The Impact of Renter Education on Risk of Eviction for Tenants with and without Rental Assistance

A growing body of research finds that residential evictions are associated with negative social, economic, and health consequences for households and communities (Slee and Desmond 2021; Leifheit et al. 2021; Hatch and Yun 2021; Ghimire et al. 2021; Desmond 2012; Pierce 2020) . The recent COVID pandemic ushered in new policies to prevent and stabilize tenants, such as Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) and temporary eviction moratoria, the effects of which are still being evaluated (e.g., Reina et al. 2021) . However, pandemic-era programs are funded by emergency allocations set to expire at the end of 2022 or early 2023. Thus, local governments that wish to extend eviction-prevention work, must rely on other programs and policies. The proposed study seeks to evaluate the effect a county-sponsored non-profit renter education program on the risk of eviction. Using an experimental design, we aim to evaluate the impact of renter education on applicants to a rental assistance program and test the differential effect of renter education on rental assistance recipients and non-recipients.