Eviction is emerging as a powerful force shaping health inequities for Black women, cutting across income, education, and neighborhood lines. A new study published in the Journal of Urban Health reports that more than half of Black women surveyed in metro Detroit have experienced a court-ordered or illegal eviction, a level of exposure that researchers link to significantly worse physical, mental, and emotional health.
The study shows that eviction risk does not fade with economic stability. “Our data shows that Black women experience eviction no matter their income level,” said lead author Shawnita Sealy-Jefferson, an epidemiologist at The Ohio State University. Childhood exposure proved especially damaging. Women who were evicted before age 18 were more likely to report poor health as adults, with elevated risks persisting years later. Those evicted as children or subjected to illegal evictions were substantially more likely to rate their health worse than peers of the same age.
Health consequences extended beyond individuals forced from their homes. The analysis emphasized community-wide effects, reinforcing evidence that housing instability undermines well-being even among those not directly displaced. Earlier research from the same project linked high neighborhood eviction rates to psychological distress among pregnant Black women, highlighting how chronic stress becomes embedded during critical life stages.
Illegal evictions were strikingly common, accounting for nearly half of reported cases. Such practices, the researchers argue, intensify trauma and compound racial inequities already rooted in decades of housing discrimination. “Displacing families has a ripple effect that can undermine community health,” Sealy-Jefferson said, noting impacts on jobs, schools, and social support networks.
Together, the findings frame eviction as a structural driver of racial health disparities, reinforcing how unstable housing erodes health across generations of Black women and their communities.
See: “Childhood and Adulthood Residential Evictions Were Associated With Worse Health Outcomes” (May 14, 2025)
