The economic crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a preexisting affordable housing crisis that disproportionately affects households of color. Before the pandemic, Black, Hispanic, Latino, and other renters of color faced higher cost burdens, greater housing instability, and higher eviction rates than white renters. Job and income losses from the pandemic were concentrated in communities of color, exacerbating these challenges and putting renters of color at even greater risk of foreclosure, eviction, and homelessness. Given these trends, JPMorgan Chase invests in models to secure immediate housing stability for cost-burdened households of color to ensure these households can find and keep safe and affordable homes connected to economic opportunities in thriving neighborhoods. This cohort of grantees is supporting households of color at risk of losing their homes and is preserving housing units at risk of becoming unaffordable.
Grantee Descriptions
Community Economic Defense Project
In 2016, Colorado landlords initiated about 60,000 evictions. While emergency rental assistance and other measures kept eviction filings historically low during the pandemic, in January 2023 eviction filings in Denver had reached pre-pandemic levels, exacerbating racial and ethnic disparities.
Through this grant, the COVID-19 Eviction Defense is scaling its Tenant Stabilization Program that bundles rental assistance, negotiation services, legal services, and rehousing placements. Rental payments are processed by the Colorado Stability Fund, an in-house rental assistance vehicle that can make payments within 48 hours to landlords and can serve renters who may not qualify for public funds, including undocumented individuals.
Community Justice Project
Florida renters face the second highest risk of eviction in the nation, with scarce access to legal representation or information about their rights. The most impacted communities rarely get to craft solutions to this crisis. CJP seeks to augment tenants’ rights, prevent discriminatory displacement policies, increase access to justice, and address housing safety and quality through accountability measures.
Community Justice Project (CJP) is building a more robust pipeline of empowered renter leaders of color, driving narrative change by partnering with poets and artists in the community to find unique ways to bring attention to the issues facing tenants in Florida; and building local and state coalitions to drive systemic change.
Community Legal Services
Despite new protections supported on the local, state, and federal levels, Philadelphia landlords continued to file evictions during the pandemic, with about four in five occurring in communities of color.
Community Legal Services (CLS) is altering the eviction landscape in Philadelphia and nationally by building Philadelphia’s new Eviction Diversion Program; providing representation for and implementation of Right to Counsel in eviction cases; and providing comprehensive advocacy on eviction sealing and tenant screening policies, education, and enforcement.
Equal Justice Works
The Housing Justice Program (HJC) trains and mobilizes lawyers, community organizers, and law students to advance tenants’ rights and build momentum for systems-level reforms.
Equal Justice Works is expanding its Fellows program beyond Richmond to other localities in Virginia. HJC lawyers and organizers (“Fellows”) work with established nonprofit organizations providing representation to tenants, conducting education and outreach in the communities they serve, and mobilizing tenants to demand systemic change by advocating for policies and practices that protect the rights of tenants.
Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago
Small “mom and pop” landlords are sometimes left behind during economic recovery efforts. By fostering economic resiliency for both renters and owners, NHS’s model prevents the cascade of potentially negative, long-term financial impacts and housing instability for both the building owner and renters due to potential evictions, foreclosure, forced property sales, and extended property vacancies.
NHS is providing mortgage assistance to two-four-unit landlords, running a pilot a tenant-landlord mediation program, and offering HUD-certified post-purchase counseling to owners throughout Chicago.
Texas Housers
To address a long-standing housing crises in the state of Texas, including patterns of segregation, inequity and lack of access and availability to quality housing, Texas Housers is leveraging the federal, state and local pandemic response to ensure tenants have rights and increased housing stability.
Texas Housers is building a robust collection of tenant rights resources and information to educate tenants to defend their rights; protecting renters and homeowners from eviction and foreclosure through organizing, power-building, and policy advocacy; and changing the prevailing public narrative about socioeconomic division and scarcity in the state of Texas.
