Eviction filings are running higher than anything seen before the pandemic in many cities and more than 50% higher than normal in several places, according to the Eviction Lab, which tracks the filings in nearly three dozen cities and 10 states.Among the hardest-hit places are Houston, which was 77% and 56% higher in March and April, as was Las Vegas in its latest filings for February. Minneapolis/St. Paul were 55% above average in April, though it was down from March when filings were 106% higher. Providence saw its numbers jump significantly in March to 42% above average while Phoenix was 38% above average in April. Nashville was 31% higher in April, down slightly from March.The latest data mirrors trends that started showing up last year, with the Eviction Lab finding that landlords filed nearly 970,000 evictions in the cities and states it tracks in 2022, an increase of 78.6% compared to 2021. By December, eviction filings were nearly back to pre-pandemic rates.At the same time, rent prices nationwide are up a little over 5% from a year ago and 30.5% from 2019, according to the real estate company Zillow. There are also few places for displaced tenants to go, with the National Low Income Housing Coalition estimating there is a shortage of 7.3 million affordable units in the country.Many vulnerable tenants could have been evicted long ago, if not for a safety net created during the pandemic that protected renters.The federal government, as well as many states and localities, issued moratoriums during the pandemic that put evictions on hold but all but a handful of cities have ended them. There was also $46.5 billion in federal Emergency Rental Assistance that helped tenants pay rent and funded other tenant protections. Much of that has either been spent or allocated and calls for additional resources has largely failed to gain traction in Congress.Housing courts, some still backlogged with cases due to the pandemic, are filling up and ensnaring the likes of 79-year-old Maria Jackson.Jackson, a longtime massage therapist in Las Vegas, worked for nearly two decades to build a loyal customer base. But when the pandemic triggered a statewide shutdown in March 2020, Jackson’s clients stopped booking appointments. Her business fell apart. She sold her car, applied for food stamps and dipped into her $1,000 in savings to pay $1,083 on her one-bedroom apartment.After being denied a request for rental assistance in February because she couldn't prove she missed rent payments between October and December, Jackson was evicted in March. She was forced to relocate to Logandale, a rural town about an hour northeast of Las Vegas where she stayed with a former client.She has since found a tiny room back in Las Vegas for $400 a month, paid for with the $1,241 she gets from social security. But it's not home.