Bexar County Eviction Case Dashboard

Bexar County Eviction
Mapping Tool

Created by Erin Hahn

Read more about the methodology behind Texas Housers’ eviction tracking tool here. Download the map data here.

Summary

A shortage of affordable housing, increasing rates of housing cost burden, and a lack of support for renters experiencing financial instability in Texas are leaving low-income households increasingly vulnerable to the devastating impacts of eviction. Research from across the country consistently finds that evictions disproportionately affect low-income households and have long-term detrimental impacts on health, financial stability, and community well-being. In this analysis, Texas Housers maps the geography of eviction cases filed in Bexar County in 2024. We find that:

  • 27,012 eviction cases were filed against Bexar County residents in 2024, which equates to approximately 9 in every 100 Bexar County renter households.
  • Eviction filings are not evenly dispersed across Bexar County, but rather concentrated in certain areas. The Northwest side consistently appears as an area with a high rate of eviction.
  • The geography of eviction in Bexar County is determined in large part by a small number of high evicting properties, and a smaller number of property owners.
  • Twelve percent of the 27,012 eviction cases filed in Bexar County in 2024 were contributed by just 30 high evicting properties. This pattern is also consistent across years – 14 of the 30 highest-evicting properties in 2024 also ranked among the top in 2023.
  • Many of the highest evicting properties are owned by the same entities, the majority of which are based outside of San Antonio.

Understanding the landscape of eviction in Bexar County–including the areas where evictions are concentrating and the actors who create these concentrations–is essential for effectively allocating resources to households at risk of eviction and implementing policy solutions to address a persistent eviction problem in Bexar County (see Table 1). Continue reading for more information about Texas Housers’ Bexar County eviction mapping tool, findings, and recommendations.

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Bexar County Eviction Mapping Tool

This mapping tool is the first ever public facing analysis of all eviction filings in Bexar County. Unlike public facing eviction trackers for other urban areas in Texas (see Harris County, the Dallas area, and Austin) it is not updated with real time Justice of the Peace court data. Instead, it utilizes Bexar County eviction data from 2024 obtained through public information request. As such, it will be updated with new data on a yearly basis as data become available. 

This tool is intended to help elected officials, service providers, and housing advocates understand where the greatest need for anti-eviction resources exists in Bexar County, with map layers that summarize eviction filings at different levels of geography, including City Council Districts, Justice of the Peace Precincts, and Independent School Districts.

A Persistent Eviction Problem in Bexar County

27,012 eviction cases were filed against Bexar County households in 2024. Each of these households were faced with the threat of losing their home, many without backup options as to how to keep a roof over their family’s heads. An eviction is much more than a number on a dashboard – it’s a life-altering action that uproots families from the communities they’ve grown up in, attend school in, work in, and live in.

Rising rents and a growing shortage of affordable units have forced low-income households to devote more of their income to rent than ever before1Whitney Airgood-Obrycki & Peyton Whitney. (2023, April 11). Lower-Income Renters Have Less Residual Income than Ever Before | Joint Center for Housing Studies. https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/lower-income-renters-have-less-residual-income-ever. 77% of extremely low income households (or households that make less than 30 percent of the Area Median Income) in the San Antonio metro area are severely housing cost burdened, spending more than half of their income on housing and utilities2The National Low Income Housing Coalition. (2025). The Gap Report. Retrieved from https://nlihc.org/gap.. For a low-income family living paycheck-to-paycheck, a minor emergency (like an unforeseen medical bill) can be the tipping point that leaves them unable to pay rent on time and thus at risk of being evicted.

Texas law provides only the weakest protections for renters who are facing an eviction. In Texas, a landlord can file to evict in as little time as 24 hours after the monthly rent is due.

