Overview
  • Overview
  • Increasing Housing Supply
  • Dedicated Funding Sources
  • Land Use Regulation and Approval Reforms
  • Inclusionary Zoning
  • Regional Housing Target Enforcement
  • Ending and Preventing Homelessness
  • Systems-Level Racial Equity Analysis
  • Emergency Response Resources
  • Housing First
  • Master Leasing
  • Household and Community Protections
  • “Just Cause” Eviction Laws
  • Anti-Gouging Rent Regulations
  • Strategic Code Enforcement
  • Community Benefit Agreements
  • Community Power-Building
  • Community Ownership
  • Alliance and Coalition Building
  • Community Organizing
  • Tenant Organizing
  • Opportunity and Wealth
  • Mobility Assistance Programs
  • Rent Reporting
  • Reparations
  • Fair and Equitable Appraisals
  • Acknowledgments
    • Master Leasing

    Overview

    The combination of scarce affordable housing and unsheltered homelessness is affecting communities across the country, particularly in large metropolitan areas like Los Angeles County. On a given night in 2020, at least 50,000 people experienced unsheltered homelessness in LA County. Certain groups, such as people with histories of eviction or criminal justice involvement, face especially high barriers to accessing housing because of restrictive screening criteria by landlords.

    One emerging policy option to efficiently use available housing stock and navigate screening barriers is known as master leasing. While its implementation strategy varies, master leasing involves a third party either directly subleasing from or working with landlords to mitigate financial risk and secure vacant units for households that have traditionally been screened out of the application process.

    In its most traditional model, master leasing involves an agency—often a nonprofit or government body—that becomes the leaseholder and then subleases units to a secondary tenant. As the primary leaseholder, the agency has final control over tenant selection and, in exchange, is responsible for property management and assumes the related financial risk of vacancies, evictions, and damages.

    Each type of master leasing model carries varied advantages and risks that should inform implementation based on community need and financial backing. But when properly tailored to local context, master leasing can broaden inclusion, capitalize on available units, and expand housing availability to more people.

    Examples of This Strategy in Action

    • The Homeless Outreach Program Integrated Care System (HOPICS) administers one of the largest master leasing programs in Los Angeles County. HOPICS employs a traditional master leasing strategy, allowing the organization to maintain control over selecting which clients are housed and to help clients overcome screening barriers that they face due to criminal legal system involvement, citizenship status, or credit history. Today, the nonprofit operates seven sites of varying sizes and target populations, catering to the diverse needs, challenges, and preferences of their tenants.
       
    • To navigate some of the liability challenges associated with traditional master leasing, other organizations have pursued more limited variations on this approach. Under the Master Rent Subsidy Agreement model in Los Angeles County, the nonprofit Brilliant Corners works with landlords to secure housing for target populations in exchange for owning some of the financial risk, while property owners ultimately retain authority over tenant selection. Although Brilliant Corners does not hold the lease or have the primary responsibility for property management, the organization offers landlords incentives to house their clients through a damage mitigation fund. The organization also continues to build trust with landlords, aiming to navigate some of the landlord resistance to tenant inclusion through long-term relationship-building.

     

     

    Next policy domain: Household and Community Protections