The state of Pennsylvania enacted a strong eviction moratorium that extended until August 31, 2020. Eviction filings related to nonpayment of rent were not accepted during that period, and filings in Philadelphia County were down to zero in April, May, and June. Filings increased following the end of the moratorium. Execution of eviction orders are generally banned until at least May 16, 2021.
As of April 1, 2021, Philadelphia landlords must apply for rental assistance, enroll in the city’s eviction diversion program, and then wait 45 days before filing for eviction for non-payment of rent.
More detail on eviction protections in Philadelphia can be found on the COVID-19 Housing Policy Scorecard.
* Filings in the last week may be undercounted as a result of processing delays. These counts will be revised in the following week.
Eviction filings in Philadelphia were slightly higher than average in January and February of 2020.1 Filings fell in March and held at zero from April through June. Following the end of the state eviction moratorium on August 31, new eviction filings increased, though remain well below historical averages.
Eviction filings aren’t spread evenly across cities: a small number of buildings are responsible for a disproportionate share of eviction cases. This pattern, which existed before the pandemic, has continued in 2020 and 2021. We analyzed eviction records in Philadelphia to determine where the most cases are being filed during the pandemic. This is a list of eviction hot spots—the 10 buildings responsible for the most filings—over the course of the full pandemic and over the last eight weeks. We also display the plaintiff name most often listed with a given building in the court filings.
Eviction Hotspot data will be updated monthly.
When a landlord files an eviction claim in Philadelphia, we observe the amount they claim the tenant owes in back rent, late fees, and damages. In this figure, we plot the typical (median) amount claimed in eviction filings for each month since January 2020. We exclude cases in which the landlord doesn’t make a monetary claim, and we drop months if there were fewer than 10 eviction cases filed.
Philadelphia County is divided into 384 census tracts. In each of those tracts, we map the number of eviction filings over the last four weeks. If you toggle below you can see these numbers as eviction filing rates—the number of eviction filings divided by the number of renter households in the area—or compared to the typical number of filings in the average year.1 2
American Community Survey (ACS) data allow us to categorize neighborhoods by their racial/ethnic majority: White, Black, or Other/None. In January and February 2020, eviction filings were concentrated in majority-Black neighborhoods. From March onwards, eviction filings have dropped steeply across all neighborhoods, though filing counts are rebounding fastest in majority-Black neighborhoods.
When you toggle the figure to see data relative to average, comparisons are being drawn—within the same set of neighborhoods defined by racial/ethnic majority—between filings in 2020-2021 and average filings in 2016–2019.1