Once a judge grants an eviction judgment, a tenant has five days to appeal the ruling and then only 24 hours to locate new housing and vacate the unit3Eviction. (n.d.). Texas Tenant Advisor. Retrieved October 20, 2023, from https://www.texastenant.org/moving-out-1/eviction. The entire eviction process–from failure to pay rent to being forcibly removed from the home–can take just two weeks in Texas4Nelson, K., Garboden, P., McCabe, B. J., & Rosen, E. (2021). Evictions: The comparative analysis problem. Housing Policy Debate, 31(3-5), 696-716.. 

As evictions remain at crisis levels in our local community and across the country, it is important to clearly state the harmful, long-term effects that evictions have on the health and well-being of individuals and families. Evictions are associated with negative health and behavioral outcomes, including mental illness, substance use, suicide, high blood pressure, and child maltreatment5Collinson, R., & Reed, D. (2018). The Effects of Evictions on Low-Income Households. NYU Law.
https://www.law.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/upload_documents/evictions_collinson_reed.pdf. Mothers and children who experience eviction are at elevated risk of poor health outcomes6Desmond, M., & Kimbro, R. T. (2015). Eviction’s Fallout: Housing, Hardship, and Health. Social Forces, 94(1), 295–324. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/sov044. Evictions strain households’ finances, raising monthly housing costs by 20% on average7Leung, L., Hepburn, P., & Desmond, M. (2021). Serial Eviction Filing: Civil Courts, Property Management, and the Threat of Displacement. Social Forces, 100(1), 316–344. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soaa089 and negatively impact employment, financial stability, future housing stability, and increase the risk of homelessness8Vásquez-Vera, H., Palència, L., Magna, I., Mena, C., Neira, J., & Borrell, C. (2017). The threat of home eviction and its effects on health through the equity lens: A systematic review. Social Science & Medicine, 175, 199–208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.01.010. Increased rent burden and eviction are even linked with increased mortality9Graetz, N., Gershenson, C., Porter, S. R., Sandler, D. H., Lemmerman, E., & Desmond, M. (2024). The impacts of rent burden and eviction on mortality in the United States, 2000–2019. Social Science & Medicine, 340, 116398.. 

Although the Bexar County Justice of the Peace Courts do not collect the race or ethnicity of individuals involved in eviction proceedings, research consistently shows that households led by women of color are the most likely group to face an eviction filing, and residents of color and those with low incomes face disproportionately higher rates of evictions10Hepburn, P., Louis, R., & Desmond, M. (2020, December 16). Racial and gender disparities among evicted Americans. Eviction Lab. https://evictionlab.org/demographics-of-eviction/. 

The True Impact of 27,012 Evictions Filed Against Bexar County Households in 2024

Evictions are filed against a household rather than individuals. This means that the count of 27,012 eviction filings underrepresents the actual number of residents that were impacted by eviction in 2024. Additionally, the eviction filing count does not account for the “informal” evictions of tenants who vacated their unit after their landlord threatened eviction and/or delivered a Notice to Vacate, but did not file a formal eviction case within the court system11Zainulbhai, S., & Daly, N. (2022). Informal Evictions: Measuring Displacement Outside the Courtroom. New America. https://d1y8sb8igg2f8e.cloudfront.net/documents/Informal_Evictions_Measuring_Displacement_Outside_the_Courtroom_SdqLTVK.pdf.

Although 27,012 eviction filings did not result in 27,012 evictions, as some of these cases were ultimately dismissed or ruled in favor of the tenant, even an eviction filing harms a tenant by leaving a “black mark” on their record that makes it extremely difficult for them to secure a new rental unit in the future12Impact of Eviction on Credit and Future Housing | Texas Law Help. (2021, January 15). Texas Law Help. https://texaslawhelp.org/article/impact-of-eviction-on-credit-and-future-housing.

As Funding Dwindles, The Need for Eviction Prevention Increases

Temporary measures instituted by the federal government to stabilize low-income renters during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as eviction moratoria and Emergency Rental Assistance funding, drastically reduced evictions in 2020 and much of 2021. However, after COVID-era protections expired, eviction filing rates in San Antonio quickly surpassed pre-pandemic levels in 2022 and have risen further in the years since13Neighborhood and Housing Services. (2024, August 27). Housing Community Metrics [PowerPoint slides]. City of San Antonio..

