The purpose of this report is to shed light on the frequency and general characteristics of evictions in Davidson Co., Tennessee. There is a lack of public-facing data, reporting, and information on this issue. In order to better organize around preventing evictions and improving housing access, we must know who is evicting people, how often, and where evictions happen.

The primary source for this dataset is available in the Public Inquiry System for the Offices of the Circuit Court Clerk in Davidson Co., Tennessee, also known as "CaseLink." The data used in this report were gathered from CaseLink and additional data requests to the Clerk's office. The data were pulled on and are accurate as of April, 21, 2021. Data were cleaned to improve accuracy of addresses and plaintiff and defendant names. Judgment information were manually documented from CaseLink. All data gathering, cleaning, and analysis was conducted by RDC volunteers.

There are some limitations to using these data, such as lack of demographic information, reporting inaccuracies, and incomplete information on submitted documents. CaseLink offers no guarantees of accuracy, presenting records as scanned and often handwritten detainer warrants. These data also do not account for the evictions occuring outside of the legal process.

- the civil process by which a landlord removes a tenant or renter from their rental property

- A detainer warrant is the legal document that informs the tenant or renter about pending eviction proceeding. It means the legal process has begun and does not mean someone has been evicted (yet).

- In eviction cases, the property owner seeking to remove a tenant.

- Legal representative for the plaintiff.

- In eviction cases, the tenant or renter.

- The outcome of legal proceedings. Outcomes for eviction proceedings include non-suit (withdraw of the case by plaintiff), possession (eviction of tenant), possession with monetary damages or fees, and dismissal.

- The legal document that officially evicts a tenant after an eviction case is heard and grants possession to the plaintiff.

In Davidson Co., renters can be evicted for any violation of their lease, including non-payment of rent. Landlords are required to provide written notice of potential eviction with 14 days to correct the issue for late payment of rent (T.C.A.Section 66-28-505)

. Tenants can sign away renter protections if such language is included in their lease. Evictions are a civil process and do not guarantee the renter legal representation.

Approximately 700,000 people

live in Davidson Co. as of 2019. Twenty-seven percent are Black/African American and 10% are Hispanic/Latinx. Between 2015 and 2019, the average gross rent was $1,102 and per capita income was $36,440. In 2019, only 54.3% of housing units were occupied by their owner.

There is a long history of racist and classist policies driving the racial segregation of housing in Nashville. Laws such as the Slum Clearance and Urban Redevelopment Act (1945) and Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 contributed to the destruction of predominantly black neighborhoods. Gentrification is celebrated as progress despite little evidence that such destruction positively affects the existing residents of these neighborhoods

.

In recent years the cost of living in Nashville has skyrocketed with few options for low-income residents and families who struggle to stay in their homes or find new ones. At least 7,000 Nashvillians rely on public housing vouchers to pay rent

.

Immediately prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Davidson Co. was hit by a deadly tornado on the night of March 2 and into the morning of March 3, 2020

. Following natural disasters such as the catastrophic flooding in May 2010, many homeowners are suddenly bombarded with offers to buy their now damaged homes. Increased gentrification has been significant in historically neglected and oppressed areas of Nashville impacted by severe weather events such as East and North Nashville; this gentrification has resulted in further displacement of longstanding communities.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been temporary changes to Davidson Co. court rules and procedures. In mid 2020 witnesses were not allowed inside the courtroom. In late 2020 the number of cases heard was limited. General Sessions court was shut down between December 2020 and March 2021.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, Judge Rachel Bell founded the LEGACY diversionary court

. The goal of this court is to mediate eviction proceedings between tenants and landlords, help connect tenants to resources such as monetary rental assistance, and prevent evictions.

While eviction hearings were delayed by COVID restrictions and the CDC eviction moratorium, nearly 2,000 cases were yet to be heard in Spring 2021

. Community advocates noted that many residents were being illegaly scared out of their residences illegally by landlords and property managers.

Between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2019, over 31,000 detainer warrants (DWs) were filed. A detainer warrant is the document that informs a tenant or renter of their upcoming eviction proceeding. The number filed per year increased 20% over the three-year period, with approximately 9,358 detainer warrants filed in 2017, 10,543 in 2018, and 11,471 in 2019. While the population of Davidson Co. increased in this time frame, the rate of detainer warrants filed per year also increased from 14.2 DWs issued per 10,000 persons in 2017 to 16.8 in 2019. The number of DWs issued per month varied widely and seasonal trends are inconsistent between years.

