Eviction as structural community violence: Qualitative focus group findings from the social epidemiology to combat unjust residential evictions (SECURE) study

While growing quantitative evidence documents spillover effects of neighborhood eviction on the health of community members, limited qualitative data exists to identify specific mechanisms of these associations. To understand how Black women experience living in neighborhoods where other people are evicted from their homes. As part of the Social Epidemiology to Combat Unjust Residential Evictions (SECURE) Study, we conducted n = 16 focus groups among n = 86 Black reproductive age women from Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb Counties in Michigan (2021–2024). The study was informed by several theoretical frameworks including reproductive justice and intersectionality. We used a semi-structured facilitation guide for focus group discussions. We used a grounded theory approach for data analysis, with line-by-line, open coding of professionally transcribed transcripts, using Atlas.ti software. Themes and subthemes emerged based on density of codes in the data. Thematic analysis revealed several negative impacts specific to the community violence of eviction (n = 209 quotes) including: (1) understanding housing instability caused by eviction, (2) observing belongings removed, (3) eviction and community degradation, (4) mental and emotional responses to witnessing eviction, and (5) neighborhood gentrification. Findings emphasize that landlord business practices and behaviors before, during, and after residential evictions should be considered an important source of structural community violence. Future policy solutions, social activism, and intervention studies are warranted. This is the first qualitative study to document potential mechanisms of associations between neighborhood evictions and adverse health among Black communities, and data suggests that evictions are an underacknowledged source of neighborhood structural violence. • Black women experienced neighborhood evictions as structural community violence. • Witnessing neighbors evicted is a source of community trauma. • Inequitable enforcement of housing laws is a form of state-sanctioned violence. • Participatory action research can support resistance to systems of oppression.