ABSTRACT

Disaster recovery is not a time of exception, it is a time when existing social, economic, and racial inequalities are reproduced and exacerbated. Housing institutions can amplify inequality during disaster recovery. We use quantitative methods to ask whether evictions increase during disaster recovery periods in four states. We stratify our case selection by the type of statutory protections for landlords and tenants in state law. In three cases that have pro-business or a mixture of pro-business and tenant protections, we find strong, significant increases in eviction rates in disaster-affected neighborhoods relative to neighborhoods in adjacent areas with no disaster declaration. By contrast, in the case that has primarily tenant protections, there is no statistically significant rise in evictions following the disaster. We conclude that tenant protections are not sufficient to prevent swift increases in evictions following disasters in states with a policy environment that is also characterized by landlord protections. We close with policy recommendations to prevent evictions after disasters, and suggestions for further research.

摘要

灾难恢复不是一个例外的时期，它是一个现有的社会、经济和种族不平等被复制和加剧的时期。住房机构可以在灾难恢复期间放大不平等。我们使用定量方法来询问在四个州的灾难恢复期间驱逐是否增加。我们根据州法律中对房东和租户的法定保护类型对案例选择进行分层。在三个有亲企业或亲企业和租户保护混合的案例中，我们发现，相对于没有宣布灾害的邻近地区的社区，受灾社区的驱逐率显着增加。相比之下，在主要有租户保护的情况下，灾难后驱逐的统计数据并没有显着增加。我们得出的结论是，在政策环境也以房东保护为特征的州，租户保护不足以防止灾难后驱逐的迅速增加。最后，我们提出了防止灾后驱逐的政策建议，以及进一步研究的建议。