Metro Atlanta’s record-setting pace of eviction filings, which led the nation in 2025, hasn’t slowed this year, and Black families are bearing the brunt of the displacement.
Leaders from Princeton University’s Eviction Lab, a nonprofit that analyzes and publishes weekly data on eviction in major cities across America, presented their latest research to local government officials and nonprofit and philanthropic leaders during an invite-only meeting in Buckhead last week.
As of Aug. 1, more than 142,000 eviction cases have been filed in the five county metro-Atlanta region this year. That’s more than the city of New York (116,032), Virginia (133,853), and Pennsylvania (106,723).
Black people make up only about 52% of renters in the region, but represent nearly 70% of eviction cases, according to Eviction Lab collaborator Peter Hepburn, an associate professor of sociology at Rutgers University.
“You’re looking at four to five times the risk of eviction for a Black renter relative to a white renter,” Hepburn told attendees at the meeting. “Black renters with household incomes of over $80,000 a year are still at greater risk of eviction than a white household that’s making $20,000 a year. So we can explain some of the story by income, but there’s a big part of the story that remains.”
Hepburn said some of the reasons Black renters with means are more likely to be evicted include discrimination, lack of savings, and “fewer networks to call on.”
Higher metro area rent prices outpacing stagnant incomes for many Black households is a major contributing factor, but the low cost and relative ease of filing evictions in the state are the primary reasons why Atlanta’s eviction problem is worse than other cities across the country, including its Southeast neighbors.
Georgia law requires landlords to wait just three business days to file an eviction for late and unpaid rent. The national average cost to file an eviction is a little more than $110, according to Eviction Lab. In metro Atlanta, the cost varies from as low as $50 to $75. In Alabama, filing an eviction costs about $270.
“Not surprisingly, there are a lot fewer eviction cases that get filed [in Alabama],” Hepburn said. “The laws on the books in Georgia make the eviction process really fast and really cheap. Landlords are rational actors. When there is a tool that’s available to them that they think is going to help them collect rent efficiently, they are going to turn to that.”
Eviction rates have been high for years in Atlanta suburbs, but this year, the rate of evictions has also risen within the city itself, according to Eviction Lab.
There are 31,000 people in the city of Atlanta currently facing eviction, according to Courtney English, chief of staff for Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens. English attended Thursday’s meeting along with multiple local judges and county officials.
“It’s totally unacceptable and absolutely solvable,” English said. “We are here to work with an affirmative organization, the Eviction Lab, AssuranceAmerica, our own housing team to first understand what the data is telling us, and then to co-create solutions to help keep people in their homes.”
Atlanta recently unveiled a No-Fee Microloan Anti-Displacement Program to help renters facing eviction. Eligible households facing financial hardship can receive an interest-free, $500 rent loan during the program’s two-year pilot run.
Meeting organizers called on state lawmakers to take actions that strengthen tenant protections.
The meeting was arranged by leaders of insurance provider AssuranceAmerica’s philanthropic division — including Anne Ostholthoff, the company’s vice president of corporate social responsibility — who are concerned about the alarming rate of evictions in metro Atlanta.
It’s one of the reasons Atlanta’s homeless population has risen for four consecutive years. Ostholthoff said homelessness is one of the main issues AssuranceAmerica is focused on addressing.
“If you think about homelessness, stopping it requires you to stop evictions,” Ostholthoff told Capital B Atlanta. “Bringing [Eviction Lab] here to convene a group of people all in different silos working to address this problem here in Atlanta is of huge importance to us.”
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