At the local level, San Antonio’s Neighborhood and Housing Services Department continues to operate a Right to Counsel program that provides legal services to low-income households experiencing eviction. Additionally, representatives from the city’s Neighborhood & Housing Services department are present at most eviction hearings with materials and resources to help households pre- and post-eviction. The St. Mary’s Law School’s Housing Hotline also offers San Antonio residents free legal advice regarding housing issues, including eviction.

These efforts are necessary and helpful, but they are not funded or scaled to the level that is needed to stop the upward trajectory of eviction rates in Bexar County. The increasingly competitive rental market is leaving low income people more and more vulnerable to evictions and their lasting negative impacts on health and well-being. The harms caused by evictions in Bexar County can be expected to continue until state and local leaders invest significant resources into the expansion of eviction prevention efforts, as well as the production and preservation of housing that is affordable to the lowest income Texans. 

Below you will find maps and charts that illustrate the geography of eviction filings in 2024 and highlight the areas of Bexar County that were disproportionately impacted by eviction. We conclude with recommendations of the policies that are needed to address a growing eviction problem in Bexar County at the state and local level.

Eviction Filings Concentrate in Certain Areas of Bexar County

It is important to note that renter households are not equally distributed throughout Bexar County. To account for the uneven distribution of renter households across the county, we mapped census tracts by their “eviction filing rate”, which is equivalent to the number of eviction filings within a census tract as a share of the total number of rental households that reside in the census tract (see Figure 1). Normalizing by number of renter households prevents concentrations of eviction filings from appearing on the map simply because there are more renter households living in that area than other parts of the county. Both the number of eviction filings and the share of eviction filings per renter household are important statistics for understanding the concentration of eviction activity in the county.

Figure 1: Eviction Filing Rates in Bexar County in 2024

Regardless of which map layer is turned on–City Council Districts, Justice of the Peace Precincts, Independent School Districts, or census tracts–the Northwest side of the county around Leon Valley and Loop 410 appears as an area with a high rate of eviction and contains many of the county’s highest evicting properties (see Figure 2). The Northwest side has high concentrations of aging, multi-family rental housing stock, which research shows is positively associated with evictions14Immergluck, D., Ernsthausen, J., Earl, S., & Powell, A. (2020). Evictions, large owners, and serial filings: Findings from Atlanta. Housing Studies, 35(5), 903-924..

Figure 2: Eviction Filings Concentrated in the Northwest of Bexar County in 2024

As illustrated in Figure 3, San Antonio City Council Districts 8, 9, and 10 experienced the greatest number of eviction filings out of the city’s 10 Council Districts. Of the 21,852 eviction cases filed within the City of San Antonio in 2024, nearly 15 percent were filed in District 8. More than a third of Bexar County’s highest 30 evicting properties are located within San Antonio Districts 8, 9, or 10.

Figure 3: San Antonio City Council District 8 Experienced the Greatest Number of Eviction Filings in 2024

Out of Bexar County’s four Justice of the Peace Precincts, the greatest number of evictions were filed in Precinct 2 (which overlaps with San Antonio Council District 8). 12 out of Bexar County’s highest 30 evicting properties are located within Precinct 2 (see Figure 4).

Figure 4: Precinct 2 Experienced the Greatest Number of Eviction Filings in 2024

Finally, Figure 5 illustrates that 34% of Bexar County’s eviction filings in 2024 were filed within Northside ISD’s boundaries.

