Miami-Dade County Evictions Surpass Pre-Pandemic Levels
The federal government and Miami-Dade County enacted moratoriums on evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic to help those who were financially impacted. When the county's moratorium expired last July, Miami-Dade saw a wave of evictions as landlords rushed to oust tenants once the barrier was down.
The number of evictions has increased steadily since then, surpassing even pre-pandemic levels from 2018 and 2019 when comparing the corresponding months. For instance, 1,548 evictions were filed this May, compared to 1,475 in May 2018, and 1,399 in May 2019.
Annie Lord, executive director of Miami Homes For All, has been following eviction trends in Miami as the county grapples with an ongoing housing crisis amid rising costs of living. Lord tells New Times there is a clear correlation between the steady rise in evictions and steep rent increases throughout the county.
"The reality is we're seeing a huge rent increase play out, so it's not surprising that evictions are still high," Lord says.
Many of the evictions have been filed in areas populated by predominantly minority residents.
The zip codes that experienced some of the highest numbers of eviction filings included areas like Overtown, Brownsville, Allapattah, and North Miami, where predominantly Black and Hispanic residents live. Miami-Dade County Commission District 3, overseen by Commissioner Keon Hardemon, had 21 percent of the county's total pending eviction cases for the quarter, the greatest share by far.
Lord says housing advocates are aware that the majority of evictions are happening in lower-income minority communities.
"One of the existential threats we face is that when you have such massive displacement of lower-income folks who don't have places to go, they end up on the street. That will impact all of us," she says.
Notable, however, is 33132, which includes part of downtown Miami near from Bayfront Park to Margaret Pace Park. This area is majority white non-Hispanic, according to data from MiamiDadeMatters.org, and had 189 pending eviction cases as of June, one of the highest shares in the report.
The second quarter also saw a steady increase in residential foreclosures filed in Miami-Dade County court, with a total of 2,213 pending foreclosure cases as of June. More than 800 were filed from April to June of 2022. Though more foreclosures were filed in the corresponding time periods in 2018 and 2019 than in the most recent quarter, the number of foreclosures in the county has doubled year-over-year since last summer.