Does behaviorally-informed outreach increase rental property owners’ interest in housing voucher programs?
Project Summary
Housing voucher programs help tens of thousands of low-income households in Massachusetts afford housing on the private market. The success of voucher programs depends on rental property owners’ willingness to participate by accepting tenants with vouchers. Yet, these programs have traditionally struggled to attract and retain landlords. The People Lab is working with the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing & Livable Communities (EOHLC) to co-design and test the impact of different outreach messages on rental property owners’ engagement with voucher programs.
Why is this issue important?
Housing voucher programs provide subsidies for low-income families to afford housing on the private rental market. Voucher programs have been found to reduce homelessness and housing instability. However, tenants with vouchers often have trouble finding rental property owners willing to accept their vouchers, despite a state law prohibiting discrimination based on a tenant’s source of income. This can restrict their housing options, limit mobility, and even lead to them losing their voucher if they cannot secure a unit within the allotted time. As such, increasing the number of rental property owners who participate in housing voucher programs is currently a top priority for local, state, and federal policymakers.
What are we doing?
In collaboration with EOHLC, we are co-designing and testing different behaviorally-informed outreach messages among more than 120,000 presumed rental property owners across Massachusetts. In a field experiment, we will evaluate the impact of outreach on rental property owners’ engagement with an informational website about housing voucher programs, interest in receiving more detailed information about these programs, and likelihood of advertising vacancies on a rental website geared toward low-income tenants.
What comes next?
Results are expected in Fall 2023.