Building Racial Equity into Emergency Rental Assistance Programs An Equity Checklist for Program Administrators

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the disproportionate housing stability challenges faced by Black, Latinx, and Indigenous people, and its health and economic effects made those disparities even worse. State and local governments are now distributing the almost $47 billion in emergency rental assistance made available through federal relief efforts. Targeting the renters most affected and most vulnerable, predominantly renters of color, will be critical to ensuring assistance reaches the people who need it most.

This checklist, a companion to our Emergency Rental Assistance Priority (ERAP) Index tool, is designed to help state and local administrators implementing emergency rental assistance programs. Assistance programs can more effectively target households at the highest risk of housing instability by prioritizing racial equity in program design and implementation.