Safe and affordable housing provides the foundational stability necessary to access economic opportunities, keep children engaged in school, and promote healthy development. However, in many communities, as many as 15 percent of renter households face eviction each year. A new study from a research team that includes Inclusive Economy Lab Research Affiliates John Eric Humphries and Winne van Dijk shows that an eviction order increases a tenant’s likelihood of experiencing homelessness and makes it harder for them to find stable housing. However, many advocates worry that even tenants who win their eviction case face housing barriers due to having a filing on their record. 

As part of several measures to keep families housed during COVID-19, Illinois implemented a provision mandating that the records from all evictions filed from March 2020 to March 2022 be automatically sealed. The law also explicitly prohibited tenant screening companies from reporting on these sealed eviction records. The goal was to prevent eviction case filings from becoming a barrier for renters in obtaining future housing.  

The Inclusive Economy Lab examined short- and long-term outcomes for roughly 19,000 eviction cases that were decided around the time that automatic sealing ended . Our research sought to measure the effect of having evictions automatically sealed  on a tenant’s financial health, residential mobility, emergency shelter utilization, and future eviction filings.