Idaho Policy Institute Formal Eviction Rate 2020 Shoshone County vs State Explained!

In 2020, Shoshone County produced the most discussed eviction figure in Idaho. The Idaho Policy Institute formal eviction rate in 2020 for Shoshone County landed at 1.10 percent, nearly double the statewide average of 0.6 percent. That number came from real court records, a Princeton-adapted methodology, and a research team that built the most complete eviction dataset Idaho had ever seen.

Most articles report the headline like DL275 Diverted to LAX, UA770 Emergency Diversion, and then stop. This one does not. Every figure here is linked directly to its source on the specific word or phrase that carries it, not in a footnote at the bottom.

This article covers how IPI collected the data, what drove Shoshone above every other county in northern Idaho, how the Idaho Policy Institute formal eviction rate 2020 Bingham County and Custer County figures compare, and what has changed from 2020 to 2023.

What Is the Idaho Policy Institute and How Does It Works?

The Idaho Policy Institute is a nonpartisan public policy research center at Boise State University’s School of Public Service. IPI produces research on economic, housing, and social policy for Idaho, publishing data tools used by state agencies, nonprofits, and policymakers.

For eviction research, IPI built its methodology by adapting the Princeton University Eviction Lab framework specifically for Idaho’s legal system. The Eviction Lab is the most comprehensive national eviction database in the United States, tracking millions of court filings across all 50 states.

IPI collects unlawful detainer case records directly from the Idaho Supreme Court every year. These are the formal legal records generated when a landlord starts the eviction process through the court system. The research team then maps those records to census renter household data to calculate eviction rates by county.

The distinction IPI makes between a filing and a formal eviction is the most important thing to understand before reading any of their numbers. A filing is when a landlord submits paperwork. A formal eviction is when the court rules in the landlord’s favor and issues a removal order. These are two completely different outcomes and most coverage treats them as one.

Idaho Formal Eviction Rate 2020: The Statewide Numbers

In 2020, Idaho had 189,292 renting households across all 44 counties. Landlords filed 1,893 eviction cases, a filing rate of 1.0 percent. Of those, 1,127 resulted in formal evictions, producing the statewide formal eviction rate of 0.6 percent.

That 0.6 percent was 30 percent lower than the 2019 statewide rate of 1.4 percent. That sounds like improvement. It was not. The decline came from pandemic-era protections, court closures, and emergency rental assistance, not structural improvement in housing stability.

April 2020 recorded the lowest eviction filings of the year because the Idaho Supreme Court suspended most civil proceedings as COVID-19 spread. When courts reopened in May 2020, filings spiked sharply. The rest of the year fluctuated as the CDC moratorium, unemployment benefits, and rental assistance programs pulled in different directions.

Idaho Statewide Eviction Data 2019 to 2023

Shoshone County 2020 Formal Eviction Rate Full Data

The Idaho Policy Institute formal eviction rate 2020 Shoshone County was 1.10 percent. Shoshone County had approximately 1,642 renter households in 2020, per ACS data. Of those, 18 households received a formal eviction court order, and 1 in every 90 renting families lost their home through the legal system.

The filing rate in Shoshone County was 1.89 percent, meaning landlords filed at nearly double the statewide rate. Of all cases that went to court, 58 percent resulted in a formal eviction order. That conversion rate carries a specific meaning: when landlords in Shoshone County initiated a case, they almost always won it.

Dr. Katherine Nelson, Boise State researcher: Formal eviction numbers tell us where the legal system intervenes, not where housing instability begins. Shoshone shows how wide that gap can be in rural Idaho.

Shoshone County sits in the Silver Valley of northern Idaho, anchored by Wallace and Kellogg. The county’s economy has depended on mining and forestry, both of which were declining before 2020. The pandemic hit service businesses hard, the sector that had partly replaced the extractive economy, leaving renters with no income buffer and no awareness of the protections available to them.

