Within neighborhood
20
th percentile
Low
Neighborhood · Ranked #5,730 of 84,120 nationally
Dorchester Center Eviction Risk: High , Boston
Tract 25025092300 · Suffolk County, MA · pop 3,857 · neighborhood within 0.2 mi
Census tract 25025092300 covers part of the Dorchester Center area of Boston, MA, and scores 8.4/10 on landlord eviction risk. 36% are severely burdened past the 50% mark. That cohort absorbs no shock: one repair bill or one cut shift converts straight into arrears.
Risk score
8.4
High
Confidence 100% · 1–10 scale
Household mix · 100 hh
Burdened renters 34%
Stable renters 35%
Owners 31%
Tract context
Occupied units1,235
Renter share68.8%
SVI overall0.86
Poverty rate15.2%
Median income$73,047
Percentile rank
Higher percentile = riskier than more peers.Within parent city
59
th percentile
Elevated
Within county
60
th percentile
Elevated
Within state
90
th percentile
Very High
Geographic context
Risk heat across Boston and the region
Centroid at 42.2939, -71.0751 · click any tract to drill in
Why Dorchester Center scores 8.4
9 axes · 1 = landlord-friendlyLocal political climate
Inherited from Boston
8.5
Regional political climate
2024 county presidential margin
8.2
State political climate
Massachusetts legislature & governorship
6.2
Economic stress
15.2% poverty · this tract
3.8
Supply constraint
$2,061 rent vs county FMR
2.3
Rent control risk
Inherited from Boston
8.0
Eviction process difficulty
State law sets the calendar
8.0
Tenant organizing strength
Inherited from Boston
8.5
Housing court bias
Inherited from Boston
8.0
How Dorchester Center compares
Risk score vs. parent city, county, state.CDC Social Vulnerability Index
SVI percentile: 86
CDC/ATSDR 2022. Higher = more vulnerable. National percentile across 84k tracts.
- 72%Socioeconomic
- 95%Household composition
- 94%Racial/ethnic minority
- 64%Housing & transportation
Historical context · 1930s redlining
HOLC grade: C: Definitely Declining
This tract sits within an area graded by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation in the 1930s. Grade C meant mixed-race / working-class neighborhoods rated as risky. These designations suppressed minority homeownership for generations and remain a documented predictor of present-day eviction filings and rent burden.
- 0%Grade A
- 0%Grade B
- 100%Grade C
- 0%Grade D · redlined
Source: Mapping Inequality (americanpanorama.org), 1935-1940 HOLC residential security maps, aggregated to 2020 census tracts by area share. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Eviction filings
Court-record eviction history
Court-validated eviction filings collected from county clerks and consolidated by the Eviction Lab at Princeton University. Filing rate is filings per 100 renter households.1
Historic baseline (2000–2018)
- 202Total filings over 5 yrs
- 6.15%Avg annual filing rate
- 7.9%Peak (2016)
- 51Filings in 2016 (latest validated)
Filings stayed roughly flat over the past 5 months.
Pandemic-era tracking (2020–2021)
- 96Total filings 2020-21
- 2.0Avg monthly (observed)
- 3.5Pre-pandemic baseline
- 0.59×Ratio to baseline
Pandemic filings ran far below baseline (moratorium effect). Eviction Lab tracked Boston, MA as part of its 34-metro Eviction Tracking System.
Comparable tracts
Census tracts with similar eviction risk
Within Dorchester Center. Closest by Eviction Risk Score.
CDC PLACES 2023 · health & economic stress
Eviction-adjacent indicators
Crude prevalence of conditions linked to housing loss. Source: CDC PLACES (cwsq-ngmh), 2023 model-based small-area estimates.
- 29.5%Housing insecurity
- 20.4%Utility-shutoff threat
- 33.9%Food insecurity
- 40.7%SNAP enrollment
- 19.0%Transit barriers
- 9.4%No health insurance
- 20.8%Frequent mental distress
- 34.6%Any disability
Analysis
What drives eviction risk in Dorchester Center
SNAP participation runs 40.7% against 15.2% nationally. What pushes it up most is local political climate at 8.5/10.
Annualized rent equals 34% of average household income of $73,047, past the 30% affordability line, which thins the margin any screening standard has to work with. Running hot, tenant-organizing strength reads 8.5/10. This is renter territory: 69% of occupied units are tenant-occupied.
