Evictions have been a significant issue in St. Louis, Missouri for many years, with the city having one of the highest eviction rates in the country. According to a report from the Eviction Lab at Princeton University, St. Louis had an eviction rate of 4.72% in 2016, which was the second-highest rate among large cities in the United States. Eviction Lab, also, reported around 2.3 million evictions in the United States in 2016 overall.
The COVID-19 pandemic had only made the situation worse since many people lost their job due to lockdowns. While the federal government implemented eviction moratoriums in response to the pandemic, this safe guard is now gone, and evictions have sky-rocketed in St. Louis.
In August 2021, a group of housing advocates in St. Louis filed a lawsuit against the city and the sheriff’s office, alleging that they were illegally carrying out evictions during the pandemic. The advocates argued that the eviction moratoriums put in place by the federal government should apply to St. Louis and that the city and sheriff’s office were violating tenants’ rights by continuing to carry out evictions.
Now in 2023, without moratoriums or housing advocates fighting, the situation regarding evictions in St. Louis remains uncertain.
