West Lake Highlands Eviction Risk: Moderate , Bessemer

SNAP participation runs 41.7% against 15.2% nationally. Against Jefferson County at 46.3%, 61% of renters here are cost-burdened.

The poverty rate is 40%. Judgments in high-poverty tracts are collectible far less often than filing counts suggest. Disability prevalence runs 50.0% against 31.5% nationally.

Well under the midpoint, eviction-process difficulty reads 1.3/10. Sitting well above the midpoint, tenant-organizing strength reads 8.7/10.

20% are severely burdened past the 50% mark. That cohort absorbs no shock: one repair bill or one cut shift converts straight into arrears. It sits 1.5 points above the Jefferson County average of 4.3. The filing record is not thin: 189 evictions over 11 years of observation.

Filings peaked in 2005 at 4.5% of renter households. At $878 a month, rents run 9% under what the rest of Bessemer commands.

In a typical year about 3.5% of renter households face a filing. Nationally it ranks #20,506 of 84,120 for landlord eviction difficulty. On the CDC Social Vulnerability Index the tract reads 9/10, which tracks how hard a shock lands on the households already here.

All figures here are ACS 5-year estimates for this tract, refreshed as the underlying releases land.