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COVID-19 AND HOUSING |
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In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic fallout, many jurisdictions created or expanded their emergency rental assistance programs to stem evictions and keep renters in their homes. HIP initially engaged in deep partnerships with housing and community development officials in six cities to provide housing policy expertise and data analysis to inform rent relief program design; to analyze applicants vis-à-vis the pool of eligible households to ensure equity and targeted outreach as programs roll out; and to embed evaluation instruments into the programs themselves. These partnerships revealed the depth of need among cities for additional capacity to design, implement, and evaluate their emergency housing responses. As additional funding has become available for rental assistance programs, we have expanded our partner network to include additional jurisdictions and have also engaged in national survey work in collaboration with the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) and the NYU Furman Center.