Yep. We COULD have done a LOT of things differently these past 2 years, but what do I know? ;)
FWIW, ‘solutions’ from the article:
First, software problems. Nearly a decade on from the healthcare.gov debacle, most institutions of government remain unacceptably behind the times in all matters related to computers. Tenants and social workers have described challenges navigating cumbersome, glitchy online portals.
Second, application design. Long and complicated applications for rent assistance apparently discouraged many tenants in need, especially immigrants without documents. In a January survey of 2020 rent relief programs, the National Low Income Housing Center identified this as a problem—nearly half of surveyed programs required social security numbers, for example. Eighty percent of programs said incomplete applications made it hard to hand out cash.
Third, landlords. Specifically, the money is supposed to go to landlords—often in exchange for some kind of assurance they will not evict the tenant for the delay for a certain period of time. Getting landlords and tenants to work together, even for a common goal, hasn’t always been easy.
Fourth, outreach. Unlike homeowners, who have regular contact with banks that can tell them about federal mortgage forbearance, more than half of the nation’s tenants don’t even know there is a federal relief program. That’s according to a survey conducted in May and published by the Urban Land Institute last month, which notes that less than 6 percent of landlords and 11 percent of tenants had applied for federal relief—a fraction of those who say they’re behind.
Fifth, local incompetence. How else to explain why New York State—facing one of the worst renter-household crises in the country—has waited so long to get money to people who need it?
Sixth, existing disinvestment. Washington turned on a fire hose of cash, but just like state unemployment systems, local housing agencies and nonprofits who help low-income tenants apply for help got swamped. A high-functioning social welfare program takes practice, and even 18 months in, many organizations are having trouble scaling up to get the job done.
I've got a solution for that. . .
"Immigrants without documents" = illegal aliens who should not be here sucking our tax dollars off FedGov's tit.
> especially immigrants without documents.
Illegal aliens.