Why Do We Make Things So Hard for Renters?

There have been other problems, too, with the rental assistance program and other similar ones. For example, a balky computer system might reject applicants inexplicably.

“It mistook them for someone else or denied them when they were eligible for back benefits,” said Emily Benfer, a visiting professor at Wake Forest University School of Law who has seen such problems repeatedly over the years when representing clients. Each improperly denied application “takes months to correct and has significant costs, not just in lost support but in the time and energy that it takes when you could be using that to stabilize yourself and your family.”

There are many reasons — too many — that we erect higher burdens for those with lower incomes. There are the historical, and in many instances racially motivated, assumptions about who is deserving. Fear of fraud exists, which is reasonable to a degree but is problematic when it delays aid during an acute crisis.

Sometimes it comes down to governmental ignorance.

“The programs are designed by people who are not themselves poor and done without any consultation with those people, either,” said Peter Hepburn, an assistant professor at Rutgers University-Newark who also works with the Eviction Lab program at Princeton. The result can be crucial flaws, such as optimizing forms for people with computers and printers, when using a mobile phone might be easier and faster — not to mention the only realistic possibility — for lots of the people in need.

And finally, we have political considerations, always and forever. Low-income renters lack power, and elected officials know it.

“Even if you do realize that this is not going to be a great experience when you try to access benefits, you’re probably not that worried about it politically,” Professor Herd said.

So what might we learn? And what could actually go right the next time, say, a massive hurricane puts much of South Florida in a standstill?

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/06/your-money/rental-assistance-eviction-coronavirus.html