Virginia COVID rent rule sharply reduced evictions, study says

A temporary Virginia law requiring landlords to seek rental assistance before filing eviction cases sharply cut evictions during the pandemic, according to a new study. The finding matters because the decline faded after the rule ended, suggesting the policy changed landlord behavior while it was in force.

The study, published in the Journal of Urban Affairs, was conducted by the RVA Eviction Lab at Virginia Commonwealth University’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs. Researchers said the effect was especially clear in Richmond, a city previously identified by Princeton University researchers as having one of the nation’s highest eviction filing rates in 2018.

Virginia received about $1 billion through a federal emergency rental assistance program in 2020, according to Virginia Commonwealth University. The federal program was intended to keep tenants housed when they could not pay rent because of the COVID-19 pandemic, while also compensating landlords.

Virginia added a state-level condition. Before landlords could begin eviction proceedings, they had to apply for relief funds through the state Department of Housing and Community Development, according to the university and the study.

Researchers point to legal leverage

Ben Teresa, a study co-author, associate professor and chair of urban and regional planning at the Wilder School, said the results show that landlord participation depended on pressure created by the law. Teresa, who directs the RVA Eviction Lab, said filings, judgments and evictions rose again after the state requirement expired in 2022.

By that point, Virginia’s eviction rate had returned to 90% of its pre-pandemic level, according to the researchers. Teresa said the pattern shows that temporary incentives alone did not produce lasting cooperation from landlords once the legal requirement disappeared.

The study places Virginia’s approach alongside federal pandemic protections. Congress authorized emergency rental aid in 2020, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also issued an eviction moratorium under the Public Health Service Act to slow COVID-19 spread and protect renters who had lost work, according to the university.

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the CDC moratorium within a year, after challenges that included pressure from landlord advocacy groups, according to Virginia Commonwealth University. At that time, researchers said, many states had used only part of their emergency rental aid, leaving tenants exposed while funds moved slowly.

Virginia moved funds faster than many states

Virginia’s centralized distribution system helped it allocate nearly all of its rental relief money to landlords by the time the CDC moratorium ended, according to Teresa’s related paper in Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space. The aid could cover as much as 15 months of rent relief, according to the university.

Teresa said some states that lagged in distributing aid, including Alabama and Georgia, were also prominent in challenges to the CDC order. He argued that some landlords placed a higher value on preserving eviction authority than on accepting government rent payments.

The researchers said Virginia’s results depended on both the requirement that landlords apply for aid and the state’s ability to distribute funds efficiently. Teresa also said Virginia’s historically quick and inexpensive eviction process, combined with a vulnerable renter population, had contributed to high filing and eviction rates in the state and in Richmond.

Some newer policies may continue to affect evictions in Richmond, according to the university. Virginia lawmakers recently extended the state’s “pay or quit” notice period from five days to two weeks, giving tenants more time to pay overdue rent, and Richmond has started a pilot program providing lawyers for tenants in civil eviction court.

This story draws on original reporting from Phys.org.