How do we increase equitable participation in rental assistance programs?
Researchers and the County of Denver test the impact of outreach that aims to reduce the stigma associated with a temporary rental assistance program and encourage take-up among the most vulnerable.
Jessica Lasky-Fink (PhD candidate, UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy), Elizabeth Linos (Assistant Professor of Public Policy, UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy), and Kristina Hallez (Program Manager, Psychology and Economics of Poverty Initiative, CEGA) share results from a randomized intervention aimed at increasing the take-up of temporary rental assistance by reducing sources of stigma. This study was supported by CEGA’s Psychology and Economics of Poverty (PEP) initiative and conducted by The People Lab at UC Berkeley.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing housing and homelessness crises across the US, disproportionately affecting low-income and minority communities. Individuals face many information, logistical, and psychological barriers to accessing government programs like rental assistance. Eligibility requirements can be complicated and application and verification processes are often burdensome. Importantly, government assistance programs — and the people who benefit from them — have a long history of stigmatization, which may deter people from participating even when they’re eligible. Individuals may feel a sense of shame in needing assistance or fear being labeled as the “type of person” who receives government aid. Stigma may also arise from concerns about or experiences of being discriminated against or treated unfairly when applying for government services.
We partnered with the City and County of Denver’s Department of Housing Stability and Office of Social Equity and Inclusion to test whether reducing information and psychological barriers could increase the take-up of temporary rental assistance.
Designing an intervention to target the stigma that may surround government rental assistance
In partnership with the City and County of Denver, Colorado, we identified 56 Denver County neighborhoods at high risk of eviction and displacement. We then randomly assigned 62,529 renters in these neighborhoods to one of three groups:
- “Information Only” group — Renters received a postcard providing clear and simple application information about the city’s rental assistance program.
2. “De-stigmatizing” group — Renters received a postcard including the same information and instructions provided to the Information Only group, but with additional subtle language to address (and reduce) the potential sources of stigma associated with the program. Specifically, the de-stigmatizing language emphasized that the rental assistance program was intended to help all eligible residents and that many residents may need help through no fault of their own.
3. “No Communication” group — Renters received no additional communication regarding the rental assistance program.
Eight weeks after the County of Denver mailed the postcards, we compared how many households in each group applied for the rental assistance program.
Reframing a rental assistance program leads to more applications, especially from Black and Hispanic renters
Renters who were sent the Information Only postcard were 56% (0.5 percentage points) more likely to request an application for rental assistance than the No Communication group. However, the proportion of renters in the Information Only group who submitted an application did not differ significantly from the group that received no communication.
Meanwhile, renters who were sent the De-stigmatizing postcard were 89% more likely to request an application and were 40% more likely to complete and submit an application for rental assistance than renters in the No Communication group. Further, 26% of submitted applications among households in the De-stigmatizing group came from Black/African-American renters, compared to 16% of submitted applications from those in the Information Only group, and just 5% of submitted applications from households in the No Communication group. This trend was similar for Hispanic renters.
Next steps
These findings suggest that stigma may be a consequential barrier to participation in government rental assistance programs and that reducing it may be one way of increasing take-up, especially among the most vulnerable. Further research on the role of stigma as a barrier to participation in government programs could also be helpful for informing strategies aimed at increasing take-up of other means-tested programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. We shared our results with the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the New York Times, and are in the process of replicating and extending these findings in other cities and contexts.
