Eviction filings are climbing past pre-pandemic levels in courtrooms across the country, and the emergency rental assistance that kept many households afloat over the past several years has largely run out. If you rent, this deserves your attention now, while you still have options, not later, when a court deadline is already running. Here is what the data actually shows, what it means for your household, and the steps I give renters who want to protect both their housing and their rental record.
Read the numbers as a warning, not a prediction
Treat this data as a reason to prepare, not a reason to panic. Every step that follows works better the earlier you take it.
Court data compiled by the tenant hotline HOME Line shows 6,402 eviction cases filed in one state in the first quarter of 2026, slightly ahead of 2025, which was already the highest filing year on record there, and nearly 10 percent above the recent average. Governing reports that the mutual aid and local assistance funds that had been covering back rent are running dry. Lawmakers there responded with a 40 million dollar rental assistance package, which passed in May 2026 as part of a broader housing bill, MinnPost reported, though that money will take time to reach households already behind.
The pattern is not limited to one place. Filings in the Austin area reached a five-year high, and Governing reports that landlords there filed about 30 percent more eviction notices last year than the post-pandemic average, the largest increase among the 38 cities tracked by Princeton University's Eviction Lab. In another state, the Eviction Research Network reports that roughly 1 in 47 renter households faced an eviction filing over a recent 33 month stretch, about 45 percent above the pre-pandemic normal, with the highest filing rates in suburban and smaller counties rather than the biggest city.
Notice something important in the Austin numbers. Median rents there fell from about 1,546 dollars a month at the end of 2021 to about 1,296 dollars at the start of 2026, according to a Pew study cited by Governing, yet filings still climbed. Falling rents do not protect a household that is already behind. Accumulated arrears and the end of pandemic-era programs are driving filings, which is exactly why early action matters more than market conditions.
