Date of Award

January 2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Public Health (MPH)

Department

School of Public Health

First Advisor

Danya E. Keene

Abstract

Eviction is a widespread and racially patterned housing instability process in the United States with significant implications for population health and social inequality, yet less is known about how eviction is experienced and produced within legal settings themselves. This study examines eviction court as a lived institutional environment that shapes tenant experiences and contributes to the reproduction of structural inequality and health-relevant stress. Using ethnographic observation of eviction proceedings in New Haven Housing Court, this study explores how procedural dynamics, power relations, and structural vulnerabilities shape tenant participation and courtroom interaction. Findings reveal three themes: (1) eviction court as a stressful and disorienting institutional environment characterized by procedural confusion, environmental strain, and emotional distress; (2) power asymmetries between legal actors and tenants that structure participation and limit tenant agency; and (3) the compounding effects of structural vulnerabilities, including financial insecurity, caregiving responsibilities, health challenges, and housing precarity, on courtroom experiences and outcomes. Together, these findings demonstrate that eviction court functions not only as a site of legal adjudication but also as a stress-producing institutional environment where inequality is actively produced through everyday procedural interactions. From a public health perspective, eviction court may serve as both an acute and cumulative source of stress, with potential implications for long-term health through pathways such as “weathering.” The presence of legal representation emerged as a key mitigating factor, highlighting the importance of expanding access to tenant legal counsel as a structural intervention. This study contributes to socio-legal and public health scholarship by reframing eviction court as an institutional mechanism through which structural inequality is translated into embodied, health-relevant experience.

Comments

This thesis is restricted to Yale network users only. It will be made publicly available on 09/16/2027

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