Analysis of the Federal Rental Assistance Needed

The Urban Institute released an analysis of the federal rental assistance needed to address Covid-19’s impact on families’ housing and economic stability. The analysis finds that nearly 8.9 million renter households (20 percent of all renter households) had at least one member of the household experience a job loss between February and April. The study estimates that returning all renter households to their pre-coronavirus level of rent-to-income (housing cost) burden would require $5.5 billion per month in federal rental assistance (this amount would drop to $1.8 billion per month in rental assistance if paired with both state unemployment assistance and the CARES Act’s $600/week unemployment supplement). The analysis also estimates that bringing all U.S. renter households to a 30 percent rent-to-income ratio, a standard widely used for defining housing affordability by cost burden, would require $15.5 billion per month in federal rental assistance (this amount would drop to $11.9 billion per month in federal rental assistance if paired with both state unemployment assistance and the CARES Act’s $600/week unemployment supplement). (Urban Institute, June 15)