Eviction filings in Richmond, VA fell sharply in mid-March of 2020. Compared to equivalent periods in 2016, eviction filings were far below average over the last two weeks of March and throughout April and May. Eviction hearings were halted from late-March to May 18, and again for most of June. Eviction judgments were also stayed from August 10 to September 7, 2020. From late-November 2020 to June 30, 2021, Virginia also implemented protections for tenants applying for rental assistance and required certain larger landlords to offer payment plans to tenants before taking action to evict.
More detail on eviction protections in Virginia can be found on the COVID-19 Housing Policy Scorecard.
Our data in Richmond is a slight undercount compared to the number of filings found in data released by the Virginia Judicial System.
* 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 Richmond were near average in January and February of 2020.1 Filings began to fall in March following the suspension of eviction proceedings. Eviction filings in April were well below average. In April 2016, more than 1,500 evictions were filed in Richmond. In April 2020, only 165 were filed. Filing numbers have fluctuated since then, but remain below historical averages.
Richmond is divided into 36 zip codes. In each of those zip codes, 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 highest in majority-Black neighborhoods. Since March, eviction filings have dropped across all 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 filings in 2016.1
