Evictions dropped in every city in Hampton Roads last year compared to 2023, but the region still has some of the most-evicting cities in the state and nation.
That’s according to a new analysis of data from the University of Virginia’s Equity Center.
The continued high evictions are driven by short supply and interest from real estate investment firms, said Alex Fella, a professor at Christopher Newport University who studies Hampton Roads housing.
“That sort of process of real estate investment is absolutely shaping the landscape of evictions in Hampton Roads, and is a significant driving force,” Fella said.
Fella published a year-end wrap up on evictions in the area.
“Evictions are really centered in this region,” Fella said.
Newport News, Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Hampton and Portsmouth are all in the top 10 cities for eviction filings in Virginia, he noted. That mirrors previous data from Princeton University’s national Eviction Lab that found those cities among the most evicting in the nation.
Total eviction filings between January and September 2024, the latest data available, were down to 35,458 in Hampton Roads. That’s 27% lower than in 2023, the first annual drop in the region’s eviction filings since 2021, when eviction moratoriums were in place across the state due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last year’s nine-month total was 44% below the region’s record high of 63,373 evictions in 2018, but still higher than many other places in the United States
That year, the Eviction Lab published national data showing several Hampton Roads cities evicted more people than almost anywhere else in the United States, setting off a public discussion regionally and around the state about tackling the problem.
Newport News was the city with the most eviction filings in the region last year and Virginia Beach was a close second. Each saw more than 8,000 filings through September 2024.
The region’s top evictor was The Breeden Company, a Virginia Beach developer and property manager who filed for 708 evictions during the first nine months of the year, close to twice as many as the next highest filer.
Properties owned by Breeden, like Reflections Apartments, also filed for evictions under their own names, pushing the total number of filings for Breeden-owned properties even higher.
The company was also 2023’s most prolific evictor, Fella said.
In a statement, Breeden told WHRO that the numbers are a matter of scale: The company has more than 17,000 housing units in the region, so its numbers will naturally be higher than smaller property owners.
“Ensuring that residents meet their rental obligations is essential to providing quality housing and maintaining the operations that support these communities,” the company said in a statement. “Breeden remains committed to balancing compassion with the responsibility of managing its properties effectively.”
Breeden’s statement noted the company works with residents to address issues before it comes to evictions, and helped people filing for rental relief during the pandemic.
“We recognize the importance of addressing the broader community impact of eviction processes and will continue to explore opportunities to work with residents and community organizations to improve outcomes,” Breeden said in the statement.
The Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority was third among all evictors in the region. It had more than triple the evictions of any of the region’s other housing authorities.
NRHA Executive Director Nathan Simms said he couldn’t say why that number is higher, but they’re working on it.
In November, NRHA suspended evictions of tenants.
“We want to go through a thorough process to make sure that everything aligns, that all our paperwork aligns, that we make sure that we're making the best attempts and strides to make sure that we engage those households,” Simms said.
It’s not clear when NRHA will resume evictions or what will change once they do.
Simms said the housing authority already makes overtures to tenants who are missing rent payments to try to help them in different ways, whether that’s revising their rents because they lost their job or helping connect them to services. But, he said, sometimes that isn’t enough or residents don’t respond.
“If you fail to engage, then you don't leave the authority much of an opportunity but to move forward with eviction,” Simms said.
Fella’s analysis of the eviction data shows that a small group is driving a major chunk of evictions. About 1% of the region’s landlords — just 50 companies — are responsible for nearly 25% of the area’s evictions.
More than half of those landlords are real estate investment firms, Fella found.
The business model for those firms often relies on purchasing an apartment building with lower rents.
“They'll evict people who aren't paying rents, renovate the building and reposition, as they say, the asset and charge $1,300 for a one-bedroom apartment, where, a year ago, it might have been $700 a month,” Fella said.
But, Fella sees a silver lining in evictions being concentrated with just a handful of property owners.
“(Eviction) seems so astronomical of a problem to get our hands around,” he said.
“Well, you can get 50 people in a room. You can get each of those companies' heads in a room and talk to them. I think that actually opens up a new avenue for helping us think about how to alleviate evictions.”
