Temporary Rental Assistance Promotes Job Stability – Center for Retirement Research
Critics of temporary rental assistance say it gives people the financial freedom to work less. But that wasn’t the case for low-wage workers in Chicago.
Workers, who received up to $1,000 to get out of the jam, had more stable jobs than people who didn’t receive help, according to a University of Notre Dame study. The income of low-income families who received assistance even increased slightly.
Stable housing is essential to staying employed. When a family can’t pay rent for a month, a drop in rates can lead to displacement or even homelessness, making it difficult to keep a job.
Rental assistance, through disaster prevention, stabilizes family finances and “encourages employment among low-income participants,” the researchers said.
In Chicago’s program, residents in need can call the city’s 311 hotline to be connected to the Homelessness Prevention Call Center, which refers them to various agencies in the city that can provide up to $1,000 in cash. Income is not very consistent from month to month, but about two-thirds of households that call, on average, have some income.
And for people who, by definition, have low incomes, low-income families have benefited the most from receiving these funds, the researchers said.
They were able to track tenants’ employment and income for years by linking personal information provided by the housing program to IRS data and their annual income. The lowest-income workers who received help earned $400 to $500 more over a four-year period — a significant amount for them.
Critics of rental assistance “underestimate its benefits,” the researchers concluded.
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