For the past three years, Pima County with the City of Tucson has allocated more than $88 million in federal funds through the Emergency Rental Assistance Program to aid households affected by the pandemic. Around 17,000 Pima County eligible households received the help. A University of Arizona workshop has been following the benefits of the program for years.
Their latest survey reveals the impact the community is facing now that the rental assistance has expired.
Every year, UA’s “ Poverty in Tucson Field Workshop” surveys the community to gauge the impact of poverty and how to help struggling residents. When the pandemic hit, the workshop pivoted its focus to residents who were receiving federal rental assistance.
Brian Mayer, the director of the workshop, says that 75% of households were doing better since receiving the help. But the latest round of surveys took a darker turn as the money expired.
“They were being told there was no money left to help them or knew people could not enroll. So it was a darker set, more trauma, more stress in 2023 than it was in 2021 or 2022," Mayer said.
The workshop showed its community partners that those who received the now expired federal help are also ineligible for the current state assistance, leaving few avenues of help left. Students presented suggestions at the annual Tucson Field Workshop forum such as: implement more education programs, incentivize property managers to work with Section 8 vouchers and lobby the state Legislature to permit a form of rent control.
Mayer also says COVID-related assistance programs should be adapted into permanent policy.
“I think voters in the state of Arizona need to think about ‘well we did a lot of good, we kept a lot of people housed, we kept a lot of people out of poverty. We’re not doing that anymore so either we accept that more people are going to become homeless, more people are going to enter poverty, and likely be stuck there — or we do something new,’” Mayer said.
While survey findings were presented earlier this month, the workshop will publish a comprehensive report in February 2024.
