More than half of Black women surveyed in metro Detroit reported experiencing evictions
A survey of Black women in metro Detroit during the years since the COVID-19 pandemic found more than half of respondents reported experiencing an eviction in their lifetime.
A research paper published May 14 by native Detroiter Shawnita Sealy-Jefferson sheds new light on the scale of evictions among Black women. As Sealy-Jefferson, a social epidemiologist, was researching the impact of evictions, mass incarceration, stress and tax foreclosures on preterm births among Black women, she was frustrated: she knew Black mothers were more likely to be evicted from their homes than other groups but there was no data to illustrate the scope of the problem — and what it does to them.
She decided to do something about it.
In September 2020, Sealy-Jefferson embarked on a five-year project, studying the link between evictions among Black women and health outcomes. She surveyed 1,428 Black women from Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties, conducted focus groups with about 90 participants and interviewed 55 Black women who experienced an illegal eviction.
Now, the numbers and stories are in and, as she puts it: "I grossly underestimated the horror."
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Here are some key takeaways from the survey:
More than half of the participants said they'd been evicted. Of those evictions, nearly half were reportedly illegal, meaning they happened outside the courts. Participants self-reported evictions.
A quarter of participants said they were evicted during childhood.
Forty percent reported facing housing discrimination (participants were asked if they had ever been discriminated against or treated unfairly when they were trying to buy or rent)
Childhood and court-ordered and illegal eviction during adulthood were associated with a 12% to 17% "higher risk of poor self-rated health," which is how participants rated their own physical health. Meanwhile, childhood eviction and experiencing illegal eviction in adulthood was linked with a 34% to 37% "higher risk of worse relative self-rated health," which is participants' physical health compared with most people their age.
A reporter with the Free Press and BridgeDetroit spoke with Sealy-Jefferson, the study's lead author and an associate professor of social epidemiology at the Ohio State University College of Public Health. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
QUESTION: Can you tell me why you conducted this study and why you decided to pursue the topic?
ANSWER: The housing crisis has been a problem for decades, so this is not only our problem, but this was our mother's problem, and likewise, it's going to be our daughter's problem if we don't do something about it. … I convened a group of Black women leaders — local, national and international leaders — on this community advisory board, and I also organized Black women from my community to share their stories for action. We need the data, because without the data, we can't have solutions. We can't have conversations about solutions to a problem that doesn't exist. And this definitely exists. I know a lot of people who have been evicted. Most Black women know people who have been evicted, it's very common, but the link between having this experience and health at the population level is something that hasn't been documented.
You posed two questions in your research: What is the magnitude and severity of residential evictions among reproductive age Black women from metro Detroit and are evictions associated with poor health. What did you find?
We found that eviction is extremely common. Court ordered evictions are common and illegal evictions are equally common, among reproductive age Black women. We're able to document empirically that having these eviction experiences across the lifetime — so during childhood and during adulthood — is associated with worse self-rated health among Black women, and that hasn't been shown before, and this suggests that these eviction experiences may account for some of the other inequities that we see at the population level, in terms of health of Black mothers, Black families and Black communities.
Was there a finding that surprised you, and, if so, why?
This study is not limited to low-income Black women. It's not limited to renters. It's not limited to just city of Detroit residents. … I knew it was high, but it sort of took my breath away that 25% experienced an eviction during childhood, 60% had high ACES (adverse childhood experiences, such as abuse, losing a parent or bullying).
What do you hope comes of this study? What solutions would you like to see address some of the issues that you identified?
We really have to have very clear understanding about root cause intervention. This housing crisis is not going to be fixed with individual-level solutions, because the problem is a structural problem, so we need structural solutions. We need society-level solutions to the problem, because it's not about individual behavior. The conversation has to include reparations — federal government funded reparations for the descendants of African chattel slavery, like that is part of the root cause solution. We also need enforcement of the existing housing laws that protect tenants, because landlords are violating people's civil and human rights in broad daylight, and there's no consequences for them because nobody's checking. … We need policy change. We need enforcement of the existing policies. We need intervention studies. We need more research. … We need our elected officials to pay attention to this data and work with community on what solutions to these problems are.
What's next?
This is the first study. We have a lot of data, we have a lot of numbers and we have a lot of stories that we really are going to be, in the coming months, disseminating.
… I will continue to work with the community advisory board and the community, the participants and the interested parties in the community to decide, what do we do with this data? What is next? What's the most pressing question that we can answer with this data that will help you to advocate for yourself, that'll help you to understand what's happening in your community?
What are the short and long term impacts of evictions?
Without the human right to stable, safe and affordable housing, it really jeopardizes your ability to do all of the things that you need to do in order to have a good life, a good healthy life and a productive life. It's very rare that you'd be able to do all of the things you need to do if you don't have the basic foundation, which is stable, safe and affordable housing.
Contact Nushrat Rahman: nrahman@freepress.com. Follow her on X: @NushratR.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Survey sheds light on evictions among Black women in metro Detroit
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