This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Is everyone entitled to a fair process before being forced out of their home? The state of Michigan says "yes," but the reality is often very different, and the consequences are severe.
In Michigan, landlords need a court order to evict a tenant. The formal eviction process includes several steps and concludes only when a judge signs an order saying a tenant has to move. A landlord who wants to remove a tenant must work through the court system.
This is true even if the tenant fails to pay rent, plays music too loud—or even if the landlord wants to do renovations. If a landlord chooses not to renew a lease at the end of its term, a 30-day notice to the tenant is required. Landlords are not legally allowed to retaliate against tenants who request repairs by not renewing their leases.
Detroit had 20,370 eviction cases filed in 2025. But my research shows that official counts underestimate the real number of evictions in metro Detroit by half because many landlords ignore the law and skip the formal court process. I am a tenured social epidemiology professor, native and resident Detroiter, and leader of the first and most comprehensive research study on court-ordered and illegal evictions among Black women in the U.S.
My study includes numbers and stories from nearly 1,500 Black women ages 18–46 from metro Detroit, including nearly 800 women who experienced a court-ordered or illegal eviction in their lifetimes. Black women and children are the groups most affected by evictions because of the intersection between structural racism and sexism. I lead the SECURE Study in partnership with a community advisory board of Black women who are local, national and international leaders in fields such as human rights and social justice, advocacy, education, health care and journalism.
Some have been evicted themselves. In our most recent study, my research team and I used participant stories to show, for the first time, how illegal evictions can undermine the reproductive justice rights of Black women. Reproductive justice is focused on a set of interconnected human rights.
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