An Opportunity for Workforce Housing Landlords
The Flagstone Team • December 30, 2022
- The majority of workforce housing residents struggle to stay ahead of expenses.
- These struggles are not top of mind for landlords, because most residents prioritize rent as the first bill they pay.
- Helping these ignored residents will result in improved financial outcomes for both residents and landlords.
When it comes to finances, many Americans are struggling to stay afloat. They live paycheck to paycheck, juggling bills, late fees, and debt to avoid suspension of critical services or even losing their homes. The best way to financially help people is to give them assistance before they are in a crisis, rather than reactively trying to bail them out after things have gotten ugly.
In our previous post, we shared the three levels of financial stability among the multi-family workforce residents in Oklahoma City, OK and Bessemer, AL:
- Stable – No difficulties on rent. No cutbacks on life essentials.
- Struggling – Struggling financially, but juggling and prioritizing to make rent most of the time.
- Behind – Not only struggling, but delinquent 30% or more of the time.
In the analysis, “Behind” had an average delinquency balance of $1,280. Some were behind a few thousand dollars. Without significant intervention by external agencies like the
Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program, it is difficult to turn these situations around on their own.
As these pandemic-based assistance programs wind down, landlords will find fewer and fewer tools to treat these situations for the “Behind” and will resort to evictions.
What if we focused on the middle “Struggling” group instead? Per our last post, “Struggling” looks like everything is going smoothly, but they are often one shock away from falling into “Behind” and facing a prospect of an eviction – because they have so little cushion to absorb everyday life events like car repairs, hospital bills, and even deaths in the family.
Jumping in to provide timely assistance before it morphs into a more chronic problem, before it requires thousands of dollars to fix, may be key for the resident, for the landlord, and for society.
We should also proactively work to help residents prepare for the inevitable unexpected shocks to income and expenses by incentivizing emergency savings.
Together, prevention and timely intervention can help residents avoid financial crises, similar to the way that prevention and timely intervention are used in health care to avoid medical emergencies.
If we can prevent a “Struggling” resident from joining the “Behind”, not only is that a big win for residents, it’s also a win for the landlord as it prevents one potential resident eviction, decreases resident turnover, and improves the resident NPS.
While this sounds good on paper, it is entirely a different story to put it into practice. In a future post, we'll discuss exactly when, how, and for whom we take timely, preventative action for the “Struggling.”
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Earlier this month, The Flagstone Initiative's CEO and co-founder Shin Inoue was invited to present at the Community Preservation Corporation (CPC)'s 50th Anniversary Symposium in New York City, as part of their " Innovative Ideas for the Future of Housing " program. Shin made a presentation entitled "Improve Housing Stability for Rent-Burdened Families with Rent Splitting and Rent Loans," an idea that resonated with the assembled housing innovators, including academics, policymakers, advocates, and community leaders. The event featured an impressive collection of innovators working to tackle the most pressing housing challenges facing American communities, and we are honored for the opportunity to share what we've learned about the impact of upstream financial stability programs for preventing eviction. From Shin's presentation:
The Flagstone team is pleased to announce the Alabama Power Foundation will continue its generous support of our eviction prevention programs. Their support of these programs creates lasting impact for the Alabama renters we serve. Their contribution will help us create a sustainable fund for Rent Loans, our no-interest loan that helps residents stay current on rent through small-dollar financial shocks like car-repairs. Thank you to the Alabama Power Foundation, we are excited to continue our work together in the coming year!
We are excited to share that The Daniel Foundation will continue to support The Flagstone Initiative's work to provide upstream eviction prevention solutions to Alabama renters. Our team is thankful for their dedication to helping us provide housing stability to the Missing Middle. Their support includes a multi-year grant that will allow us to greatly expand the number of renters we can help in Alabama. We are grateful for the Daniel Foundation’s support, and look forward to growing our impact with their help.
The Flagstone Initiative News October 2024 Happy fall from your friends at Flagstone! Fall is a time of change, but one thing that isn’t changing is that millions of paycheck-to-paycheck renters need help. So we are changing, to help more people, more quickly. We are now offering standalone Rent Loans. Offering standalone Rent Loans (without Rent Splitting) means fast, easy implementation, with no changes for housing partners. Instead of waiting until renters need large grants to avoid eviction, smaller loans can be used to improve financial stability and keep people in their homes. The value of this type of upstream prevention continues to gain broader recognition. Just last week, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) published the first-ever Federal Homelessness Prevention Framework . No-fee, no-interest Rent Loans can be a cost-effective successor to the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP), and much less expensive than traditional grants, but they are not entirely without cost. Will you make a $150 donation today to help a struggling family stay in their home? Your $150 donation covers all of the costs for a Rent Loan, making them an evergreen replacement for expiring ERAP. Thank you! The Flagstone Team Chip, Grace, Gregor, Keith, and Shin p.s. In partnership with the Housing Solutions Lab and the NYU Furman Center, we’re working on a study understanding the impacts of greater rent payment flexibility . Exciting!
