Rental assistance $100M below need: report

Evictions up 68% as COVID era protections expire

With non-payment evictions up 68% over last year and federal COVID funds depleted, the state’s emergency rental assistance program will need $100 million than is currently budgeted in order to continue meeting the needs of residents at risk of homelessness, according to a new report.

The Rental Assistance for Families in Transition program, or RAFT, was successfully used to help prevent evictions of families during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the program as it is currently designed is hard to access and underfunded, according to the “Building a Better RAFT” report released Thursday.

“While the COVID public health emergency has expired, the need for emergency rental assistance continues. Due to a combination of housing cost burden, low savings rates, and employment instability, many renters are still at high risk of falling behind on their rent,” the report reads. “The success of emergency rental assistance programs depends not only on adequate funding, but also on implementation practices that ensure eligible households are aware of the available support and have pathways to access it.”

The report, as authored by The Boston Foundation, Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA), the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), and the United Way of Massachusetts Bay, indicates that the state prevented an eviction “catastrophe” through the use of RAFT and other programs.

However, despite the program’s success, many residents who could have used the help were unable to navigate the application process or simply did not know assistance was available. Those that did access the program frequently did so through the work of a local community based organization, or CBO, and the report indicates those CBOS are key to the success of rental assistance programs.

“Community-based organizations are critical allies for families in need of emergency housing, but too often, they and the families they serve are battling systemic barriers that block access to programs at the most critical times,” Maritza Crossen, director of strategic initiatives of CHAPA, said with the report’s release. “We can better leverage and support the work of CBOS and other community partners to ensure resources get to families more quickly and from trusted organizations in their community.”

The report makes several recommendations on how to improve RAFT, including the removal of a requirement to present a “notice to quit” from a landlord when applying for aid and increased program funding from fiscal 2023 levels.

“The project partners involved in this research recommend that RAFT be funded at $250 million with a $10,000 cap per applicant in fiscal year 2024,” the report reads.

Gov. Maura Healey’s 2024 budget calls for funding the program at just over $161 million, up from $150 million in fiscal 2023, though an additional about $60 million from fiscal 2022 was rolled into the next year. The House budget funds RAFT at $180 million

Federal COVID programs had sent over $800 million to the state, but the report’s authors say that well has run dry.