Eviction filings represent all eviction cases filed with the court, regardless of outcome. Ultimately, every eviction case ends with either a judgment of eviction or a dismissal. Many eviction cases conclude within weeks of being filed. However, a substantial number of eviction cases take months to reach an outcome, especially if a stipulated agreement is filed. Tracking eviction case fillings provides data earlier in the process to understand how many tenants are at risk of eviction. Eviction filings are not judgments of eviction. If you are looking for data related to case outcomes visit the Outcomes page.

Eviction filings are the second step in the two-stage eviction process in Oregon. Before a case can be filed at court, the landlord must first serve the tenant(s) with a notice of termination. Notices of termination not recorded or reviewed by any administrative body. Eviction case filings are the first visible event in the eviction process in Oregon. 

Eviction Filings Harm Tenants, Even Without an Judgment of Eviction  

In focus groups we’ve conducted, tenants reported that the threat of eviction caused them an incredible amount of stress*. The fear of being forced from their home and needing to find a new place to live often compounded other pre-existing stressors like unemployment or health problems. Tenants who attempted to fight their eviction in court had to scramble to find resources like legal or rental assistance, which were often difficult to access. The large majority of tenants we talked to were unable to secure legal aid, and some had to navigate the court system on their own. Ultimately, many tenants reported that the stress they endured resulted in adverse mental and physical health impacts. Some of the health impacts tenants reported included anxiety, depression, insomnia, and high blood pressure. 

These findings are consistent with the wider literature on the health impacts of eviction. Research shows that even the threat of eviction can increase negative health outcomes for tenants, affecting both mental health, depression, anxiety, psychological distress, and suicides, and physical health, high blood pressure and child maltreatment. 

• The threat of home eviction and its effects on health through the equity lens: A systematic review (2017) 

Eviction Filings Negatively Impact Tenants’ Future Housing Stability: Even if an eviction case ends without a judgment of eviction, being named as a defendant in an eviction case can be a barrier to finding housing in the future. Eviction cases are public record and can be searched by individuals or more often scraped by data mining companies that store them in databases that they sell access to to landlords and management companies.

Although landlords are only supposed to consider judgements of eviction as a basis for denying prospective renters, research shows that tenants who have been named in an eviction case face barriers to securing housing. 

• Prejudged: The Stigma of Eviction Records (2018)

• Breaking the Record: Dismantling the Barriers. Eviction Records Place on Housing Opportunities (2020)

• The Stigma of a Scarlet E (2021)

Eviction Filings Provide Insight into Landlord Behavior and Housing Instability: Eviction cases are a legal process to determine the question of possession, who is entitled to possession of the unit. However, landlords also use the eviction process as a mechanism of rent collection (Garboden & Rosen, 2019). Meaning, many eviction filings represent instances in which the landlord did not necessarily aim to remove the tenant, but wanted to use the threat of eviction to collect rent and possibly secure future rent payments. However, the public record of the eviction is not any less harmful to a tenant based on the landlord's ultimate goal.

Eviction filings can also alert us to mass eviction events, the seasonal evictions related to tourism or recreation, or particularly aggressive landlords or management companies. 

*Between June 2022 and October 2023, our team conducted over fifteen focus groups with tenants in Oregon who have faced eviction. We intentionally recruited tenants from groups who are especially vulnerable to housing insecurity and eviction, including people with criminal records, low-income tenants, tenants living in affordable housing, Black/African-American tenants, Spanish-speaking immigrants and farmworkers, and families with children.