Can Emergency Rental Assistance Be Designed to Prevent Homelessness? Learning from Emergency Rental Assistance Programs

Claudia Aiken, Ingrid Gould Ellen, Isabel Harner, Tyler Haupert, Vincent Reina, Rebecca Yae

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Homelessness prevention efforts face an overarching challenge: how to target limited resources far enough downstream to capture those at greatest risk of homelessness, but far enough upstream to stabilize households before they experience a cascade of negative outcomes. How did the COVID-19 emergency rental assistance programs launched in hundreds of localities across the United States respond to this challenge? This paper draws on two waves of a national survey of emergency rental assistance program administrators, as well as in-depth interviews with 15 administrators, to answer this question. Results show that although the vast majority of program administrators considered homelessness prevention to be a key program goal, their programs tended to target rental assistance far upstream of tenants at immediate risk.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)896-914
Number of pages19
JournalHousing Policy Debate
Volume32
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 2022

Keywords

  • COVID-19
  • homelessness prevention
  • rental assistance

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Development
  • Urban Studies
  • Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Can Emergency Rental Assistance Be Designed to Prevent Homelessness? Learning from Emergency Rental Assistance Programs'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this