February 2023

McAllister Hall, Ben Larsen, Lantz McGinnis-Brown

For the fourth consecutive year, IPI obtained all court eviction case data in Idaho from the Idaho Supreme Court. In 2022, 2,167 (about 1.2%) of Idaho’s renting households had at least one eviction filing and 1,082 (about 0.6%) were formally evicted.

Eviction court filings rose 10.7% from 2021 to 2022. However, the number of households with formal evictions decreased by 2.3%. In 2022, Idaho residents still had access to emergency rental assistance funds provided in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though eviction moratoria were not in place in 2022, filings and formal evictions remain below pre-pandemic levels. This could be a result of the successful distribution of rental assistance funds or increased mediation in high-population counties such as Ada and Canyon.

Summary of findings for 2022:

• 2,167 (1.2%) of Idaho’s 186,065 renting households had an eviction filing
• 1,082 (0.6%) of Idaho renting households received a formal eviction
• 142 renting households had two or more eviction filings
• 49.9% of renting households with an eviction filing received a formal eviction
• 1,289 landlords filed at least one eviction
•  Eviction filings increased by 10.7% from 2021, but remain lower than pre-pandemic levels (20% lower than 2019)
• Formal evictions decreased by 2.3% from 2021 and were 32.8% lower than 2019

More data will be available on IPI’s website in the coming month.

HUD Eviction Protection Grant Program

Ben Larsen, Lantz McGinnis-Brown, McAllister Hall, Vanessa Fry

IPI does data management for the HUD Eviction Protection Grant Program in partnership with Idaho Legal Aid Services and other partners across Idaho, Montana, and Utah. The program provides low-income households with free eviction legal services and representation. This month, IPI conducted analysis of the Year 1 program data and produced cross tabulations of the first year clients’ demographics, services provided, and recorded outcomes. IPI also provided each partner organization with their individual organization’s data. This data will assist in understanding the impact of the program, as well as areas of focus in the program’s second year.

Digital Access for All Idahoans Planning Support

Matthew May, Ben Larsen, Gabe Osterhout, Cheong Kim, Kyle Peterson

The Idaho Commission for Libraries (ICfL) has partnered with Idaho Policy Institute to create the Digital Access for All Idahoans Plan, including conducting two statewide surveys, one of Idaho’s general population and one of Idaho’s Spanish-speaking households. This month, IPI completed the protocols for focus groups, interviews, and surveys and submitted them for IRB review. Work in February concentrated on scheduling 13 focus groups across all of Idaho in collaboration with local libraries. IPI created promotional materials for the focus groups and began outreach to those communities to generate interest in focus group participation.

Media Campaign Evaluations

Ben Larsen, Aisha Kayed, Gabe Osterhout, Matthew May, Vanessa Fry, Ellen Schafer

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare has awarded IPI a project evaluating two health media campaigns that have circulated statewide. The first evaluation will consist of a survey to health clinics across Idaho to measure the reach and effectiveness of the Provider Stigma Reduction Campaign. The second evaluation is a survey of Idaho’s general population to measure the reach and effectiveness of the Fentanyl Awareness Campaign. This month, the project was launched and IPI began work drafting both survey instruments and releasing a bid for survey vendors to conduct the statewide survey.

IPI Intern Project with Boise Elevated

This semester the IPI interns are working with Boise Elevated to produce a report about Local Option Tax. The report aims to identify states with similar demographic and political populations that have implemented a Local Option Tax, how the bill was passed, what the money is used for, and any barriers to success of the program.

Conflict Management Workshop

Bayard Gregory, a conflict management lecturer at Boise State,  met with the IPI team to talk about the basics of conflict management. The team learned about the importance of building relationships, managing emotions, and focusing on what can be controlled. This is the first of several presentations planned by IPI that are open to SPS faculty and staff. The next workshop will be a series on giving high-quality presentations starting after spring break.

Media Relationships Workshop

Mike Sharp, the director of media relations at Boise State came to talk to IPI about how to expand our media outreach and better disseminate our research to the community. We look forward to moving forward working with Mike to build more media relationships and increase our press presence.