Shoshone County 2020 At a Glance

Why the Shoshone Rate Was High Despite 2020 Protections

The CDC eviction moratorium was available nationwide in 2020. In theory, it should have suppressed formal evictions in every county. In Shoshone County, it did not work as well, and the reason is structural. The moratorium required renters to complete and submit a formal declaration to their landlord, a process that assumed internet access, documentation skills, and program awareness. In rural northern Idaho, all three were often absent.

Idaho’s emergency rental assistance program prevented an estimated 15,000 evictions statewide during the pandemic. But distribution was weighted toward urban counties with established nonprofit infrastructure. Shoshone had no dedicated mediation program, no housing nonprofit at scale, and no accessible legal aid office.

Laura Hines, Idaho Voices for Children: rural eviction is a story of invisibility. The protections exist on paper. The infrastructure to reach rural renters with them does not.

Ada County and Canyon County both ran formal mediation programs between landlords and renters during 2020 and into 2023. These programs created structured negotiation before cases reached a courtroom. Shoshone County had no equivalent. When a landlord filed, the path to a formal eviction court order was direct and largely unopposed.

Bingham and Custer County 2020 Eviction Data Compared

The Idaho Policy Institute’s formal eviction rate for 2020 Bingham County, reflects a different economic base. Bingham County sits in southeastern Idaho with an economy anchored in agriculture and the Idaho National Laboratory workforce. The INL connection gave a segment of Bingham renters stable federal employment income that Shoshone’s mining-dependent households did not have in 2020.

The Idaho Policy Institute formal eviction rate 2020 Custer County requires careful interpretation. Custer is one of Idaho’s least populated counties, with fewer than 300 renter households. A single formal eviction produces a high percentage rate in a county this small. IPI’s interactive map handles this correctly by displaying both the rate and the raw household count at the same time, which is why reading Custer’s rate without that context is misleading.

The Idaho Policy Institute formal eviction rate 2020 Shoshone Custer Bingham, and Bonneville data together, tells a clearer story than any single county can. Shoshone was the outlier among northern Idaho counties not because of exceptionally bad luck but because it had the specific combination of economic fragility, rural isolation, and zero support infrastructure that drove formal evictions above every neighboring county.

County Comparison 2020 Formal Eviction Data

What Happens After a Formal Eviction Court Order

A formal eviction is a permanent public court record. It appears on background screening reports used by landlords nationally. Most screening services automatically flag any eviction, regardless of the circumstances behind it. In Idaho’s rural housing market, this consequence is particularly severe because rental inventory in counties like Shoshone is limited. A flagged renter competes for fewer units while carrying a record that disqualifies them from most.

Children in evicted households face school disruption that accumulates across grade levels. Princeton Eviction Lab research shows that children from evicted families change schools at significantly higher rates than their peers, and that disruption compounds educational outcomes over time. For Shoshone County, where educational attainment already trails state averages, each formal eviction in a household with children adds measurable pressure.

The local economic ripple is also real. Displaced households reduce local spending in communities where pandemic conditions already weakened small businesses. In a county the size of Shoshone, 18 formal evictions in one year is not a small number.

Dr. Ben Larsen and the IPI 2020 Eviction Study Research

The Idaho Policy Institute formal eviction rate 2020 Shoshone County data was produced through research led by Dr. Ben Larsen, IPI Research Associate at Boise State University. Larsen built Idaho’s eviction dataset from scratch using Idaho Supreme Court unlawful detainer records and adapted Princeton’s Eviction Lab methodology for Idaho’s specific court record structure.

On November 12, 2020, Dr. Larsen presented the IPI eviction study results to the Idaho Asset Building Networking working group. The presentation introduced the dataset to policymakers and housing advocates for the first time.

The full methodology paper was published in 2022 under the authorship of Larsen B., Hall M., McGinnis-Brown L., and Crossgrove Fry V. It is available through Boise State’s ScholarWorks repository and documents exactly how eviction rates are calculated, what counts as a formal eviction in Idaho’s legal system, and how records map to census renter household figures.

Dr. Ben Larsen, IPI: Our hope is for policymakers to better understand the extent of evictions in their communities. This data provides a baseline for future research on evictions in Idaho.

