Nearly 4 People Are Evicted Every Minute: New Project Tracks U.S. Eviction Epidemic & Effects

A new project called the Eviction Lab examined more than 80 million eviction records going back to 2000 and found that in 2016 alone there were nearly four evictions filed every minute. More than 6,300 Americans are evicted every day. Studies show that eviction can lead to a host of other problems, including poor health, depression, job loss and shattered childhoods. Having an eviction on one's record also makes it far more difficult to find decent housing in the future. Now the Eviction Lab's database is being shared with the public in an interactive website that allows people to better track and understand evictions in their own communities. We speak with Matthew Desmond, who runs the project at Princeton University, where he is a professor of sociology. It grew out of his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City."