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Here’s a thread on what you need to know about the data in The Blade’s housing investigation https://www.toledoblade.com/local/2020/12/05/toledo-lucas-county-public-housing-residents-brace-for-end-of-coronavirus-protections-evictions/stories/20201021125
Evictions are filed by Lucas Metro. Housing 91% over unpaid rent. If you thought more evictions would be for crime, you wouldn’t be alone (LMH officials thought so) but you’d be very wrong — that’s only in 3% of cases
More than 1/3 of evictions filed against tenants with rent payment issues by Toledo’s housing authority are for less than $100 — and for all the hardship involved, those small-sum cases make up a fraction of LMH’s budget.
While we don’t know how many tenants are evicted annually by LMH (bc surprisingly, they don’t track that), court records tell us they were given permission to evict in 68% of the 2,200+ evictions they filed over five years.
“LMH leadership said the public housing authority has been trying to reduce its eviction filings, and it seems to be working.”
2019’s annual figures were nearly half their peak of 618.
2019’s annual figures were nearly half their peak of 618.
All this data was wrangled by @BySarahElms, @notebrooks, and @EllieBuerk who also pounded the pavement, talking to dozens of residents affected. They really made this story about the people behind the numbers.
If you’re a real data nerd, check out our fact-check doc for all the crunchy code and reasoning that went into our analysis: http://dgamble-blade.github.io/evictions/factcheck_blade.html
This was my first time using R to breakdown data and it was a JOURNEY that wouldn’t have been possible without tech wizard/ UMD data journo. professor @smussenden
I was the numbers guy on this investigation, but @AmyEVoigt really captured what housing instability looks like. Her connection to these tenants shines through. https://www.toledoblade.com/local/city/2020/12/05/photo-gallery-lmha-housing-evictions-families-lucas-county/stories/20201204092
