There are more than 65,000 rental units occupied in Buffalo right now.

According to a new study, more than half of those tenants can barely afford to make ends meet.

The Partnership for Public Good released a more than 50 page report indicating Buffalo’s eviction rates are higher than any other city in the Rust Belt.

"Why are so many people getting evicted?,” asked Sam Magavern, a senior policy fellow with the Partnership for the Public Good. "It's certainly not unique to Buffalo. What was surprising in our study is that it is worse here than a lot of comparable cities. It’s twice as bad as a city like Cleveland."

The study, “Evicted in Buffalo: The High Costs of Involuntary Mobility,” takes a look at the more than 65,000 households being rented in Buffalo. In 2017, landlords took 9,000 people to housing court and eviction warrants were obtained for more than 4,300 of those cases.

In addition to the higher cost of living in Buffalo than in years past, unforeseen circumstances can lead to an eviction notice.

Magavern said the impact is community-wide and felt in the school system which sees students moving from one location to the next. The study also outlines health risks of housing instability, which can cause stress or force people into slumlord situations.

"We talk to 100 tenants in housing court; 59 percent say there were repair problems in their unit," he said.

Housing Court was established to help keep housing stock up to code; however, that issue often goes unaddressed. 

The study recommends that Buffalo follow suit in what other cities are doing to mitigate the eviction issue, such as offering emergency assistance to tenants and making it readily available.  

A more than $950,000 federal grant recently awarded to Buffalo will help make that possible. The city plans to use the funds to launch a new approach to property owner/residents who lack the means to care for their homes from landlords who are unwilling to fix them.

"We focus on the impacts on tenants, but we  also talk about that it’s certainly not good for landlords,” Magavern said. “Landlords want their tenants to pay in full. They don’t want to have to file in court. It's bad for them as well. It’s in everyone's interest to bring those numbers down.”