A Conversation with Carl Gershenson, the Lab Director at Eviction Lab

With Arms Wide Open

In this conversation, Lab Director Carl Gershenson at Eviction Lab opens our eyes to the eviction epidemic in America! With a Ph.D. in Sociology from Harvard University, Gershenson studies the causes and consequences of housing instability, with an emphasis on how eviction leads to further economic and residential insecurity.

Gershenson joins CEO Dave Calzi via Zoom to talk about:

• The definition of eviction and the main reasons people are evicted
• Why working parents are at an extremely high risk for eviction filings
• Why the Southeast region of the United States has the highest eviction rates
• What "the rent eats first" means, and why it matters
• How COVID changed rental prices across America, and why Louisville is similar to NYC, Chicago, and LA more today than ever before
• The main ways we can prevent eviction locally

The Eviction Lab at Princeton University is a team of researchers who believe a stable, affordable home is central to human flourishing and economic mobility. They believe that understanding the sudden, traumatic home loss through eviction is foundational to learning about poverty in America. This team has published the first-ever dataset of evictions in America with an interactive national map at https://evictionlab.org/map/. You can zoom in and find Jefferson County for specific statistics about our Louisville community. Eviction is often something our clients have faced, and in Kentucky, evictions can stay on someone's record for roughly seven years.

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