It’s been two months since every jurisdiction in the country faced a deadline for obligating all emergency rental assistance (ERA) resources—an unprecedented scale of support to stabilize households during the economic fallout caused by COVID-19. In December 2020, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (PDF) committed $25 billion in ERA funding, later extended by an additional $21.55 billion under the American Rescue Plan Act in March 2021.

Communities were given broad leeway in how to use ERA funds, ranging from rent and utility payments to eviction prevention. With this flexibility, communities creatively addressed barriers to delivering assistance effectively and equitably to the people who needed it most.

Over the course of ERA implementation, Urban developed tools to enhance targeted delivery of relief funds, such as the Emergency Rental Assistance Priority Index (ERAP). The ERAP tool helps communities map out risk factors associated with housing instability and homelessness, empowering localities to tailor their delivery to the most vulnerable households with an explicit eye to racial equity.

The Urban Institute supported use of those tools through targeted technical assistance (TA) to four geographically diverse communities as well as by monitoring progress in communities across the country. This gave us a firsthand perspective on the challenges and successes grantees faced when trying to administer ERA relief equitably.

We found targeted outreach—and building the needed capacity to support that outreach—is critical to success. To strengthen and broaden access to future ERA and other aid, local administrators should consider prioritizing capacity building and targeted engagement in their implementation efforts.

Data-driven and community-led outreach is essential

Availability of relief doesn’t promise equitable access to relief. Though all levels of government worked to communicate the availability of ERA funds, many landlords and tenants were still unaware of available help, even months after programs launched. One Urban analysis found that, among rental units owned by independent mom-and-pop landlords, more than half of renters and 40 percent of landlords were unaware that federal assistance was available in June 2021. Others were deterred by the uncertainty that they would even receive assistance after applying.

For this reason, targeted, intentional outreach has been critical to reaching elderly households, undocumented people and immigrants, and other marginalized communities with linguistic barriers and limited digital literacy. Tools like the ERAP Index can equip local decisionmakers with the data to identify areas at greatest risk of housing instability, which would be the highest priority for ERA outreach. We saw states and localities leverage this tool to inform their strategies and prioritize assistance to reach the households most in need.

In addition to directing resources with data, sustained, community-led outreach in targeted areas was essential. One of our rural TA sites conducted a “month of outreach,” where they dedicated staff in areas predominately affected by housing instability and connected them to immediate assistance. Staff were on site to support potential recipients with filling out applications and to answer questions. These events were so successful in reaching residents in need of assistance that the site expanded their month of outreach indefinitely to support community members with applications. 

Partnerships with community-based organizations increased ERA outreach capacity and reach

The level of infrastructure necessary for effective ERA outreach was scarce before COVID-19, with many localities forced to create their programs from the ground-up and with newly trained staff. Federal pressure to deliver funds quickly to ward off the looming eviction crisis also raised a tension between equity and efficiency in administering relief. Across our TA sites, many stakeholders commented on how racial equity surfaced as a more paramount concern only after programs were designed and having already spent a significant portion of their early ERA dollars. We heard similar stories from communities across the country using COVID-19 resources to help people with housing challenges.

One of the primary contributors to promoting equity in ERA distribution through targeted outreach was partnering with community-based organizations (CBOs). With deeper community ties and culturally competent strategies for equitable outreach, CBOs are uniquely positioned to bridge access to relief by promoting trust, communication, and rapport with eligible households.

What comes next 

States and localities should look to these examples to structure their own data-informed, community-based tactics to enroll households for ERA relief and other aid programs. This approach will be essential to creating a program that’s both targeted and immediate in its impact. In future posts, we’ll explore additional strategies states and localities can deploy to advance equity in ERA distribution, such as landlord engagement and dismantling language- and technology-related barriers to access.