You know, sometimes looking at data feels a bit like staring at a Magic Eye poster. At first, it’s just noise—a jumble of percentages and bar charts. But if you squint just right, a picture starts to form. A picture of real people, real struggles, and what’s actually happening in our neighborhoods.
That’s exactly what happened when I started digging into the numbers from the Silver Valley. Specifically, I got curious about the Idaho Policy Institute formal eviction rate 2020 Shoshone County report. It’s a mouthful of a search term, right? But behind that clunky academic phrasing is a story about housing stability in one of Idaho’s most historic and rugged regions during a year none of us will ever forget.
Let’s be honest—2020 was weird for everyone. But for renters in rural Idaho, it was a pressure cooker.
Why 2020 Was a Statistical Nightmare (and Why It Matters)
If you look back at 2020, your first thought is probably the pandemic. The lockdowns. The uncertainty. But for housing policy nerds (and let’s face it, concerned neighbors), 2020 is a massive outlier.
The Idaho Policy Institute (IPI) does this incredible work where they scrape court records to find “formal” evictions. This is important because “formal” means a landlord actually went to court, paid the fees, and got a judge involved. It doesn’t count the times someone just left because their landlord texted them to “get out or else.”
In Shoshone County—home to Wallace, Kellogg, and a whole lot of history—the eviction landscape usually ticks along at a predictable pace. But the Idaho Policy Institute formal eviction rate 2020 Shoshone County data hit a wall called the eviction moratorium.
Remember the CARES Act? And the CDC moratorium? Those policies essentially froze the gears of the eviction machine. So, when we look at the raw numbers for that year, they look artificially low compared to, say, 2019 or the sharp spike we saw in 2022. But that dip doesn’t mean people were secure. It just means the dam was holding back the water for a little while longer.
The Silver Valley Context: It’s Not Just About Boise
Most of the housing headlines in Idaho focus on the Treasure Valley. You hear about skyrocketing rents in Boise or Nampa constantly. But Shoshone County is a different beast. It’s rural, it’s industrial, and it has a higher percentage of older housing stock.
When I drive through Kellogg, I see a community that looks out for its own, but also one that operates on thin margins. A missed paycheck here isn’t just an inconvenience; it’s a crisis.
The IPI data sheds light on this. Even with lower formal eviction rates in 2020 due to the legal freezes, the threat of eviction was hovering over households like a storm cloud. The formal rate is just the tip of the iceberg. What the IPI report helps us understand is the baseline vulnerability of the county. When 2% or 3% of renting households are dragged into court, that ripples through the schools, the local businesses, and the social services networks.
If you want to geek out on the broader state context, you can check out the Idaho Policy Institute’s housing reports directly to see how Shoshone stacks up against denser counties like Ada.
Reading Between the Lines of the Report
Okay, so let’s get into the weeds without getting boring. The metric we are looking at—the formal eviction rate—is calculated by taking the number of eviction court filings and dividing it by the number of renter-occupied households.
In 2020, Shoshone County’s numbers were suppressed. But here is the kicker: Shoshone County has historically had higher eviction rates than the state average in previous years. Why?
It often comes down to:
- Income volatility: Mining and tourism jobs can be seasonal or cyclical.
- Lack of legal representation: Tenants in rural counties rarely have lawyers. If you don’t have a lawyer, you lose. Almost always.
- Housing supply: There just aren’t that many apartments. If you get kicked out of one, you might be leaving town entirely.
So, when we analyze the Idaho Policy Institute formal eviction rate 2020 Shoshone County figures, we have to view them as a “pause button” year, not a “victory” year. The underlying issues—affordability and supply—didn’t get fixed in 2020; they just got delayed.
The “Informal” Eviction Problem
This is the part that keeps advocates up at night. The IPI data is fantastic, but it only tracks what happens in a courtroom. It doesn’t track what happens on the front porch.
In rural areas like Shoshone County, “informal” evictions are huge. This is where a landlord says, “I’m doubling the rent next month,” and the tenant just packs up and leaves because they know they can’t pay. Or a handshake deal goes south. These don’t show up in the formal eviction rate, yet they displace families just the same.
In 2020, while the courts were slowed down, these informal push-outs likely increased. People were scared, confused about the laws, and often just left to avoid trouble.
What Happened After 2020?
You can’t talk about 2020 without talking about the hangover that followed. Once the protections lifted in late 2021 and into 2022, the floodgates opened. The data we have now suggests that the suppression of rates in 2020 led to a backlog of filings later.
It’s like shaking a soda can and then finally popping the tab.
For policymakers looking at the Idaho Policy Institute formal eviction rate 2020 Shoshone County, the lesson isn’t “look how low evictions were.” The lesson is “look how much policy can influence stability.” It proved that intervention works, at least temporarily. But without long-term rental assistance or more affordable housing construction in the Silver Valley, we end up right back where we started.
If you are facing housing instability yourself, organizations like Idaho Legal Aid Services are often the first line of defense for tenants trying to understand their rights in these situations.
Why This Data Should Matter to You
Maybe you aren’t a renter. Maybe you own your place in Wallace and love it. Why should you care about eviction stats from three or four years ago?
Because housing stability is community stability.
When kids get evicted, they switch schools. When workers get evicted, local businesses lose employees. High eviction rates are a symptom of a local economy that is struggling to support its workforce. The IPI’s work is vital because it gives us a dashboard. It tells us if the “check engine” light is on for Shoshone County.
In 2020, the light was flickering. Today, we need to make sure we aren’t ignoring it.
FAQs
What exactly is a “formal” eviction?
A formal eviction is one that goes through the legal court system. A landlord files a complaint, and a judge issues a judgment. This is different from a tenant just moving out because they were asked to, which is considered an informal eviction.
Why was the eviction rate lower in 2020?
During 2020, federal and state moratoriums (bans) on eviction were put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This legally prevented landlords from evicting tenants for non-payment of rent in many cases, artificially lowering the filing numbers for that year.
Does the Idaho Policy Institute track informal evictions?
Generally, no. Informal evictions are incredibly hard to track because there is no paper trail in the courts. IPI focuses on court data, which is reliable but likely undercounts the total number of people losing their homes.
Where can I find the specific data for Shoshone County?
You can access the full reports and interactive maps directly through Boise State University’s Idaho Policy Institute website under their housing and eviction research sections.