Dear John,

In June, NVAHA released a new resource – the Northern Virginia Eviction Prevention & Rental Assistance Dashboard. This resource uses data from the RVA Eviction Lab at Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development to track eviction filings, case outcomes and disbursement of rental assistance at the ZIP code-level in six Northern Virginia localities – the Cities of Alexandria and Falls Church, and Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William Counties.

The Dashboard was created to help advocates and human service providers identify trends in the volume of eviction filings and judgments and disbursement of rental assistance to support outreach at the neighborhood-level. This is the first in a series of blogs that will explore common questions the Dashboard can help answer. As with our other eviction prevention resources, we will continually update and refine the dashboard as new information becomes available. If you have suggestions for changes or improvements please email [email protected].

What neighborhoods are experiencing the highest number of eviction filings during the pandemic?

Between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021, ZIP code 22311, which sits between Fairfax County and the City of Alexandria had the highest number of unique eviction filings. During this time, there were a total of 611 filings in 22311, 606 of which occurred in the City of Alexandria.

ZIP code 22191 in Prince William County had the second highest number of filings, with a total of 565 filings – more than three times as many filings as any other ZIP code in the County.

Of course, it is important to consider these raw numbers in the context of local demographic information. For example, ZIP code 22191 also has more renter-occupied households than any other ZIP code in Prince William County according to American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2015-19. Still, between April 2020 and March 2021 there was roughly 1 filing per every 16 renter-occupied households in 22191, compared with about 1 filing per 44 renter-occupied households in the ZIP code with the next highest number of filings in the County. For comparison, in 22311, there was about 1 filing per every 11 renter-occupied households.

What about eviction judgments?

An eviction judgment is when the court rules in favor of the landlord to evict a tenant. ZIP codes 22311 and 22191 also led the region in eviction judgments between April 2020 and March 2021, however, 22191 had nearly twice as many judgments as 22311. There was about 1 judgment for every 43 renter households in 22191, compared to about 1 judgment for every 60 renter households in 22311. All but 1 judgment in 22311 was entered in the City of Alexandria versus Fairfax County.

After an eviction judgment is entered, the court issues a “writ of possession” to the Sheriff’s Department. The Sheriff then has 30 days to “execute” the writ by notifying the tenant to vacate their residence. During the pandemic, protections were enacted to prevent tenants from being displaced. Some of these protections, including the CDC eviction moratorium, stopped the eviction process before the execution of the writ, even if the court entered a judgment against a tenant.

Although not every eviction judgment results in a tenant being displaced from their home, every judgment and every filing represents a household experiencing housing instability. Human service providers can use the data in the Northern Virginia Eviction Prevention and Rental Assistance Dashboard to identify communities where a high number of residents are experiencing housing instability in order to target supportive services to these communities.

How do these numbers compare to pre-pandemic eviction filings and judgments?

While service providers need to know what ZIP codes are experiencing pandemic-related housing instability (in the form of eviction filings and judgments), advocates may want to understand whether these same neighborhoods were affected by a large number of eviction filings and judgments pre-pandemic. Historic data can help build the case for permanent changes to promote housing stability.

The Dashboard features data going back to January 2019. Users can view historic data using the “select date range” slider to the right of the map (pictured below).

Between January – December 2019, ZIP code 22191 had 2,000 eviction filings – the most in the region with nearly 1 eviction filing for every 4 renter-occupied households. ZIP code 22311 had 1,288 eviction filings – the third highest in the region with about 1 eviction filing for every 5 renter-occupied households (all but four of these eviction filings were in the City of Alexandria versus Fairfax County). ZIP code 22191 also had the most eviction judgments in 2019, followed by 22304 and 22311.

These data suggest that in Northern Virginia, like the nation as a whole, the households that were most affected by the economic fallout from the pandemic are those who were struggling prior to the public health crisis. Beyond emergency rental assistance, systems-level change (including adequate investment in affordable housing) is necessary to create long-term housing stability.