IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v377y2025ics0277953625004642.html

Evictions, legal counsel, and population health: A mixed methods study

Author

Listed:
  • von Geldern, Will

Abstract

Access to stable, affordable housing is critical for physical and mental health. As affordable housing has become increasingly inaccessible for many American households, eviction has become a common experience for renters. Existing eviction research has motivated an ongoing movement to provide universal legal counsel to evicted tenants through Right to Counsel (RTC) initiatives. While prior studies have explored the potential population health benefits of RTC programs, more research is needed to comprehensively understand the effectiveness of RTC as a public health intervention.

Suggested Citation

  • von Geldern, Will, 2025. "Evictions, legal counsel, and population health: A mixed methods study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 377(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:377:y:2025:i:c:s0277953625004642
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118134
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953625004642
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118134?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jamila Michener, 2023. "Legal Aid and Social Policy: Managing a Political Economy of Scarcity," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 706(1), pages 137-158, March.
    2. Cassidy, Mike & Currie, Janet, 2023. "The effects of legal representation on tenant outcomes in housing court: Evidence from New York City’s Universal Access program," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    3. Willie, Tiara C. & Linton, Sabriya L. & Whittaker, Shannon & Martinez, Isabel & Sharpless, Laurel & Kershaw, Trace, 2021. "“There's no place like home”: Examining the associations between state eviction defense protections and indicators of biopsychosocial stress among survivors of intimate partner violence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 279(C).
    4. Wonyoung So, 2023. "Which Information Matters? Measuring Landlord Assessment of Tenant Screening Reports," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(6), pages 1484-1510, November.
    5. Henry Gomory & Douglas S. Massey & James R. Hendrickson & Matthew Desmond, 2023. "The Racially Disparate Influence of Filing Fees on Eviction Rates," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(6), pages 1463-1483, November.
    6. Erik Larson, 2006. "Case Characteristics and Defendant Tenant Default in a Housing Court," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 3(1), pages 121-144, March.
    7. Gillian Slee & Matthew Desmond, 2023. "Eviction and Voter Turnout: The Political Consequences of Housing Instability," Politics & Society, , vol. 51(1), pages 3-29, March.
    8. Schwartz, Gabriel L. & Leifheit, Kathryn M. & Arcaya, Mariana C. & Keene, Danya, 2024. "Eviction as a community health exposure," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 340(C).
    9. Swope, Carolyn B. & Hernández, Diana, 2019. "Housing as a determinant of health equity: A conceptual model," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    10. Nicole M. Deterding & Mary C. Waters, 2021. "Flexible Coding of In-depth Interviews: A Twenty-first-century Approach," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 50(2), pages 708-739, May.
    11. Luis Vila-Henninger & Claire Dupuy & Virginie Van Ingelgom & Mauro Caprioli & Ferdinand Teuber & Damien Pennetreau & Margherita Bussi & Cal Le Gall, 2024. "Abductive Coding: Theory Building and Qualitative (Re)Analysis," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 53(2), pages 968-1001, May.
    12. Adam Porton & Ashley Gromis & Matthew Desmond, 2021. "Inaccuracies in Eviction Records: Implications for Renters and Researchers," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(3-5), pages 377-394, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bradford, Ashley C. & Fu, Wei & You, Shijun, 2024. "The devastating dance between opioid and housing crises: Evidence from OxyContin reformulation," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    2. Schwartz, Gabriel L. & Leifheit, Kathryn M. & Arcaya, Mariana C. & Keene, Danya, 2024. "Eviction as a community health exposure," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 340(C).
    3. Javier Lloveras & Mario Pansera & Adrian Smith, 2025. "On ‘the Politics of Repair Beyond Repair’: Radical Democracy and the Right to Repair Movement," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 196(2), pages 325-344, January.
    4. Kim, Hyunil & Schneider, William, 2026. "Neighborhood eviction filings and judgments, child maltreatment reports, and child protective services involvement," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    5. Diana Hernández, 2024. "Prisms of Possibility: Biographically situated insights on the transformative potential of sustainable affordable housing," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 52(3), pages 585-595, May.
    6. Zeynab Jouzi & Lauren San Diego & Neil A. Lewis & Tashara M. Leak, 2024. "How Can Transitional Housing Be Improved? Insights from Residents’ Experiences and Perceptions in New York City," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(7), pages 1-16, June.
    7. Groves, Allison K. & Smith, Patrick D. & Gebrekristos, Luwam T. & Keene, Danya E. & Rosenberg, Alana & Blankenship, Kim M., 2022. "Eviction, intimate partner violence and HIV: Expanding concepts and assessing the pathways through which sexual partnership dynamics impact health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    8. Min Zhou & Wei Guo, 2023. "Self-rated Health and Objective Health Status Among Rural-to-Urban Migrants in China: A Healthy Housing Perspective," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(1), pages 1-24, February.
    9. Lijian Xie & Suhong Zhou & Lin Zhang, 2021. "Associations between Objective and Subjective Housing Status with Individual Mental Health in Guangzhou, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-14, January.
    10. Martin, Elizabeth C., 2025. "Beyond past-due bills: The varieties of medical debt used to finance healthcare," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 386(C).
    11. Weiler, Anelyse M. & Caxaj, C. Susana, 2024. "Housing, health equity, and global capitalist power: Migrant farmworkers in Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 354(C).
    12. Jozkowski, Kristen N. & Hawbaker, Amelia & Paiz, Jacqueline Y. & Crawford, Brandon L. & Turner, Ronna C., 2025. "(Re)Conceptualizing abortion attitudes through the lens of Abortion Tolerance," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 383(C).
    13. Ashley C. Bradford & Johanna Catherine Maclean, 2024. "Evictions and psychiatric treatment," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(1), pages 87-125, January.
    14. Piehowski, Victoria, 2025. "Medicalizing violence: The institutional politics of trauma in Veterans Treatment Courts," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 380(C).
    15. Kwon, Keun Young & Kim, Jinho, 2025. "Housing hardship and health: Longitudinal evidence of the mediating role of health behaviors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 366(C).
    16. Bolt, Ester Ellen Trees & Ali, Manhal & Winterton, Jonathan, 2025. "Why nurses quit: Job demands, leadership and voluntary nurse turnover in adult care in the Netherlands," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 365(C).
    17. Daniel Brisson & Rachelle Macur & Becca Mann & Jennifer Wilson, 2025. "Impact of Trauma-Informed Design on Health and Well-Being of People Formerly Experiencing Homelessness in Permanent Supportive Housing," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-20, July.
    18. Temitope Longe & Charles Needham, 2023. "A Qualitative Exploration of Effective Leadership Development Programs and Leadership Process on Succession Planning and Organizational Performance," International Journal of Business Administration, International Journal of Business Administration, Sciedu Press, vol. 14(4), pages 33-51, December.
    19. Julia Olson & Patricia Pinto da Silva, 2025. "Radical interdisciplinarity in scientific practice: placing social networks in marine and fisheries sciences," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 15(2), pages 310-329, June.
    20. Na’Taki Osborne Jelks & Viniece Jennings & Alessandro Rigolon, 2021. "Green Gentrification and Health: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-23, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:377:y:2025:i:c:s0277953625004642. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.