The Flagstone Initiative News June 2024 Summer greetings from your friends at Flagstone! While summer is often a relaxing time, it wasn’t very relaxing a few short years ago. The pandemic was taking a terrible toll, and many families faced financial crises. In 2021, Congress passed two Emergency Rental Assistance Programs (ERAP) to help those families stay in their homes. ERAP provided over $46 billion to protect vulnerable renters and helped to drastically reduce evictions and homelessness. But post-ERAP, underlying problems remain: More households are rent burdened than ever Eviction filings are above pre-pandemic levels Homelessness is at a record high Now that ERAP is over, state and local governments are scrambling to address these challenges without extra federal funding. In the absence of those federal dollars, we need to figure out more cost-effective prevention strategies to keep people in their homes. For example: Include eviction prevention planning at the development stage National Housing Trust is calling on State Housing Finance Agencies to include eviction prevention as part of their Qualified Allocation Plans (QAPs) for Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) funding— Balancing Eviction Prevention and Property Financial Health Develop win/win eviction prevention policies WinnCompanies has developed a Housing Stability Program that includes numerous elements throughout the lease cycle to help keep residents housed. Local governments should provide cost-effective upstream financial stability programs in addition to downstream interventions The United Way recently eloquently advocated for upstream prevention and rental assistance in the Seattle Times: Pandemic-era funds have expired but WA housing needs continue Of course, we are grateful for the foundations and corporations who make our upstream eviction prevention work possible. This quarter, we received generous support from Airbnb, the Gheens Foundation, the Michael & Gillian Goodrich Foundation, the Housing Affordability Trust, and continuing support from the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham. If you would like to help us keep renters in their homes, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today . $100 enables us to make one Rent Loan and help a struggling household avoid falling behind on rent payments. Thank you! The Flagstone Team Chip, Grace, Gregor, Keith, and Shin p.s. You might also be interested in this story we wrote for LAA Access, a publication by the Louisville Apartment Association: Upstream Eviction Prevention—A Win for Everyone
We are happy to announce that the Housing Affordability Trust (HAT) is supporting Phase 2 of our upstream eviction prevention efforts in Greater Birmingham. Their support helps enable Flagstone's no-fee, no-interest Rent Loans for renters, and helps keep people in their homes. We are extremely grateful for the support of HAT and the many other generous foundations dedicated to helping Alabama renters. With their collective support, we are expanding our financial stability programs to cover over 2,500 low- to moderate-income renter households in Greater Birmingham.
We are honored to share that the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham continues to support The Flagstone Initiative's work to improve financial stability for renters in the region around Birmingham, Alabama, and prevent eviction upstream. Their support for Phase 2 of our work will help us grow in the Birmingham region to offer Rent Splitting and Rent Loans to 2,500 households, preventing eviction upstream and preventing people from falling into the persistent poverty trap. We are grateful for their ongoing support, and the opportunity to help even more Birmingham-area renters stay in their homes.
We are pleased to announce that The Gheens Foundation is supporting Phase 2 of our upstream eviction prevention efforts in Louisville, KY. The Gheens Foundation has a long history of improving the quality of life for the residents of Metropolitan Louisville, and their partnership will help us expand to improve financial stability for 2,500 lower-income "Missing Middle" households in Louisville with Rent Splitting and Rent Loans. We are grateful for their support for our upstream prevention approach, a strong complement to Louisville’s leadership in delivering relief downstream. We’re excited to be part of the broader strategy to support renters. Together, we can demonstrate how to effectively address the challenges of eviction and homelessness in the post-pandemic environment.
We are delighted to announce support from the Mike & Gillian Goodrich Foundation for phase 2 of our upstream eviction prevention programs in Birmingham, AL. The Mike & Gillian Goodrich Foundation invests in transformative and sustainable programs that create vibrant communities and promote equity and economic opportunity in Birmingham, the Black Belt, and the State of Alabama. With their help we are expanding our services to reach thousands more lower-income households in Greater Birmingham, building on the results we have seen in phase 1. We are grateful for their support for our mission to improve financial stability upstream and prevent devastating downstream outcomes like eviction and homelessness.
Millions of households in America live paycheck-to-paycheck, and face significant challenges to pay rent. The Flagstone Initiative is dedicated to improving financial stability for renters, to keep them in their homes. Today, Airbnb announced their support for our upstream eviction prevention efforts. The donation is part of their broader effort to give cost-burdened renters the option to use short-term rentals as a way to supplement their income and improve financial stability. The Airbnb press release: Our support for sensible, short-term rental policies for renters “Millions of renters live paycheck to paycheck and need help making ends meet. Airbnb’s donation will help provide creative upstream solutions to improve their financial stability and keep them in their homes.” —Shin Inoue, CEO of the Flagstone Initiative We are grateful to Airbnb and our many other partners for their support. Together, we can continue to shift eviction and homelessness prevention efforts upstream and avoid the devastating downstream consequences for families and communities.
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The Flagstone Initiative, Inc. is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. Tax ID (EIN): 88-1233886