Housing insecurity runs 29.5% against 14.2% nationally. On the high side, regional political climate reads 8.2/10. The filing record is not thin: 202 evictions over 5 years of observation.
Filings peaked in 2016 at 7.9% of renter households. In the 1930s the federal Home Owners' Loan Corporation graded this ground C ("Definitely Declining"). Redlining cut off mortgage credit to whole blocks for decades, and the areas graded D still carry measurably lower ownership and higher rent burden today. In a typical year about 6.2% of renter households face a filing.
That is riskier than roughly 93% of the 84,120 US census tracts in this model. On the CDC Social Vulnerability Index the tract reads 8.7/10, which tracks how hard a shock lands on the households already here.
These are ACS 5-year estimates; the score moves when the ACS, court-record, or statute inputs behind it move.
Frequently asked
About tract 25025092300
Q1
What is the eviction-risk score for census tract 25025092300?
Census tract 25025092300 in the Dorchester Center neighborhood scores 8.4/10 (High tier). The Eviction Risk Score blends state law, county filing rates, parent-city politics, and tract-specific rent-to-income ratios + poverty signals.
Q2
What is the average rent in tract 25025092300?
Median gross rent is $2,061/month (ACS 5-year 2023, table B25064). 50% of renter households are cost-burdened.
Q3
What is the poverty rate in tract 25025092300?
15.2% of residents in tract 25025092300 live below the federal poverty line (ACS B17001, 2023). Population: 3,857.
Q4
How socially vulnerable is tract 25025092300?
CDC Social Vulnerability Index ranks this tract in the 86th percentile nationally. Sub-themes: socioeconomic 72th, household 95th, minority 94th, housing 64th.
Q5
Is tract 25025092300 considered part of Dorchester Center?
Yes. Per Census Bureau 2020 Block Assignment Files, the plurality of blocks in tract 25025092300 fall within Dorchester Center (neighborhood centroid within 0.2 miles, OSM data).
Q6
How many evictions are filed each year in tract 25025092300?
Princeton Eviction Lab recorded 202 eviction filings across 5 validated years in tract 25025092300 (2000-2018). The average annual filing rate is 6.15% of renter households, peaking at 7.9% in 2016. Source: Eviction Lab tract-validated 2024 release.
Q7
Did eviction filings in tract 25025092300 drop during COVID?
Pandemic-era filings ran 0.59× the pre-COVID monthly baseline. Filings dropped sharply, likely a moratorium effect. Tracked by the Eviction Lab Eviction Tracking System (Boston eviction risk, MA), 2020-2021.
Q8
What share of households in tract 25025092300 struggle to pay rent?
About 29.5% of adults in this tract reported housing insecurity (could not pay rent or mortgage in the past 12 months), per the CDC PLACES 2023 model-based small-area estimate. 20.4% also reported utility shutoff threats, a frequent precursor to eviction filings.
Q9
How does tract 25025092300 compare to Boston overall?
Tract 25025092300 scores 8.4/10, higher than the parent city of Boston at 8.1/10. City-scale signals (state law, local rent controls, court bias) are inherited from Boston eviction risk; what makes this tract different are its tract-specific economic stress and supply-constraint sub-scores.
Q10
Was tract 25025092300 historically redlined?
Yes. This tract sits inside an area graded by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation in the 1930s, with a dominant grade of C. 0% of the tract's area was rated D ("Hazardous"), the redlined tier. HOLC redlining systematically denied mortgage credit to Black, immigrant, and working-class neighborhoods and remains a documented predictor of present-day eviction filings, rent burden, and homeownership gaps. Source: Mapping Inequality (americanpanorama.org), Robert K. Nelson et al.
Sibling tracts
Highest-risk tracts in Boston
Top eight tracts in Boston ranked by composite eviction-risk score.
Tract · MA
Nubian Square
9.5
/ 10 · Very High
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Frederick Douglass Square Historic District
9.5
/ 10 · Very High
Tract · MA
Nubian Square
9.5
/ 10 · Very High
Tract · MA
Uphams Corner
9.5
/ 10 · Very High
Tract · MA
Packard's Corner
9.5
/ 10 · Very High
Tract · MA
Nubian Square
9.5
/ 10 · Very High
Tract · MA
Uphams Corner
9.5
/ 10 · Very High
Tract · MA
Nubian Square
9.5
/ 10 · Very High
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