/Methodology used for report on Mississippi evictions

Methodology used for report on Mississippi evictions

Eviction Lab, a Princeton-based research group, provided data that compiled all evictions across the country from 2000 to 2016. It ranked Jackson fifth and Mississippi eighth for eviction rate. We then analyzed demographic and trends from the same 17 year period and focused on DeSoto and Hinds. Tunica had the highest number of eviction records in the state according to the data. However, we did not include it in our original analysis because of its small population. Horn Lake, Southaven, and Jackson were specifically targeted. They all consistently ranked highest in per-capita evictions for cities of mid-to large size compared to the rest of the state and their respective counties. These three cities are located in very different parts of the state. We found a high number of repeat evictions in justice courts in a Mississippi Today analysis that covered every DeSoto County eviction from 2006 to 2017. The Eviction Lab estimates of actual removals are different from those for repeat evictions. We narrowed down our court records search to landlords who had evicted more than 20 times in the past ten years. This allowed us to compare complexes. We used the same method as the Eviction Lab to compare these landlords with county and city rates. The eviction rate or actual removals is the average of the number of evictions per rental unit in an area. This is then averaged over time. To control for this effect, we removed repeated eviction judgements from the calculation. Tax-credit complexes in DeSoto can evict 12 per cent of low-income renters by using the same method as the Eviction Lab. We count all repeat evictions from the first one and only file the next one. We calculated the number of eviction judgements given to a complex based on the number of units. This is because repeat evictions are when tenants are brought before the court system multiple time for late payment in the same rental unit. Repeat cases can increase the overall eviction rate in tax credit developments. This means that one fifth of tax-credit renters will see eviction judgements. Complexes that have a total number of units are not eligible for repeat eviction judgment calculations. To narrow our search for tax-credit units we used the total number of low income units from HUD’s database to determine the denominator. This is a significant percentage of the total complex. Tax-credit developments are more likely than others to receive tax credit awards for building their complexes if they agree that most or all of it will be built at a low income rate. This denominator helps us estimate the eviction rate conservatively.