Idaho Eviction Interactive Map and 2020 Infographic Guide

The Idaho eviction interactive map Idaho Policy Institute built covers all 44 Idaho counties. Hovering over any county shows the formal eviction rate, filing rate, number of renter households, and raw eviction count for the selected year. The map updates as new annual data is added and is the only county-level eviction tracking tool built from court records available for Idaho.

The 2020 eviction infographic Idaho Policy Institute, condenses statewide findings into a single visual document. It shows the 0.6 percent formal rate, the monthly filing chart tracking the April court closure dip and May reopening spike, and the year-over-year comparison to 2019’s 1.4 percent rate. It is designed for use by housing advocates, local officials, and media without requiring the full dataset.

Both tools are publicly accessible without a login. Policymakers in Shoshone, Bingham, Custer, and Bonneville counties can check their own county’s data and compare it to state trends directly from the IPI website.

Idaho Eviction Data From 2020 to 2023 | What Changed?

The Idaho Policy Institute formal eviction rate 2020 data was the first year of what became an annual tracking series. In 2021, filings increased by 11 percent to 1,975 cases statewide, but formal evictions dropped slightly to 1,107. Rental assistance programs were still active and portions of the moratorium remained. The formal rate held at 0.6 percent despite more filings.

By 2023, the picture changed sharply. Filings surged 44.2 percent from 2022 to reach 3,074 cases, the highest in the IPI dataset. Formal evictions reached 1,256, pushing the formal rate to 0.7 percent. Bonneville County saw 66 percent of tenants lose in court. Kootenai County saw a 57 percent loss.

For Shoshone County the post-2020 trend matters because the structural conditions that drove its 1.10 percent rate did not improve between 2020 and 2023. The mining economy did not recover. Rural rental assistance infrastructure was not built. Median rents in northern Idaho increased alongside statewide pressure, while incomes in resource-dependent communities did not keep pace.

The 2023 surge to 3,074 filings, a 44.2 percent jump from 2022, is what happens when every pandemic-era protection expires at once and rental costs have risen faster than wages across all of rural Idaho.

Policy Gaps the IPI Eviction Study Revealed for Idaho

The Idaho Policy Institute formal eviction rate 2020 Shoshone County data, alongside the broader Idaho Policy Institute formal eviction rate 2020 Shoshone Custer Bingham Bonneville findings, exposed a clear pattern. Rural Idaho counties face higher eviction pressure but have the fewest resources to address it.

Ada County ran a mediation program from 2020 through mid-2023. Canyon County ran a parallel one. Both measurably reduced the conversion rate from filing to formal eviction in those counties. No equivalent program operated in Shoshone, Bingham, or Custer during the same period. When a landlord filed in those counties, tenants faced the court system without a structured alternative.

IPI participated in the HUD Eviction Protection Grant Program in 2022, which funded legal aid expansion targeting eviction cases. In rural counties where legal aid had no existing office, the program’s reach was limited by geography and staffing, not funding availability. Governor Brad Little allocated emergency housing funds during the pandemic but permanent mediation infrastructure did not follow the emergency spending in counties that needed it most.

Final Words

The Idaho Policy Institute formal eviction rate 2020 Shoshone County’s figure of 1.10 percent, is not just a data point. It is the outcome of a specific combination of conditions, including a resource-dependent rural economy, a pandemic that hit service jobs hardest, protections that required infrastructure Shoshone did not have, and a legal process that moved quickly once a landlord started it.

IPI’s work gave Idaho policymakers the first honest count of how many households the court system removed from their homes each year and where those households were concentrated. The Idaho eviction interactive map Idaho Policy Institute built is still the only tool of its kind for the state. The 2020 eviction infographic Idaho Policy Institute published, the annual data updates, and Dr. Larsen’s November 2020 presentation put real numbers behind conversations that had previously relied on estimates.

The 2023 surge to 3,074 filings shows the 2020 suppression was always temporary. Shoshone County’s underlying conditions have not changed. The data has now caught up with that reality.

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