National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) ERA Dashboard and Resources
The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) has been actively collecting data on emergency rental assistance (ERA) programs throughout nation over this past year. The dashboard highlights a number of program characteristics, from prioritization to eligibility, and how assistance has been disbursed. This national collection of 374 programs and their statuses should prove valuable to understanding the geographic consistency and variations among ERA programs and provide grantees with comparative to data to enable the growth of more effective and inclusive programs.
Some key data points from the dashboard:
- 121 programs are serving residents receiving federal rent subsidies
- 87 programs allow for direct-to-tenant assistance
- 156 programs allow for some kind of self-attestation (For example: income verification, COVID hardship, housing instability, etc.)
You can locate the NLIHC ERA program resource hub here. This page provides many resources, including program application form examples/templates, outreach materials, and research reports.
NYU Furman Center: The State of New York City’s Housing in 2020
This week the NYU Furman Center released The State of New York City’s Housing in 2020. This report utilizes a variety of rent payment level data and trends to analyze the lingering impact of the economic effects the pandemic has had on renters in New York City and the status of recovery. Using data from affordable housing landlords and properties, this report unsurprisingly indicates a drastic increase in the share of households owing over $3,000 in rental arrears, as well as those households owing over $10,000 in unpaid rent. While this could spell disaster for many low-income households already facing housing instability and financial debt, federal rent relief in the form of local emergency rental assistance (ERA) programs will likely mitigate the scale of rental arrears as the City begins to recover.
See other key findings and highlights from the report:
- While the share of households that owed rent increased by a moderate amount compared to the year prior (5 percentage points), the average rent owed by households with arrears increased dramatically (by 66%).
- The share of households that owed more than $3,000 in rent increased by six percentage points compared to the prior year. The number of households that owed more than $10,000 in rental arrears more than doubled over that period.
- Between February 2020 and February 2021 more than nine out of ten properties saw an increase in average rental balance per occupied unit.