2021 Theses Master's

Renter Protections against Eviction: Identifying and Analyzing Laws, Policies, and Procedures in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and New York City

Mencher, Jason Scott

For the roughly one third of Americans who rent their homes, eviction is an ever-present threat. Noting the negative effects of eviction including poor health, educational, employment, and social outcomes, in response, cities have enacted renter protections against the eviction of urban tenants. Such protections take the form of landlord-tenant laws, rent regulations (price controls), access to legal counsel, and specific legal procedures required to obtain an eviction judgment. Over the past year, in response to impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic, local, state, and even the Federal government have taken unprecedented steps to further protect renters by issuing expansive, but temporary, eviction moratoriums. While existing literature examines causes and impacts of evictions, there have been few attempts to aggregate, compare and understand the different legal and policy protections against eviction in U.S. cities. This research focuses on doing so for the four largest renter cities in the United States: Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and New York City. The identification of such protections by this thesis, and their compilation into a matrix, can serve as a roadmap for planners from any city to gather relevant eviction protections in their respective locales, and better advocate for housing policy changes and stronger protections for tenants.