background in this study is contradictory to prior findings and raises the need for further research on the subject.

 

3. Portefaix, P. (2022). What Happens to Households that are Evicted from their Homes in France? Long Term Implications. European Journal of Homelessness 16:2, 201–206.

Research notes concerning a study built on interviews of evicted households in France. A little is known about what happens to people post-eviction – the study conducted aims to offer a better understanding of how evictions have impacted on health, housing and employment of the evicted.

Thank you for reading!

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This volume of the Research Digest is written by Vaula Luomi, intern at Y-Foundation, Finland.