Figure 5: More Than a Third of Bexar County’s Eviction Cases Were Filed Within Northside ISD Boundaries in 2024

Note: Since this dataset includes only eviction cases filed within Bexar County, the number of eviction cases filed within ISDs that extend outside of Bexar County (Northside ISD, Southside ISD, and Schertz-Cibolo ISD are undercounted)

The Geography of Eviction in Bexar County is Determined in Large Part by a Small Number of High Evicting Properties

Twelve percent of the 27,012 eviction cases filed in Bexar County in 2024 were contributed by just 30 high evicting properties. Many of the census tracts indicated on the map as having a high eviction filing rate appear so primarily because of a single high evicting property that is located within its boundaries. In other words, the properties that file the largest number of evictions have an outsized impact on the filing rate of the census tract in which they sit. 

For example, a census tract in Leon Valley has a striking 50% eviction filing rate. Of the 140 evictions that were filed in the census tract, 91% were filed at one property, Forest Oaks (see Figure 6).

Figure 6: 91% of a Leon Valley Census Tract’s Eviction Cases in 2024 Were Filed By One Property

A South Side census tract has an eviction filing rate of 65%. Of its 207 eviction filings in 2024, nearly half were filed at Crestwood Estates Mobile Home Park. Out of the 30 highest evicting properties in Bexar County, 15 properties filed an eviction against more than a third of their entire renter household population in 2024. 

This pattern is also consistent across years: Forest Oaks and Crestwood Estates Mobile Home Park were among the top five highest-evicting properties in 2023 as well, and 14 of the 30 highest-evicting properties in 2024 also ranked among the top in 2023.

The geography of eviction in Bexar County is determined in large part by a small number of problematic properties–and an even smaller number of owners. Many of the highest evicting properties are owned by the same entities. For example, six of the 30 highest evicting properties are tied to the same owner address in Austin. More than half of the 30 highest evicting properties in 2024 are owned by entities based outside of San Antonio, and nearly a third are owned by entities from outside of the state15Bexar County Appraisal District. (n.d.). Bexar CAD. Property Search. https://bexar.trueautomation.com/clientdb/PropertySearch.aspx?cid=110.

In recent years, San Antonio’s rental market has seen increasing interest from corporate, out of state owners who have no ties to the local community. 99% of San Antonio’s multi-family housing units were produced by for-profit developers, and 52% of the multi-family development entities who operated in San Antonio between 2019 and 2023 were based out of Texas16Theodos, B., McDaniel, N., González-Hermoso, J., & Campbell, C. (2024). (rep.). Housing Developers in San Antonio Examining Trends by Race and Gender. The Urban Institute. Retrieved from https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/2024-08/Housing_Developers_in_San_Antonio.pdf..

Research finds that a common practice of large, corporate landlords who operate across jurisdictions is strategically purchasing ‘undervalued’ assets–usually apartment buildings occupied by low-income tenants in gentrifying neighborhoods with limited tenant protections– and sharply raising rent prices. This drives up housing costs and leads to a variety of negative outcomes for tenants, such as higher eviction rates and increased homelessness17Immergluck, D., Ernsthausen, J., Earl, S., & Powell, A. (2020). Evictions, large owners, and serial filings: Findings from Atlanta. Housing Studies, 35(5), 903-924.. Institutional owners are more likely than small, “mom and pop” landlords to quickly file evictions on tenants who are behind on rent, unlike mom and pop landlords who typically have better communication and are more willing to work with tenants to get them caught up on rent18 Raymond, Elora Lee, Richard Duckworth, Benjamin Miller, Michael Lucas, and Shiraj Pokharel. “From Foreclosure to Eviction: Housing Insecurity in Corporate-Owned Single-Family Rentals.” Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research 20, no. 3 (2018). https://www.huduser.gov/portal/periodicals/cityscpe/vol20num3/ch9.pdf.. In other words, investor owners are more likely to use eviction filings as a rent collection mechanism19Immergluck, Dan, Jeff Ernsthausen, Stephanie Earl, and Allison Powell. “Evictions, Large Owners, and Serial Filings: Findings from Atlanta.” Housing Studies 35, no. 5 (May 27, 2020): 903–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2019.1639635; Garboden, Philip ME, and Eva Rosen. “The Threat of Eviction: How Landlords Shape a Contingent Tenure,” January 2019. https://www.law.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/Garboden_Rosen_ThreatofEviction_2019.pdf; Leung, Lillian, Peter Hepburn, and Matthew Desmond. “Serial Eviction Filing: Civil Courts, Property Management, and the Threat of Displacement.” Social Forces 100, no. 1 (July 6, 2021): 316–44. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soaa089..

