Where was emergency rental assistance spent? A description of the targeting of federal aid

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government made an unprecedented outlay of funds for emergency rental assistance (ERA), providing more than $46 billion to renters and their landlords. Previous research has documented the logistical challenges of distributing these funds during the pandemic. In this study, we use restricted-use Treasury Department data on ERA payments to describe the distribution of rental assistance across neighborhoods, demonstrating significant variation in the scale and timing of payments. We analyze differences in the amount and pace of ERA payments made by neighborhood socio-demographic and economic characteristics, as well as pre-pandemic eviction filing patterns. We show that ERA was well-targeted to areas at greatest risk of housing instability and that a larger share of potentially eligible low-income renter households received assistance in such neighborhoods in 2021. Overall funding levels and use of programmatic flexibilities affected the pace of distribution between programs, but had minimal impact on within-program distribution patterns. Our findings help to inform both evaluation of pandemic-era policies and the design of future eviction prevention programs.