"Amid high rents, eviction filings in major Texas cities soar above pre-
pandemic levels

Legal aid groups and housing advocates say there simply aren?t enough
lawyers to keep up with the sheer volume of eviction filings."

"As more renters struggle to afford housing, Texas landlords are filing
more evictions than they did before the COVID-19 pandemic ? and tenants
have few, if any, protections to keep them housed.

Landlords filed more than 177,000 eviction cases in the Houston, Dallas,
Austin and Fort Worth areas in 2023, according to records tracked by
Eviction Lab, a research center based at Princeton University that
tracks eviction filings. The figure represents a slight uptick from
2022, the first full year after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the
federal government?s nationwide eviction moratorium. In Houston and Fort
Worth, eviction filings have consistently exceeded pre-pandemic levels
for nearly two years.

?Cities in Texas used to be some of the more affordable ones in the
country,? ??said Adam Chapnik, a research specialist at Eviction Lab.
?It's not like that anymore. A lot of renters are facing this new
reality and the laws don't exist to protect them.?

Some $1.8 billion in federal rent relief flowed to Texas over the course
of the pandemic, helping more than 265,000 families keep a roof over
their heads. Now that money has all but run out. Texas shuttered its
statewide rent relief program last summer along with a sister program
aimed at diverting tenants from eviction. Most local governments, too,
have closed their rental assistance programs for lack of federal funds.

That has left vulnerable renters in a pinch at a time when they?re under
more pressure than ever from the state?s high housing costs. As the
Texas economy boomed in the pandemic era and demand for housing
skyrocketed, rents in the state?s major urban areas increased by double
digits."

https://www.texastribune.org/2024/02/16/texas-evictions-renters-housing-
affordability/

TB