Figure 7: The Majority of Bexar County’s Highest Evicting Properties Are Owned By Entities Outside of San Antonio

Policy Recommendations

To address a persistent eviction crisis in Bexar County, state and local leaders must invest in upstream protection strategies that prevent tenants from falling into housing insecurity in the first place, in addition to expanding the supports that are available to tenants facing eviction at critical intervention points before, during, and after their trial. Collectively, these strategies can help tenants avoid the harms of evictions and cycles of instability.

Table 1: Recommendations For How Local and State Government Can Protect Tenants from the Harms of Eviction

Local recommendations

Upstream protection:

1.1 Produce and preserve housing units that are affordable to households with the lowest incomes 

San Antonio’s Strategic Housing Implementation Plan (SHIP) identifies 95,000 households in Bexar County that lack housing they can afford and outlines a 10-year strategy to increase affordable housing options, particularly for the lowest income households. However, recent votes by elected officials to demolish existing affordable units and halt plans to construct new affordable housing blatantly contradict the mission of the SHIP. Going forward, San Antonio leaders must align their votes with the goals of the SHIP and support the production and preservation of deeply affordable housing units at every opportunity. 

Pre-eviction:

1.2 Institute tenant protections at rental properties that receive city funds

The San Antonio Housing Trust (SAHT) requires that certain eviction protections, including a “good cause” requirement and a 10 day “opportunity to cure”, be offered to tenants living at all properties the SAHT funds or partners with. Just cause requirements protect renters from wrongful or preventable evictions and promote housing stability by restricting the causes for which a landlord is allowed to evict a tenant or refuse to renew a lease20Just cause. PolicyLink All-In Cities Policy Toolkit. (n.d.). https://www.policylink.org/resources-tools/tools/all-in-cities/housing-anti-displacement/just-cause. An opportunity to cure gives a tenant a window of time to come up with the funds to pay back rent to their landlord before the landlord can begin a formal eviction process. 

While Texas law does not allow cities to institute just cause or opportunity to cure protections that apply to all rental properties within the jurisdiction, San Antonio may require that rental properties that receive subsidies from the city offer these protections to tenants. 

1.3 Sustain and expand funding for rental assistance

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of San Antonio and Bexar County both administered programs that distributed millions of dollars of federal emergency rental assistance dollars to help thousands of low-income households avoid eviction21Stringer, M. (2022, January 28). More help coming for struggling San Antonio residents. the city got $4.5m for emergency housing aid. San Antonio Express News. https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/San-Antonio-emergency-housing-assistance-16813723.php. While most rental assistance programs in Texas cities closed in 2022 after depleting federal funds, San Antonio uses local dollars to continue to distribute smaller amounts of assistance to low-income households through an application portal that opens for just one day every month. By helping households who experience temporary financial hardship stay current on their rent and avoid the harmful and lasting effects of eviction, rental assistance is an integral piece of an effective eviction prevention platform and should receive continued and expanded funding. 

1.4 Offer tenant-landlord mediation services

By facilitating open dialogue and negotiation, tenant-landlord mediation programs help to resolve disputes before they escalate into formal eviction cases. Pre-trial mediation programs are proven to be successful in protecting tenants from the harms of eviction as well as the risk that merely an eviction filing on record poses to their future housing stability22Bieretz, B., Burrowes, K., & Bramhall, E. (2020). (rep.). Getting Landlords and Tenants to Talk the Use of Mediation in Eviction. The Urban Institute. Retrieved from https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/101991/getting-landlords-and-tenants-to-talk_3.pdf..

