Households and Counting Received Rental Assistance
in Rental Assistance Distributed
In the wake of the pandemic, Illinois received $1.5 billion in federal emergency rental assistance funding intended to prevent evictions for people most at risk of losing their homes due to the COVID-19. This grant money was designed to prevent evictions for people most at risk of losing their homes: low-income families, disabled renters, veterans, and renters of color.
According to our client, the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS), there were 414,000 vulnerable people in 60,000 households in IL experiencing housing insecurity.
The stakes were high for this project because the eviction moratorium on COVID-related evictions was set to expire shortly after establishing our partnership.
Strategy
Marketing
Outreach
Web Design
By receiving first-hand insights, such as concerns of immigration status, providing personal information, and fear/skepticism of government aid, allowing us to present information in a clear, transparent language.
With that information, and the compassion and innate ability to listen to concerns and respond in a respectful and informed manner, our outreach team began a community effort to get the word out with simple, engaging messaging.
including Spanish, Polish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Arabic, Tagalog, and English. Whether they were door-to-door or strategically handing out fliers at faith-based or neighborhood events The CORE, our outreach team, played an invaluable role in spreading the word and answering questions along the way. Additionally, social media played a key role in helping renters and landlords easily share the rental assistance program.
To make it easy to spread the word about rental assistance, we created a printed and digital outreach toolkit in multiple languages. It served as a comprehensive guide providing overviews of the two rental assistance programs; how to determine which best suited for renters or landlords, utility assistance, and legal aid. This toolkit made distributing the fliers, palm cards, and posters simple. The toolkit also included a FAQ section with clickable links so our Outreach Team could easily consult a chart and immediately determine if applicants were income-eligible for assistance in any of the States 102 counties. In addition to downloadable collateral pieces, the toolkit also provided downloadable social media posts, making getting the word out as easy as sharing an already-created graphic.
IllinoisRentalAssistance.org served as an easy-to-navigate site that included a 4-step eligibility check for renters and landlords to determine which of the two rental assistance programs best fit their needs. Resources for utility assistance, legal aid, and accessing IDHS’ provider directory made this site a one-stop shop for applying for multiple services under the rental assistance program umbrella.
