RESEARCH PROJECTS
Eva Rosen's research examines the creation, experience, and persistence of urban poverty, focusing on housing policy and racial segregation. Rosen relies on mixed methods including ethnographic, qualitative, quantitative, and geographic mapping (GIS) data. Research projects have studied populations including relocated residents of former public housing on Chicago’s South Side, families displaced by Hurricane Katrina the RISK study, housing voucher recipients in Baltimore, families across three income groups making residential decisions, How Parents' House Kids, and landlords in four cities.
Barry Farms, Housing is a Natural Right, by Beverly Price.
Eviction in Washington, DC
What do we know about how eviction works in DC? In a new project with sociology professor Brian McCabe, we examine eviction filing and eviction trends in the District of Columbia. Court policies impact eviction outcomes for tenants, but they have rarely been studied by eviction researchers. We focus on policies in Landlord-Tenant Court in Washington, DC to evaluate how local rules and regulations influence whether (and when) landlords file for eviction and how tenants navigate the Court system. We focus on three questions: 1) What is the geography of eviction in Washington, DC, and does neighborhood gentrification impact the incentives for landlords to file evictions? 2) How do court rules and regulations shape the incentives for landlords to file for eviction, and specifically, how do these regulations lead to the prevalence of serial eviction filing? 3) How does access to legal representation influence eviction outcomes for tenants in the Court? Drawing on extensive administrative records of nearly 200,000 eviction cases filed with the Landlord-Tenant Court between 2014 – 2019, this research will deepen our understanding of the impact of eviction and offer policy solutions for improving court processes.
Georgetown Now. November 12, 2020. A Conversation with President Jack DeGioia.
October 22, 2020. “Eviction in Washington, DC: Racial & Geographic Disparities in Housing Instability.” Georgetown University DC Public Policy Institute and the McCourt School, Washington, DC.
Kyle Swenson. The Washington Post. October 8, 2020. “A small group of landlords is behind most of D.C.’s evictions, report says.”
Ally Schweitzer. The DC-ist. October 8, 2020. “D.C. Landlords Often Use Eviction Notices To Pressure Tenants For Rent, Study Shows.”
Landlords and the Geography of Opportunity
What role do landlords play in housing the poor? The sociological study of housing and urban environments has largely ignored the role of supply-side actors, namely, landlords. In collaboration with Phil Garboden, this project is devoted to learning more about the ways in which private market actors shape the housing landscape for low income renters. In this mixed methods project we study landlords and low-income housing markets in four cities: Baltimore, Cleveland, Dallas, and Washington, DC. This research aims to systematically disentangle the role landlords play in sorting renters of different racial and ethnic backgrounds across urban areas. The study draws on interviews and observation with 160 landlords, and over 1.5 million administrative records from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), encompassing the universe of landlords and voucher holders participating in the voucher program.
Housing Voice Podcast, UCLA Lewis Center. July 14, 2022. “Landlords Discrimination and Eviction with Eva Rosen and Philip Garboden.” Interview with Michael Lens and Shane Phillips.
Rick Paulas. Vice. July 24, 2019. “Inside the Wildly Popular Forum Where Landlords Plot to Screw You Over.”
Rebecca Gale. CityLab. June 18th, 2019. “Why Landlords File for Eviction (Hint: It’s Usually Not to Evict).”
Stephanie Wykstra. Vox. December 10, 2019. “Vouchers Can Help the Poor Find Homes. But Landlords Often Won’t Accept Them.”
Terrence McCoy. The Washington Post. February 12, 2019. “Another shutdown could inflict more lasting harm to housing programs, experts say.”
Kriston Capps. Citylab. December 18, 2018. “Why Is It Legal for Landlords to Refuse Section 8 Renters?”