1.5 Target preventative resources to high-risk areas

Utilizing data and tools, such as this interactive map, to identify neighborhoods at high risk of eviction is essential for effective resource allocation and intervention strategies. By analyzing eviction rates, income levels, and other measures of social vulnerability, city staff and service providers can proactively direct information about legal services, financial assistance, and other preventative resources to the areas that need them most.

During the eviction trial:

1.6 Expand tenants’ right to counsel

In 2019, the City of San Antonio launched a Right to Counsel pilot program where 94% of all households who received legal representation as a result of the program were able to avoid eviction23Houston, L. and Soto, V. (2021, March 10) Briefing on the Right to Counsel program for Culture and Neighborhood Services committee [PowerPoint slides]. Neighborhood Housing Services Department, City of San Antonio. With additional funding from the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, the program continues today. Given its proven effectiveness, funding for right to counsel should be sustained and expanded in order to ensure that as many San Antonio households as possible have access to the legal counseling that could result in the dismissal of their eviction case and the preservation of their housing stability. 

Post-eviction:

1.7 Sustain and expand funding for relocation assistance

The City of San Antonio’s Resident Relocation Assistance Program currently covers the cost of application fees, temporary lodging, and other moving-related expenses for low-income households impacted by housing insecurity. By empowering households to transition into new housing more smoothly, relocation assistance helps mitigate the financial and emotional burdens imposed by forced moves and minimizes the long-term effects of displacement. This program should receive continued and expanded funding.

Data improvements:

1.8 Publish Bexar County eviction data publically online

In other urban areas in Texas, such as Harris County, eviction case information is made publicly available online in real time. Since there is no public source for obtaining eviction data in Bexar County, Texas Housers submitted a public information request to the county for information about eviction cases filed in the previous year. It is important to note that the Bexar County eviction records presented on this dashboard took five months to procure through the county’s public information request process and arrived with substantial errors and duplicates that had to be addressed manually (see our Methodology for more details about how we identified and addressed these issues). 

It is essential to have accurate and transparent data that communicates how many evictions are being filed over time, how many cases result in various eviction judgments, and the locations that are experiencing disproportionate rates of eviction in Bexar County, in addition to Texas’ other urban areas. Without this, it is difficult for service providers to allocate resources where they are most needed and for elected officials to craft informed solutions that can protect low-income tenants from entering a cycle of displacement and housing insecurity.

Statewide recommendations

Upstream protection:

2.1 Fund the production and rehabilitation of low-income housing 

The Texas Housing Trust Fund is the only State-authorized source of funding for low-income housing programs, and its current funding falls far short of meeting growing demand. In Texas, there are only 25 available and affordable units for every 100 extremely low-income households (making less than 30% of the Area Median Income) who need one and just 45 units for every 100 very low-income households (making less than 50% of the Area Median Income)24The National Low Income Housing Coalition. (2024). The Gap Report. Retrieved from https://nlihc.org/gap.. Increasing funding for affordable housing production through the Housing Trust Fund, or other similar mechanisms such as a revolving low-interest loan fund, is urgently needed to ensure that all Texans have access to housing they can afford without the fear of displacement. 

Pre-eviction:

2.2 Establish an Opportunity to Cure

An opportunity to cure period, which allows tenants a window of time to pay back rent before an eviction filing, is a common sense approach that has been adopted by almost all other conservative and southern states25Stringer, M. (2022, January 28). More help coming for struggling San Antonio residents. the city got $4.5m for emergency housing aid. San Antonio Express News. https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/San-Antonio-emergency-housing-assistance-16813723.php. This approach benefits both tenants and landlords by preventing unnecessary evictions and rental vacancies. 

