Behind on rent? You aren’t alone if you live in Pierce County, according to study

A study that aimed to quantify the amount of rent owed to landlords by tenants nationwide estimated that renters in Pierce County are more than $30 million behind on rent, with more than 13,000 households in rent debt.

The study was conducted by National Equity Atlas. It used household rent and income data from the 5-year 2019 American Community Survey as well as data on households behind on rent and number of months behind on rent from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey to generate rent-debt estimates across all states and counties.

“We use the share of households behind on rent from the Census Household Pulse survey and the median contract rent paid by households from the American Community Survey to determine the total amount of monthly rent owed by households behind on rent,” National Equity Atlas wrote of their study methodology. “We then multiply these monthly figures by the average number of months that households are in arrears based on the Pulse survey to estimate total rent debt.”

A data dashboard of findings was first released in April 2021 and was last updated on March 6, 2024.

National Equity Atlas estimates that tenants across the country owe more than $9.877 billion in rent across more than 4.7 million households. They estimate that there are more than 4.7 million children living in households that are behind in rent, with roughly 47% of all the households owing rent having children living in them.

According to the data, 65% of tenants behind on rent are people of color, 78% are categorized as low-income and about half are estimated to be unemployed.

National Equity Atlas estimates Pierce County has 13,080 households behind on rent, averaging $2,030 in rent per household, with an estimated 9,700 children living in those households.

Pierce County and the Tacoma Housing Authority (THA) both have rent-forgiveness programs that originated during the pandemic.

According to the Tacoma Housing Authority website, its rent-forgiveness program was created after THA stopped issuing late-rent notices at the onset of the pandemic. State and federal eviction moratoriums also allowed people to keep their housing at a time when many people faced unemployment.

At the end of 2021, THA analyzed the impact of the accumulated debt.

“The analysis identified that the negative effects of debt would disproportionately harm BIPOC households. Additionally, half of impacted households have children in the home,” the THA website stated. “The analysis also concluded that it would cost THA more money in staff time to pursue debt collection and eviction proceedings. As a result, staff recommended that THA forgive the outstanding debt.”

Nick Tolley, spokesperson for Tacoma Housing Authority, said that the agency has worked to help forgive a total of $1,093,768 in late rent since October 2022. According to him, the agency is aware of 690 households that are behind on rent in Tacoma, with an outstanding debt of $915,000 that has been collecting.

According to data provided by Pierce County’s Human Services Department, the county spent more than $4.5 million on rental assistance between January 2023 and April 24, 2024. The county also spent nearly $1.1 million to fund efforts by providers to alleviate rental debt.

The county reported that in the same time frame, it received more than 9,000 applications for rental assistance from households and approved rental assistance 1,165 times to those who applied. According to the county, many of the applications were ineligible to receive rental assistance, and many of those ineligible households applied multiple times.

According to the county, it has received $13.3 million in eviction-prevention funding through the Washington State Department of Commerce — available through July 2025.

Recently, Pierce County Council allocated additional dollars through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) in the amount of $1.3 million for Rental & Utility Assistance. A county spokesperson said those funds are going through a procurement process and the selected provider will be announced in May.

Editor’s note: The amount of rent debt originally reported by Tacoma Housing Authority was incorrect. The story has been corrected to reflect the accurate amount.