Four of Connecticut’s major cities—Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven and Waterbury—are now ranked among the 100 cities nationally with the highest eviction rates. Lawyers can do much to prevent or mitigate the poverty-causing effects of evictions, and we must do more to address this growing crisis.

Last month, sociologist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Matthew Desmond launched The Eviction Lab, the first-ever national database of eviction records. Connecticut’s overall eviction rate (meaning the percent of renting households that are evicted every year) at 3.04 percent is higher than the national average. The data from several of our major cities paints an even more troubling picture. With Waterbury at 6.1 percent, Hartford at 5.73 percent, Bridgeport at 5.03 percent and New Haven at 4.05 percent, we have some of the highest eviction rates in the country in almost all of our major cities. The Eviction Lab is an eye-opening resource, one that shines the light on a pressing societal and legal issue here in Connecticut.