A new University of Chicago study shows a link between evictions and gun violence.The study, published in JAMA Network Open, found that every 1% increase in eviction rate in a particular census tract was associated with 2.66 additional shootings there.“It was surprising to see such a strong relati onship” between evictions and gun violence, said lead researcher Thomas Statchen. “When we think about firearm violence, it's all about, ‘How can we prevent this?’ We can think about things like reducing evictions… as a structural factor that can allow us to reduce [gun] violence directly.”Statchen and his fellow researchers linked survey data from the city’s Healthy Chicago Survey of nearly 14,000 respondents with Cook County eviction records and shootings data from the Chicago Police Department.The study also showed that if a resident personally experienced eviction, they were also likely to have experienced 1.04 more shootings near where they live — displaying a stronger predictor of exposure to gun violence than education or household income.Researchers said evictions were most concentrated on Chicago’s South and West sides, adding that eviction rates typically range from 0% to 5%, with most census tracts having a rate of less than 1%.The study also mentioned previous research linking evictions with lower cognitive scores in children, reduced engagement and persistent poverty.Elizabeth Tung, an associate professor of medicine at UChicago and senior author of the study, said another surprising finding was around what researchers call “collective efficacy”: residents’ shared belief in their ability to work together for the common good of their community.“The conventional wisdom is that low collective efficacy is associated with violence: the less connected your neighborhood is, the more violence that you have,” Tung said. But in wealthier neighborhoods with no evictions, the study showed that collective efficacy — whether low or high — had no impact on rates of violence. This, according to researchers, shows that poverty and other structural issues like a lack of stable housing play a bigger role.Michelle Gilbert, with the Law Center on Better Housing, said about 20,000 evictions are initiated in Chicago every year.She said several factors contribute to evictions, including higher rents, income stagnation, lack of affordable housing, and displacement due to gentrification.She also said as investors and companies buy more apartments, the corporatization of landlords — often out-of-town owners — affects residents and the conditions in which they live.“It’s different dealing with a corporation than it is dealing with a guy who lives downstairs who is maybe going to work out something with you,” Gilbert said. “A corporation is going to respond all the same way to people” when it comes to issues like late rent or problems in the building. She also discussed the increasing prevalence of add-on fees — charges made by landlords on top of the monthly rent.These factors point to the need for policies that protect tenants, Gilbert said, including legislation that limits add-on fees, rental registries that provide tenants with crucial information, and lifting the ban on rent control in the state.She also said court-based rental assistance programs, which provide funds to landlords on behalf of the renter through legal aid agencies, have been a “game-changer,” particularly in Cook County.“It’s all about stabilizing communities,” Gilbert said. “Any kind of measure about stabilizing housing, stabilizing our neighborhoods, is going to reduce violence.”City officials said in a statement that the study "affirms that everything from affordable housing to poverty rates has an impact on community safety." Spokespersons from Chicago’s health and housing departments pointed to city programs that support residents facing eviction and housing insecurity.For UChicago researchers, the study sheds light on the relationship between poverty, violence and policy.“Something I hear from folks is that there’s always going to be poverty, you're never going to fix poverty,” Tung said. “But we have policies that govern how poverty is handled in a society, and eviction is a very clear policy foothold that we can actually make an impact on.” ...read more read less