2.3 Extend the Notice to Vacate Period

According to Texas law, the first step in the eviction process after a tenant is late on rent is the issuance of a Notice to Vacate, which informs a tenant that they have three days to vacate the property before the landlord files for an eviction in court. This can also be contracted down to 24 hours. Unlike an opportunity to cure period, extending the Notice to Vacate timeline would not guarantee tenants the chance to avoid eviction by paying overdue rent, as landlords could still file for eviction even if rent is paid during this time. Instead, extending the notice period would provide tenants with additional time to prepare for their eviction hearing, secure legal representation, or find alternative housing, all of which reduce the harms of eviction.

2.4 Fund Emergency Rental Assistance

During the COVID-19 pandemic, emergency rental assistance programs were highly effective in protecting the housing stability, financial wellbeing, and health of low-income households during the crisis26Airgood-Obrycki, W. (2022). (rep.). The Short-Term Benefits of Emergency Rental Assistance. Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. Retrieved from https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/research/files/harvard_jchs_short_term_era_benefits_airgood-obrycki_2022.pdf.. Some cities, such as San Antonio, have recognized the importance of maintaining a fund to stabilize low-income households through temporary periods of financial shock and maintained their infrastructure to administer rental assistance. The state of Texas should allocate funding for emergency rental assistance, which could be distributed either by local cities or through the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, to help tenants avoid eviction and maintain housing stability through periods of financial hardship.

During the eviction trial:

2.5 Establish a Right to Redemption, or “Pay and Stay”

A Pay and Stay protection is another mechanism to stop preventable evictions, displacement, and rental vacancies from occurring. This protection would allow tenants facing eviction for nonpayment of rent to “pay and stay” in their home by bringing their payments up to date at any point prior to their eviction hearing, as long as they do so before the court grants an eviction judgment.

Post-eviction:

2.6 Seal eviction records when the tenant does not lose their case

An eviction filing on a renter’s record (even if the case was dismissed by a judge or the tenant won the case) can cause a renter to face significant barriers in securing future housing, as many landlords view these records unfavorably27Impact of Eviction on Credit and Future Housing | Texas Law Help. (2021, January 15). Texas Law Help. https://texaslawhelp.org/article/impact-of-eviction-on-credit-and-future-housing. By sealing eviction records that did not lead to a formal eviction, tenants have a fairer chance at finding stable housing without the lasting stigma of an eviction filing. This process is vital to breaking cycles of housing insecurity, allowing tenants to rebuild and maintain housing stability, and fostering more equitable access to rental opportunities.

Data improvements:

2.7 Institutional investors: establish a rental registry

Many of Bexar County’s highest evicting properties are owned by the same landlords, the majority of which are not local to San Antonio. Establishing a public facing rental registry increases transparency about property ownership, which is particularly important when many of a jurisdiction’s rental properties are owned by corporate landlords with limited ties to the local community. By tracking who owns and operates rental properties and basic information about the property, a usable registry that can be compared to eviction and code data helps identify patterns of negligent or predatory practices, allowing local governments and communities to hold landlords accountable for maintaining safe, stable housing.

2.8 Ensure access to accurate and transparent eviction data in Texas

There is no source from which to obtain clear and comprehensive eviction data for the state of Texas. The Office of Court Administration’s (OCA) open data portal provides monthly updates of “tenant landlord dispute cases” in Texas, however it does not parse eviction cases out from other tenant landlord disputes (such as repair and remedy cases) and is missing data for many counties and courts that fail to report eviction data to the OCA. 

It is clear that evictions are rising in Texas’ urban areas, according to public-facing eviction tracking tools created and updated by organizations like January Advisors in Harris County, Child Poverty Action Lab in the Dallas metro area, BASTA in Austin, and Texas Housers here in Bexar County. However, a lack of clear, accessible data across the state makes it difficult to gauge the full extent of the eviction problem in Texas with full accuracy and nuance, allocate resources where they are most needed, and craft informed solutions that protect low-income Texans from displacement.

Questions, comments, or interested in collaborating? Reach out to erin@texashousing.org.

Special thanks to Dr. Esteban Lopez Ochoa with UTSA Center for Urban and Regional Planning Research for his contribution to the Bexar County Eviction Case Dashboard.