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Q&A
Drivers of shelter census and impact of eviction moratorium
3:08:25
ยท
140 sec
Council Member Restler and Commissioner Park discuss the drivers of the shelter census, particularly focusing on the impact of evictions. Key points include:
- Evictions account for only about 10% of families with children entering the shelter system
- Primary drivers for families entering shelters are domestic violence and young families without prior leases
- The eviction moratorium was not the primary factor in reducing shelter census during COVID
Lincoln Restler
3:08:25
Great.
3:08:25
Thank you so much.
3:08:26
I'd like to continue on the threads of some of the items that council member Brewer was just raising.
3:08:33
And I want us to start by something that to just kind of get some better clarification on.
3:08:44
I recently heard you remark commissioner that evictions are a lower driver of our shelter census.
3:08:55
But I I think many people perhaps assumed that the eviction moratorium had been the primary factor in driving down the shelter census so significantly during COVID and the post COVID period.
3:09:12
That's not your analysis.
Molly Wasow Park
3:09:15
No.
3:09:17
So pre pandemic and pre asylum crisis, so if we're trying to get to a better denominator here, eviction was for families with children, which is where we have the best data, it was about ten percent of the families with children entering the shelter system Compared to BV being Because eviction.
3:09:37
I think the two primary drivers for families with children, it's domestic violence and then it is young families, primarily young women, who have never had a lease.
3:09:50
They've always lived with other people, and a baby or a second baby is too much and pushes them for that household and pushes them into the shelter system.
3:10:03
What we see is that overwhelmingly families with children entering the shelter system have not had a lease within the last two years.
3:10:13
That two years is the look back period that we have looking at people's housing history, but anecdotally it goes even further back and many people have never had a lease, which is not to say that eviction isn't of concern to us.
3:10:28
Eviction is absolutely of concern to us.
3:10:31
Housing stability matters very much.
3:10:33
It's why we continue to invest in programs like one shots and Right to But in terms of our ability to affect the shelter census, I don't think eviction is the right place
Christopher Leon Johnson
3:10:45
to focus.
Lincoln Restler
3:10:45
And just 10% of families entering the system resulting, directly resulting from eviction for the families coming in as a result of DV or families who out of economic need, guess if you would describe it that way, I guess everyone's coming in with economic need, but lack of housing stability and economic need, young families, can you put any percentages on those two populations?