| Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... |
Austin’s eviction crisis is not falling evenly across the city.
As rents and other household costs outpace the incomes of many low-wage residents, the highest filing rates are concentrated in neighborhoods with large populations of immigrants and people of color — particularly in the Eastern Crescent, where decades of disinvestment now collide with rapid development, gentrification and a shrinking supply of deeply affordable housing.
In 2025, eviction filings in the county hit a record high of 15,092, according to recent data from tenants’ rights group Building and Strengthening Tenant Action (BASTA). That’s 14% higher than in 2024. This upward trend has continued through the first half of 2026, with a year-over-year increase of 12%.
Last year’s eviction filings increased in every city council district except Northwest Austin’s District 10. Twenty percent of the filings were issued in District 4, north of downtown, which logged 2,236 notices. Officials issued the next-highest number of eviction filings in East Austin’s District 3, with 1,901 filings.
Source: BASTA
As BASTA Research and Policy Director Aabiya Baqai told the Austin Free Press, “People are not able to afford where they’re living.”
Austin’s most diverse census tracts are most prone to eviction. These areas are disproportionately occupied by renters of color and immigrants and often near areas with rapid commercial development. This is particularly true in the Eastern Crescent.
The Eastern Crescent includes neighborhoods and connecting areas around and east of Interstate 35 from the Rundberg area down through Onion Creek, according to Go Austin/Vamos Austin.
City Council District 4 is tremendously diverse, city demographer Lila Valencia told the Austin Free Press. Some areas east of I-35 are adjacent to thriving, high-opportunity communities such as Mueller. However, parts of the district just blocks west of I-35 include large enclaves of immigrants from Mexico or Central America, she said.
“We know that these types of communities are also very vulnerable because oftentimes, they live in many more informal housing situations,” Valencia said. “Lots of duplexes, multiplexes, multifamily apartments as well.”
In 2025, census tract 431 in Council District 4 – south of Rundberg Lane between Lamar Boulevard and I-35 – posted the highest number of eviction filings inside Austin city limits (filings per 100 renter households), as well as the city’s highest eviction filing rate. Last year, this area posted a 54% eviction filing rate, which is more than half of the renter households.
“It’s already an area that has been vulnerable to displacement based on changes in the housing market,” Valencia said. People of color comprise 81% of this tract, with a Latino/Hispanic population of 75%, according to data from BASTA.
Explosion of filings
Travis County’s highest eviction filing rate outside city limits is found in tract 445 near Pflugerville, with an eviction filing rate of 50%. This area has a total population of nearly 5,000, 80% of whom are people of color.
Over the past 10 years, Travis County eviction filings have nearly doubled. As a result, about 1 in every 20 renter households received an eviction filing last year, according to BASTA. Almost 60% of all Austinites rent, including almost 70% of Hispanic households and 80% of Black households, according to the city.
During the COVID pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, Austin and Travis County adopted eviction moratoriums, reducing filings to 1,000-3,000 annually. When officials lifted those restrictions in 2022, that number rebounded to nearly 9,500.
“The reason we’re seeing these high filings is because of the lack of affordability,” said BASTA’s Baqai. “Like your groceries, your gas, rent, healthcare, everything. A lot of these tenants are just one paycheck away from being evicted.”
Even existing affordable housing units are out of reach for vulnerable populations with the lowest incomes, she said. The 2025 eviction-filing rate for government-subsidized properties in Austin was 7.2%, exceeding the overall Travis County rate of 5.4%.
Most affordable housing programs set rent levels based on an area’s median family income, which is a geographic area’s midpoint household income, according to the National Center for Housing Management.
That number has been skewed upward by an influx of high-wage earners in fields such as tech, according to BASTA. The median family income in Austin for 2026 is $134,000, according to data from the city.
“Affluence in Austin has grown much more rapidly than population,” the city’s Valencia said in an interview.
“The two highest income brackets are the brackets that have grown the fastest, compared with the other income brackets that kind of remained stagnant, like middle income, or the actual decline in lower income,” Valencia said. She added that lower-income brackets have to compete with high earners for housing and other resources.
Nearly half of American families can’t afford the true cost of living, according to Urban Institute findings. Rising everyday expenses such as utilities, transportation and the cost of essential goods and services have increased financial pressures.
In Austin, these conditions affect 60% of Black renters and 50% of Hispanic renters, according to Valencia, with about 1 in 5 Black and Hispanic households spending more than half their incomes on housing.
Officials respond
Precinct 2 Travis County Commissioner Brigid Shea told the Austin Free Press that she was “a little bit surprised, but also not surprised” at the high number of eviction filings in her precinct. That area covering parts of central, West and Northwest Austin recorded 3,406 eviction filings last year, the third-highest amount of the county’s four precincts. Precinct 1, which includes areas in the Eastern Crescent, logged 5,627 evictions, and Precinct 4, which includes East and Southeast Austin, showed 4,353 evictions filed.
“We’ve been seeing an upward trend since COVID, which is why I’ve really pushed hard to fund legal aid attorneys to help people face evictions in our justices of peace courts,” she said.
Travis County commissioners have paid about $463,000 for each of the past two years for Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid attorneys to assist people facing eviction. The city also has assisted tenants and negotiated rental settlements through legal partners.
City officials have supported a range of tenant stabilization programs to address renters’ challenges. These include rent assistance, eviction representation and providing landlord and tenant mediation services, according to District 3 Council Member José Velásquez.
“The challenge is that the overall need continues to exceed what the city can provide,” he told the Austin Free Press. “The D3 office continues to propose and advocate for creative solutions to increase the supply of affordable housing in Austin, including policy changes like the Homestead Preservation Districts, city-owned affordable housing communities and affordable housing provisions in the density bonuses.”
Through June 30 of this year, 414 households received rental assistance and negotiated settlement payments, 309 obtained legal representation services and 1,312 households got tenant counseling, according to the city.
Although District 4 shows the highest number of eviction filings, Mayor Pro Tem José “Chito” Vela, who represents the district, declined comment for this story.
BASTA’s Baqai said the root of the problem is the lack of affordable housing for the lowest-income renters, and that help needs to start long before the eviction process begins.
“What’s important is rethinking how we do our income calculations, because the median income is so skewed,” Baqai said, adding that, “a lot of landlords go through the eviction process just to collect rent instead of asking, ‘Should we have a payment plan, or accept partial payments?’ ”
Destini Ambus is the growth, housing and affordability reporter for the Austin Free Press. She is a Report for America corps member. She attended Auburn University, where she earned her B.A. in journalism and was the editor-in-chief of The Auburn Plainsman. She was also a member of the inaugural class of the New York Times Corps. Before moving to Austin, she worked as the general assignment reporter for the Savannah Morning News.
