NLIHC Launches ERASE Tenant Protections Webpage

NLIHC has launched a new ERASE Tenant Protections webpage, accessible via the End Rental Arrears to Stop Evictions (ERASE) website. The ERASE project is a national effort to ensure the $46.5 billion in emergency rental assistance (ERA) enacted by Congress reaches the lowest-income and most marginalized renters. The new ERASE Tenant Protections page makes available to the public data from NLIHC’s State and Local ERA-Related Tenant Protections Database and its new report, Tenant Protections and Emergency Rental Assistance during and beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The pandemic and resulting historic aid to renters have fundamentally shifted the housing landscape in the United States, in part because state and local jurisdictions across the country have recognized the crucial role tenant protections play in preventing evictions and ensuring housing stability for the most marginalized households. In 2021, states and localities passed or implemented over 130 new laws or policies to protect tenants from eviction and keep them stably housed. The ERASE Tenant Protections webpage offers resources and tools to help researchers, policymakers, housing advocates, and tenants better understand the types of protections currently in place and inform advocacy efforts to increase local, state, and federal protections moving forward.

Among other resources, the page includes two interactive maps identifying the states and localities that have implemented tenant protections since January 2021; a Tenant Protections Dashboard that summarizes the protections passed by jurisdiction, the type of authority used to implement them (e.g., executive order, court order, ERA program policy, or legislation), and the nature of the protection (e.g., eviction moratorium, right to counsel, or source-of-income discrimination law); and a searchable database of all tenant protections enacted or implemented over the last year. The page also includes a link to the new report, Tenant Protections and Emergency Rental Assistance during and beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic.

NLIHC will regularly update the State and Local ERA-Related Tenant Protections Database with new information about tenant protections. If you know of new protections passed in your city, county, or state, please share this information with the ERASE team by contacting ERASE Project Coordinator Jade Vasquez at [email protected] or e-mailing the team at [email protected].