Administering Emergency Financial Assistance: Understanding the time and costs required to deploy critical housing stability resources

When Minnesotans fall behind on housing payments, one of their primary options is to apply for emergency financial assistance from longstanding, publicly-funded programs. But navigating this system can be difficult for families in crisis, and there is no guarantee of sufficient or timely payment to preserve housing stability. It takes money, time, and staff to administer emergency financial assistance, but capacity constraints rooted in insufficient funding can lead to delays or other negative experiences during the application process.

As a continuation of our body of work to improve access to Minnesota’s emergency financial assistance programs, Family Housing Fund conducted research to better understand the administrative costs associated with three key emergency financial assistance programs: Emergency Assistance (EA), Emergency General Assistance (EGA), and Family Homeless Prevention Assistance Program (FHPAP). Our goal is to inform future program funding allocations, backed by data, that can strengthen the safety net for housing stability.