Housing and advocacy groups launch campaign to lower Virginia’s high eviction rate

Martin Wegbreit, with the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society, responded that such a figure wouldn’t count people who simply move without requiring the sheriff to respond.

“It’s true that not every judgment results in an actual displacement, but the actual possession data probably under counts rather than over counts because of all the people who move,” he said.

Kathryn Howell, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Wilder School who studies affordable housing, said those are exactly the kinds of questions they want to answer as they continue their research.