Eviction is a devastating but poorly understood reality for hundreds of families in Dane County each year. A new Tenant Resource Center eviction map, utilizing data that has never been publicly available, uncovers where tenants face eviction and which communities are most frequently targeted by landlords.
“Eviction is a harmful, violent practice that too often stays hidden from public scrutiny,” said Chrisbelly Antimo, Associate Director. “We are excited for what our community will do with this important information on how landlords are operating in their neighborhoods.”
Renters, neighbors and policy makers can use the map’s data visualizations to better understand eviction in their communities and target resources to prevent it.
A record number of renters faced eviction in Dane County in the past year. Landlords filed for 2,437 evictions in 2023 – a nearly 50% jump from the prior year and more than three times the number of evictions filed in 2021. Eviction is a significant driver of housing insecurity that has far-reaching financial, emotional and health impacts for individuals and families.
Drawing on court and U.S. census data, the interactive map displays a number of important metrics for understanding eviction in the county. The map can display both the raw number of eviction filings in a community since 2021 as well the eviction filing rate, which shows the communities that disproportionately face eviction.
The map is designed so that comparisons can be made across neighborhoods. The data is displayed down to the Census block level, a small geographical unit, which shows how neighboring communities can face eviction at vastly different rates. It will be regularly updated with the most up-to-date eviction information.
The map includes a “heat map” overlay for a community’s poverty rate as well as the racial demographics for each census block. This data shows that landlords tend to evict low-income and non-white renters at a higher rate than the average renter.
The eviction map is the latest addition to Tenant Resource Center’s eviction prevention services. The TRC’s eviction prevention programs have distributed more than $47,000,000 in rental assistance funds to households at risk of eviction since 2020 so that tenants can remain housed. Our Eviction Diversion and Defense Partnership also provides free legal representation to tenants to ameliorate the power imbalance between landlords and tenants in eviction proceedings.
This map is a project of the Tenant Resource Center and was developed by Jacob Albright and Philip Wales. The TRC is excited to add new and useful features to the map in the coming months. To open the map, visit our maps page, and for more information on the map, including our methodology, please visit our “About” page here.