Pierce County prepares to spend $13 million to curb the rising rate of evictions
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- Pierce County will allocate $13 million in state funds to expand eviction aid.
- From July 2024 to June 2025, 933 low-income households received rent help.
- Nearly 3,400 evictions filed in 2024, marking a six-year high for the county.
In the past year, Pierce County spent more than $5.5 million as part of its Eviction Prevention program, but the need for assistance still outweighs what the program provides.
The county is preparing to expand the program after securing $13 million in state funding for eviction prevention over the next two years.
During the Pierce County Council’s Health and Human Services Committee meeting on Aug. 19, social services program specialist, Valeri Almony, presented an update on the program to the council.
According to Almony, Pierce County’s Eviction Prevention program was created following the “success” of the federally-funded rental assistance program during the pandemic.
“During COVID we had $168 million we spent in about two years,” Alimony told council members. “Based on that the State of Washington implemented an Eviction Prevention Fund through document recording fees that allowed us to create the first county-funded program for [the] general population.”
The program currently supports low-income households at risk of eviction. Alimony said the program will pay three past-due months of rent, one current month and three future months with case management being offered to households as well.
From July 2024 to June 2025, the county served 933 households through the eviction prevention program. Assistance averaged $8,700 per household, according to the county.
According to data from the county, a total of more than $6.3 million in assistance was applied for during the same time period. Roughly 46% of the 2,020 eligible households that applied were awarded assistance.
According to the county, 1,532 ineligible households also applied.
Alimony said reasons applicants were ineligible include that they had not yet received an eviction notice, they were applying from outside of the county, or they were homeless and had not yet secured housing to be eligible
The majority of assistance, 592 households, were given to households earning less than 30% of the Area Median Income (AMI).
Pierce County’s AMI is $98,174, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Alimony said households must earn less than 80% of the AMI to be eligible for assistance.
According to Pierce County, a household of one earning less than 30% of AMI earns less than $25,400 while a household of five would earn less than $39,150. A household of one earning less than 80% AMI would bring in less than $67,700 while a household of five would earn less than $104,400.
Of the households that were awarded assistance, 61% had children and 60% had more than three people.
Tacoma had the most households receiving assistance, with 347, followed by Lakewood with 111, and Parkland with 80.
According to county data, those same communities had the most households apply for assistance with 877 households in Tacoma, followed by Lakewood with 279, and Parkland with 182.
Households are chosen for assistance through a randomized lottery system. The University of Nebraska is working with the county to provide a randomization tool for the lottery and to study the effectiveness of the program.
Daniel Tannenbaum, a professor from the University of Nebraska working on the project spoke about the project during the Aug. 19 meeting.
“My role is really detached in just helping them design the latitude to ensure that the program is fair, that it treats tenants equally, and that is part of the fairness of randomization,” Tannebaum told council members. “But it also allows us to study these really deep and important questions about how stabilizing [a tenant’s housing situation] can reduce homelessness.”
During Pierce County’s last two annual surveys of those experiencing homelessness in the region, eviction was a top-three reason for being homeless identified by participants.
Pierce County recorded nearly 3,400 eviction filings in 2024, the highest amount filed in six years.
