JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Princeton’s Eviction Lab tracking system has released new data about which landlords file the most significant amount of evictions in Jacksonville.
According to their data, evictions in Jacksonville are particularly concentrated in just a few landlords: 34% of all eviction filings happen in just 100 buildings.
Researchers analyzed eviction records in Jacksonville to determine where the most cases are being filed.
This is a list of eviction hot spots—the 10 buildings responsible for the most filings—over the course of the last year. The plaintiff’s name, most often listed with a given building in the court filings, is included along with the address.
- 3500 University Blvd N, Tree House
- 117 filings
- 7777 Normandy Boulevard, Oaks at Normandy Acquisition LLC
- 96 filings
- 1591 Lane Avenue SLP, Riberbank Apartments
- 95 filings
- 7845 Paradise Island Boulevard, Paradise Island Apartments
- 93 filings
- 5959 Ft Caroline Road, Caroline Square Realty LLC
- 90 filings
- 6680 Bennett Creek Drive, Bennett Creek Apartments
- 84 filings
- 7528 Arlington Expressway, Oaks at Red Bay LLC
- 84 filings
- 14200 Duval Road, The Avery at Rivercity Marketplace
- 79 filings
- 5601 Edenfield Road, Gregory Cove Apartments
- 77 filings
- 10535 Lem Turned Road, Kendall Court LLC
- 76 filings
Dr. David Jaffee, a sociology professor at the University of North Florida and director of the JAX Rental Housing Project, said the numbers come as no surprise.
“We actually collect similar data to what the eviction lab collects,” Jaffee said. “There’s kind of a concentration of buildings that file large numbers of evictions, and they tend to be in what we sometimes call a corporate slum lord Haven, and that’s the Arlington area. These are large corporate entities that own these buildings. They’re profitable companies. These are not, you know, amateur landlords that are trying to scratch out a little bit of income.”
In assembling the Eviction Lab’s national database of evictions, researchers say they observed an unexpected pattern: the same landlords repeatedly filed for eviction against the same individuals at the same addresses across multiple months, sometimes even years.
This is called “serial eviction filings” and is a way landlords use the courts to collect rent.
Researchers say there are some risks that come with a high number of evictions.
“We’re going to see also an increase in homelessness, but at the neighborhood level, we’re also going to see, you know, greater amounts of crime in neighborhoods that have a lot of evictions. We’re going to see long-term impacts on children,” Senior Research Specialist for the Eviction Lab at Princeton University Adam Chapnick said.
While some landlords do file intending to remove tenants, researchers say others use eviction filings as a way to collect rent and additional fees.
“This kind of highlights the fact that higher rents are really stretching many renters’ budgets in Jacksonville, and even though many of them are putting rent first before groceries and other luxuries they might want to spend their money on, they can only stretch their budget so far,” Chapnick said.