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Neighborhood · Ranked #4,119 of 84,120 nationally

Dorchester Center Eviction Risk: High , Boston

Tract 25025100200 · Suffolk County, MA · pop 3,567 · neighborhood within 0.9 mi

Tract 25025100200 sits in the Dorchester Center area of Boston eviction risk, MA, carrying an eviction-risk score of 9/10. It is home to 3,567 residents. SNAP participation runs 43.4% against 15.2% nationally.

Risk score
9
High
Confidence 100% · 1–10 scale
Household mix · 100 hh
Burdened renters 34% Stable renters 25% Owners 41%
Tract context
Occupied units1,001
Renter share58.9%
SVI overall0.99
Poverty rate21.1%
Median income$74,679

Percentile rank

Higher percentile = riskier than more peers.
Within neighborhood
40 th percentile
Rank, 40th percentileLowHigh
#4 of 6 tracts In Dorchester Center
Moderate
Within parent city
68 th percentile
Rank, 68th percentileLowHigh
#67 of 206 tracts In Boston
Elevated
Within county
70 th percentile
Rank, 70th percentileLowHigh
#70 of 234 tracts In Suffolk County
Elevated
Within state
94 th percentile
Rank, 94th percentileLowHigh
#92 of 1,613 tracts In Massachusetts
Very High
Geographic context

Risk heat across Boston and the region

Centroid at 42.2848, -71.0857 · click any tract to drill in

Why Dorchester Center scores 9

9 axes · 1 = landlord-friendly
Local 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
21.1% poverty · this tract
5.3
Supply constraint
$1,732 rent vs county FMR
1.1
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.
Dorchester Center risk score vs. parent city / county / state9.0This tracttract 1002008.1Bostonparent city7.9Countyavg tract in county6.2Stateavg tract in state
CDC Social Vulnerability Index

SVI percentile: 99

CDC/ATSDR 2022. Higher = more vulnerable. National percentile across 84k tracts.

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.

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)

  • 222Total filings over 5 yrs
  • 8.19%Avg annual filing rate
  • 9.4%Peak (2015)
  • 48Filings in 2016 (latest validated)
Filings by year 2012 to 2016
Year-by-year eviction filings in tract 25025100200
Filings climbed 33% over the past 5 months.

Pandemic-era tracking (2020–2021)

  • 94Total filings 2020-21
  • 2.0Avg monthly (observed)
  • 3.8Pre-pandemic baseline
  • 0.53×Ratio to baseline
Monthly filings 2020–2021 2020-01-01 to 2023-11-01
Monthly eviction filings vs pre-pandemic 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.

Analysis

What drives eviction risk in Dorchester Center

Pulling hardest the other way is supply constraint at 1.1/10. Severe burden reaches 25%. Those are renters paying half their income or more, and that is where non-payment filings originate.

Against Suffolk County at 47.0%, 58% of renters here are cost-burdened. On the high side, local political climate reads 8.5/10. Sitting well above the midpoint, tenant-organizing strength reads 8.5/10.

Inability to pay a utility bill runs 21.8% against 9.2% nationally. Utility arrears usually lead rent arrears by a month or two. Average gross rent is $1,732, 19% below the Boston average. The poverty rate is 21%. Judgments in high-poverty tracts are collectible far less often than filing counts suggest.

Against the Suffolk County average of 7.9, this tract reads riskier for landlords by 1.1 points. Court records carry 222 eviction filings across 5 observed years.

The worst year on record was 2015, when 9.4% of renter households were served.

Tract-level figures come from the ACS 5-year release and are rebuilt whenever that, the court-record feed, or the statutory ledger behind the score changes.

Frequently asked

About tract 25025100200

Q1

What is the eviction-risk score for census tract 25025100200?

Census tract 25025100200 in the Dorchester Center neighborhood scores 9/10 (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 25025100200?

Median gross rent is $1,732/month (ACS 5-year 2023, table B25064). 58% of renter households are cost-burdened.
Q3

What is the poverty rate in tract 25025100200?

21.1% of residents in tract 25025100200 live below the federal poverty line (ACS B17001, 2023). Population: 3,567.
Q4

How socially vulnerable is tract 25025100200?

CDC Social Vulnerability Index ranks this tract in the 99th percentile nationally. Sub-themes: socioeconomic 91th, household 99th, minority 98th, housing 92th.
Q5

Is tract 25025100200 considered part of Dorchester Center?

Yes. Per Census Bureau 2020 Block Assignment Files, the plurality of blocks in tract 25025100200 fall within Dorchester Center (neighborhood centroid within 0.9 miles, OSM data).
Q6

How many evictions are filed each year in tract 25025100200?

Princeton Eviction Lab recorded 222 eviction filings across 5 validated years in tract 25025100200 (2000-2018). The average annual filing rate is 8.19% of renter households, peaking at 9.4% in 2015. Source: Eviction Lab tract-validated 2024 release.
Q7

Did eviction filings in tract 25025100200 drop during COVID?

Pandemic-era filings ran 0.53× 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 25025100200 struggle to pay rent?

About 31.0% 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. 21.8% also reported utility shutoff threats, a frequent precursor to eviction filings.
Q9

How does tract 25025100200 compare to Boston overall?

Tract 25025100200 scores 9/10, 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 25025100200 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.

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