Ten plaintiffs represent nearly one-third of DWs in Nashville during this time period (Table 1). At least 4,000 unique plaintiff names account for the other two-thirds of DWs. Because plaintiff names change and are inconsistently listed on detainer warrants, the number of cases shown are an approximation. Between 2017 and 2019, the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency (MDHA) alone accounts for approximately 1 of every 5 DWs issued between 2017 and 2019.

A consistent group of eviction attorneys are responsible for representing the majority (74.1% in 2019) of eviction cases in Davidson Co., Tennessee (Table 2). The five most common attorneys are consistent between years and represent a growing percent of all DWs filed while other attorneys and plaintiffs representing themselves are listed on a smaller percentage of DWs each year.

For the 221 cases with monetary damages ("possession and fees"), approximately $750,000 total was awarded to plaintiffs with an average of $3,434 per case. The median financial award was $2,443 per case.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the total number of detainer warrants (DWs) issued in Davidson County as well as the most frequent plaintiffs seeking to evict people. In prior years (see Figure 1), between 700 and 1,300 DWs were issued every month. The number of DWs issued per month sharply declined to 122 cases in April 2020, but rebounded slightly in Summer 2020 (Figure 3). If the number of DWs issued in Davidson Co. continued to grow in the absence of COVID-19, we would have expected approximately 10% more DWs compared to 2020, or 12,650 issued per year and 1,054 per month in 2021. The following sections include some charts from April 2020 to March 2021 to illustrate how one year of the COVID-19 pandemic has affected evictions.

The most common plaintiffs listed on DWs between April 2020 and March 2021 include the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency (MDHA), Elmington Property Management, and Hickory Highlands Apartments (Figure 4). MDHA decreased their overall share of evictions since COVID-19, but are still the most frequently listed plaintiff during this period. The same five attorneys were most frequently listed on detainer warrants during this time frame as in previous years (Table 3). These attorneys' most frequent plaintiffs are some of the most common plaintiffs overall.

On average, for every five DWs submitted between October 2020 and March 2021, at least six people are listed as defendants (Figure 5). We know that this number largely underestimates the total number of people at risk of being evicted; DWs are not required to list all defendants, including children living inside the home.

We began collecting judgments consistently in October 2020. Approximately 1,711 DWs were filed between October 1 and December 31, 2020. By April 21, 2021 988 of those cases were closed. Figure 6 shows that the majority of cases in this time period resulted in non-suits. Only 22% of the cases we sampled from 2019 resulted in a non-suit judgment (Figure 2). Over 40% of closed cases resulted in repossession of property by the landlord. The majority of cases were decided in favor of the plaintiff by default or absence of the defendant in court. Only 4.7% of cases ended in dismissal. We have noted that since these data were collected, some landlords have returned to court to seek monetary damages after winning possession. Due to these additional judgments and illegal evictions occurring outside of the judicial process, we assume the rate of eviction and owing monetary damages following a DW is much higher than documented here.

Of the 141 cases that noted both possession and financial damages, over $877,000 was awarded to plaintiffs or an average of $6,177. The median financial award was $5,386.

The number of DWs filed per month differed by ZIP code across time. To account for population differences between ZIP codes, we calculated rates with 2019 population estimates. The monthly rates were split into four equal groups called "quartiles" to compare highest and lowest rates of DWs issued across Davidson Co. Becase ZIP codes cross county lines, rates for some ZIP codes (i.e. 37027, 37135) are likely underestimated. Rates are calculated per 10,000 persons.

Overall, the ZIP codes with the highest and lowest rates did not significantly change between 2017-2019 (Figure 7) and 2020-2021 (Figure 8) data. As a whole, there are higher rates of DWs issued in the eastern half of Davidson Co. in neighborhoods such as North Nashville, South Nashville, Antioch, Madison, and Donelson. Neighborhoods in the western half of Davidson Co. such as Belle Meade, Bellevue, and Joelton tended to have lower rates of DWs issued. It is worth noting that the range rates of DWs issued monthly was smaller in 2020-2021 compared to 2017-2019.

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Red Door Collective Data Committee. (2021). Nashville Eviction Report. Red Door Collective.

We would like to thank the following groups and people for their contributions to this document: