Drawing on over 8 million eviction court records from twenty-eight states, this study shows the role that eviction filings play in extracting monetary sanctions from tenants. In so doing, it documents an unanticipated feature of housing insecurity: serial eviction filings. Serial eviction filings occur when a property manager files to evict the same household repeatedly from the same address. Almost half of all eviction filings in our sample are associated with serial filings. Combining multivariate analysis with in-depth interviews conducted with thirty-three property managers and ten attorneys and court officials, we document the dynamics and consequences of serial eviction filings. When legal environments expedite the eviction process, property managers use the housing court to collect rent and late fees, passing costs on to tenants. Serial eviction filings exacerbate tenants’ housing cost burden and compromise their ability to find future housing. Using tract-level rent and filing fees, we estimate that each eviction filing translates into approximately $180 in fines and fees for the typical renter household, raising their monthly housing cost by 20%. The study challenges existing views of eviction as a discrete event concentrated among poor renters. Rather, it may be better conceived of as a routinized, drawn-out process affecting a broader segment of the rental market and entailing consequences beyond displacement.

Significance Several negative effects of forced displacement have been well documented, yet we lack reliable measurement of eviction risk in the national perspective. This prevents accurate estimations of the scope and geography of the problem as well as evaluations of policies to reduce housing loss. We construct a nationwide database of eviction filings in the United States. Doing so reveals that 2.7 million households, on average, are threatened with eviction each year; that the highest eviction filing rates are not concentrated solely in high-cost urban areas; and that state-level housing policies are strongly associated with county-level eviction filing risk. These data facilitate an expanded research agenda on the causes and consequences of eviction lawsuits in the United States.

BackgroundPreoperative anxiety is a common problem in hospitals and other health care centers. This emotional state has been shown to negatively impact patient satisfaction and outcomes. Aromatherapy, the therapeutic use of essential oils extracted from aromatic plants, may offer a simple, low‐risk and cost‐effective method of managing preoperative anxiety. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of lavender aromatherapy in reducing preoperative anxiety in ambulatory surgery patients undergoing procedures in general otolaryngology.MethodsA prospective and controlled pilot study was conducted with 100 patients who were admitted to New York‐Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center for ambulatory surgery from January of 2015 to August of 2015. The subjects were allocated to two groups; the experimental group received inhalation lavender aromatherapy in the preoperative waiting area while the control group received standard nursing care. Both groups reported their anxiety with a visual analog scale (VAS) upon arriving to the preoperative waiting area and upon departure to the operating room.ResultsAccording to a Welch's two sample t‐test, the mean reduction in anxiety was statistically greater in the experimental group than the control group (p = 0.001).ConclusionLavender aromatherapy reduced preoperative anxiety in ambulatory surgery patients. This effect was modest and possibly statistically significant. Future research is needed to confirm the clinical efficacy of lavender aromatherapy.Level of Evidence2b