Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) programs across the country, including mobility programs, are tasked with recruiting and retaining landlords to rent to families with housing vouchers. This study highlights the barriers and benefits landlords in opportunity areas experience when they participate in such programs. Despite the well-known social, programmatic, and bureaucratic barriers to landlord participation, we find evidence that administrative streamlining, damage guarantee funds, and relationship building make a big difference to landlords. 

The additional resources provided by the Baltimore Housing Regional Partnership (BRHP), like housing counseling and educational workshops also improve tenant and landlord relationships. However, most landlords in our study could not pinpoint what those added services were (because they were unaware of them) and instead some referred to “luck” to account for these differences. If housing authorities and mobility programs are to have the highest impact in persuading opportunity landlords to join and continue their HCV participation, findings indicate the need for programs to better elevate the support systems they provide and work to build relationships with landlords. Doing so will allow voucher programs to further understand how to expand and improve these and other services.

Read the full report here

Learn more about the Annie E. Casey Foundation here.

Learn more about PRACC here.