“Many of Us Have Been Previously Evicted”: Exploring the Relationship Between Homelessness and Evictions Among Families Participating in the Rapid Rehousing Program in Salt Lake County, Utah

ABSTRACT

This study is concerned with homeless families that returned to the shelter and qualified to participate in the Rapid Rehousing Program (RRHP) again. Because RRH is a short-term voucher where families rent in the private market, one of the main barriers to finding housing is having an eviction record. Focus groups with tenants and case managers/service providers, as well as interviews with landlords participating in The Road Home’s RRHP in Salt Lake County, found that families tend to find housing in buildings where other homeless families with multiple evictions and criminal records are concentrated. Tenants often encounter lenient landlords, only to be evicted at a later time. Families returned to the shelter for various reasons, but mainly because after their RRH voucher ends, households end up violating their leases due to nonpayment. The article offers recommendations to those administering RRHP about how evictions and becoming homeless again can be prevented.

KEYWORDS:

• Housing eviction
• family homelessness
• rapid rehousing
• interview research
• Salt Lake City

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Those who earn less than 30% of the area median income.

2. Individual or family who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, meaning: (a) Has a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not meant for human habitation; (b) Is living in a publicly or privately operated shelter designated to provide temporary living arrangements (including congregate shelters, transitional housing, and hotels and motels paid for by charitable organizations or by federal, state and local government programs); or (c) Is exiting an institution where (s)he has resided for 90 days or less and who resided in an emergency shelter or place not meant for human habitation immediately before entering that institution (Burt et al., 2016).

3. “Emergency shelter means any facility, the primary purpose of which is to provide temporary shelter for the homeless in general or for specific populations of the homeless and which does not require occupants to sign leases or occupancy agreements. Any project funded as an emergency shelter under the Fiscal Year 2010 Emergency [Shelter] grant may continue to be funded under ESG” (HUD Exchange, 2012).

4. This information comes from both the literature and interviews with case managers and social service providers.

5. Usually, PSH is reserved for those who need social services on site and are long-term/chronically homeless—including those who have participated in the RRHP several times already and failed to become self-sufficient.

6. The case managers link RRHP tenants with these services. Still, they do not spend a lot of time on these wraparound services.

7. “Temporary housing for up to 24 months with an intensive package of supportive services offered on-site” (Gubits et al., 2016).

8. Defined as any housing or services that a family accesses in the absence of immediate referral to the other interventions.

9. The concentration of low-income and subsidized/social housing households in one place.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the University of Utah Incentive Seed Grant Program [grant no. 51900340].

Notes on contributors

Ivis García

Dr. Ivis Garcia is an assistant professor in the Department of City and Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah. She specializes in housing, community development, and diverse communities.

Keuntae Kim

Keuntae Kim is a PhD candidate in the Department of City and Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah. His research interests aim at applying spatial data analysis and data science approaches to addressing issues of social equity, housing, transportation mobility, and economic equity for marginalized populations or communities of color.