Rental Arrears Survey

2023 NACo Achievement Award Winner

Alameda County, Calif., CA

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About the Program

Category: Information Technology (Best in Category)

Year: 2023

The Board of Supervisors (BOS) enacted an Eviction Moratorium during the COVID-19 pandemic which outlasted the State of California’s protections. The moratorium imposed a ban on evictions for renters, homeowners, and those living in mobile home parks throughout the county beginning March 24, 2020. Without rent collection, landlords faced financial hardships. Community Development Agency (CDA) needed data to understand the extent of unpaid rent throughout the county in an efficient way. CDA partnered with Information Technology Department (ITD), and quickly developed, designed, and published a survey form using Microsoft Ecosystem. The questionnaires of the survey form contain information about the landlord, rental unit, tenant, unpaid rent and status of the tenant’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) application, and more. CDA distributed the survey to the public on September 8, 2022, through BOS Newsletters, Landlord Advocacy groups, and East Bay Rental Housing Association. In two months, hundreds of responses were collected. Analyzing reports from these surveys helped CDA and the BOS better understand the financial hardships. On February 28, 2023, nearly three years after instituting California’s harshest COVID-19 Eviction Moratorium, the BOS voted to let the eviction restrictions expire at the end of April 2023, giving huge relief to the landlords.