Spillover Effects of Emergency Rental Assistance on Economic and Psychological Well-being during the COVID-19 Pandemic

• In Event: Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) and Eviction Prevention

Abstract

Background & Purpose
The shock of the COVID-19 pandemic threated to exacerbate social and economic hardships. Housing security in the context of a pre-existing affordability crisis was a particular concern, but the pandemic shock also threatened increased risk of food hardship and psychological distress. As one response to the potential wave of housing insecurity, the federal government implemented the nearly $47 billion Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERA), funding state and local governments to administer programs providing rental aid to vulnerable households. Since housing insecurity is associated with other adverse outcomes, receipt of material support could stabilize housing and, in turn, have ancillary effects on problems such as food hardship and psychological distress.

Initial research indicates ERA participation reduced housing instability among renter households, but spillover effects on other aspects of well-being have not been explored. This study asked:
1)    Did ERA participation reduce the risk of non-housing material hardships such as food insufficiency?
2)    Did ERA participation reduce the incidence of psychological distress?
3)    To what extent were these effects mediated through changes in housing security?

Methods
We drew data from the Household Pulse Survey (Pulse), a large rapid-response survey fielded by the U.S. Census Bureau as a series of repeated cross-sections throughout the pandemic. We pooled all Pulse cohorts from August 2021 to December 2023, a period during which the survey included a question about receipt of rental assistance, and restricted to households paying rent (n=275,203). Our treatment variable was a binary indicator of rental assistance receipt and we operationalized housing security using an indicator variable for whether the household was in rental arrears. Food insufficiency was measured as self-reported household access to a sufficient quantity of food in the past seven days while psychological distress was operationalized with indicators for anxiety and depression from the validated GAD-2 and PHQ-2 screeners, using cutoff scores indicating the likelihood of clinical-level symptoms.

To approximate an experimental design and increase confidence in a causal interpretation of results, we further restricted the sample only to households reporting applying for and either receiving rental assistance (treatment) or awaiting a decision (comparison). We then balanced these groups on covariates using coarsened exact matching (sample size n=16,856). We used mediation models to assess the relationships between rental assistance receipt and both food insufficiency and psychological distress with housing insecurity as an intermediary variable.

Results and Implications
Rental assistance participation was associated with an approximately 10% decline in the likelihood of food insufficiency, depression, and anxiety. Approximately half of each effect was direct and half indirect through decreased housing insecurity. Findings highlight the role of transfer programs in reducing both material and psychological hardship as well as the potential for spillover effects on related arenas of wellbeing from targeted interventions. 

Authors

• Rebekah Levine Coley, Boston College
  Presenting Author

• Christopher Essem Baidoo, Boston College
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Kimberly Megan Collier
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Naoka E Carey, Boston College
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Vincent A. Fusaro, Boston College
  Non-Presenting Co-Author