Providing Assistance to Low-Income Renters and Small Landlords

Executive Summary

Preventing Housing Insecurity Tech Sprint Summary

We thank each Tech Sprint participant for their dedication, time, and effort creating innovative digital tools to raise awareness for and connections with households in need with housing assistance resources and providers. We also thank the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and U.S. Treasury for their collaboration on the Census Bureau’s The Opportunity Project tech sprint program, “The World Post COVID-19”.

Housing insecurity, or the lack of affordable housing access faced by lower income households, is not a new challenge for our country, but its impact was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic . In 2020, the number of households who fell behind by at least three months on their mortgage payments grew to over 2 million households – an increase of 250 percent These households were estimated to owe almost $90 billion in deferred principal, interest, tax and insurance payments collectively. Similarly, over 8 million rental households also fell behind on their rent. As the economy began to recover from the impact of the pandemic, Federal, state, and local governments, nonprofits, and consumer advocates developed programs to help both housing insecure families and small landlords, But those in need of support were not always aware that these resources were available.

Over 13 weeks, tech teams, user advocates, data stewards, and product advisors worked together to develop innovative tools and technologies to help renters and small landlords gain more access to programs and resources that designed to allow them to remain in their homes and in possession of their rental properties. The effort concluded with a Demonstration Day, a two-day demonstration summit where each of the five teams presented their concepts to a wide range of stakeholders and other experts.