Renters and landlords can find out what emergency rental assistance covers, how it works, and who’s eligible on the interagency housing portal hosted by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
It's critically important that tenants and landlords are able to get through the ERA application process quickly and without undue burden. Online applications must be designed thoughtfully and intentionally to collect the information you need from the applicant.
To help accomplish these goals, Treasury has prepared these guidelines for creating and improving ERA applications to be easy-to-use by ERA applicants. These best practices were created in conjunction with the U.S. Digital Service to help grantees of the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) programs with developing ERA applications 1 .
These application practices are for ERA grantees and their contractors building ERA applications.
The most successful systems and services are shaped and informed by the needs of those who use them. Assumptions about others’ experience are often wrong, inflicted with personal bias, or overlook details critical to making your program effective. The best way to understand your applicants’ perspective is to engage with them directly through applicant research and co-design sessions, which enable you to gain insights, assess usability, and get feedback on areas to improve.
Plain language is easy to understand and accessible to a diverse group of applicants. Plain language diagnostic tools such as: HemingwayApp, Read-able.com, or Microsoft Word can help identify areas for improvement.
Make sure your online application provides a way for ERA applicants to get a helping hand to complete the application process if they need it. This service should be made available to applicants either over the phone or, if possible, in person. In addition, getting feedback from the individuals providing this support is another way to identify friction points in your application that can be improved.
Test the questions you are asking of applicants in your applications by putting them in front of applicants and determine if they understand what is being asked of them. When needed, iterate on question phrasing to make it easier for applicants to understand. Using plain language here is critical, but equally critical is getting feedback from actual applicants.
The cognitive load imposed by a user interface is the amount of mental resources that an applicant has to use to operate the system. There is already a cognitive burden to poverty and/or experiences of crisis, so the application should not add to that already significant cognitive load.
Think of your form as a conversation. In a conversation with an applicant, you would likely not start by asking the most sensitive, private information first. You’d usually ask them easy questions first, like their name and address. You’d likely ask them easy questions first, like their name and address. You’d also likely group questions about a topic together, such as questions about household income. Structure your form in the same way. This case study on structuring complex health care questions for healthcare.gov goes into greater detail on how to do this.
Another way to reduce cognitive load is to stick to the One thing per page principle and design pattern. The Government Digital Service (GDS) in the UK has written about their use of this pattern and has found that it not only helps applicants understand what you’re asking them to do, it also helps your application save an applicant's answers automatically as they go, capture analytics about each question, and handle branching questions.
Many programs are customizing their digital ERA applications to only reveal certain questions based on information provided by the applicant in order “to lower the chances that applicants will feel overwhelmed by what they encounter.” By revealing only the essentials, applications can help applicants manage the complexity of the application process. This design pattern is known as progressive disclosure and is a way to hide complexity. For example, it would be appropriate to first ask an applicant if they want assistance for utilities and have them confirm that they do before asking them for which utilities and for how many months of arrears. This principle works well when combined with the “One thing per page” pattern mentioned above.
This is also a technique to only collect the information you need to make a determination. If you are able to order your questions in a way that, based on the applicant’s answers, avoids additional questions for some applicants it may also reduce information that has to be reviewed and thus speed up processing time.
You can further reduce complexity by only surfacing information that’s pertinent to the applicant and hiding information that’s for internal use or pertains to application processing. Showing an AMI table and asking the applicant to determine whether or not their income and household size meets the eligibility requirements puts the onus on the applicant to find the appropriate range. Instead, asking the applicant for their address or county and household size gives the system the information it needs to return the relevant information to help the applicant.
An effective way to reduce cognitive load is to use recognition over recall. This can be accomplished by providing examples in easily scanned lists of the type of information you are looking for instead of requiring that the applicant enter narratives.
When an applicant feels like they are driving the application process, they are more likely to submit an accurate and complete application. Conversely, when a system forces them down an unexpected path or requires them to upload a document they don’t have in order to proceed, applicants may become discouraged and drop off. This can result in incomplete and duplicate applications and cause qualified applicants to miss out on assistance.
As noted in our Guidelines for program websites, provide this information before the application begins and make the information specific to the appropriate audience. This means preparing content for both tenants and landlords. In addition, this section should cover why the documentation is necessary, which documentation is required and which are alternative forms, and what will be done with the information.
At the stage when applicants are asked to provide documents to establish COVID hardship, housing instability, income, or rental obligation, applicants should also be informed that they may self-attest and move forward in the application if they do not have those documents.
Applicants should not be expected to complete an ERA application in one sitting. Given the documentation requirements, many applicants may need to collect documents and return to upload them at a later time.
Many programs close the application to the applicant for processing. Staff then have to email or call applicants to ask them to provide missing documentation. While this interaction may at times be necessary, the application shouldn't be closed to the applicant in case they are able to get help in uploading the necessary document(s). By permitting the applicant to initially provide this information for themselves, this can cut down on the processing time. Alternatively, an email address that can be used to submit documentation should be given to the applicant at the conclusion of the application if they fail to provide all requested documents.
When gathering an applicant's personal information it is important to provide control and autonomy by protecting that data and only asking for what is required. ERA grantees are required to establish data privacy and security measures for the information about households collected from landlords, utility providers, households themselves. These measures should include avoiding the collection or storage of information about the applicant beyond the data required by Treasury for ERA reporting purposes. For instance, requiring that applicants provide their social security numbers in order to be eligible for ERA assistance is not consistent with Treasury's reporting guidance and may be inconsistent with the Privacy Act. You must also include confidentiality protections for data collected about any individuals who are survivors of intimate partner violence, sexual assault, or stalking.
Operational transparency of the ERA application and application processing can fundamentally reshape the ways tenants and landlords understand, perceive, and engage with the grantees and community-based organizations that serve them.
Before applicants begin the application, ERA grantees should communicate the purpose of the application and how long it will take to complete the application. There should also be a clear explanation of the types of information applicants will be asked to provide in the application. Within the application, required information should be clearly explained. After applicants submit their application, you should specify estimated processing times and follow up activities or reminders for the applicants.
The application process should be divided into clear steps that build towards a complete application. A step indicator updates applicants on their progress through a multi-step process. It’s important to ground applicants in the process by letting them know how many steps are in the process, how many steps they have completed, and which steps they have yet to complete. The U.S. Web Design System has more guidance and a component example.
For applicants that attempt to reapply, it is important to intercept that attempt to save them time and frustration as well as prevent the processing of duplicate applications. To accomplish this when a new application is started that matches the name and address of an existing application, provide the applicant a summary of their existing application and ask if they have information to update the existing application.
When applicants return to check on their application, show them what's missing from the application, show who has the next step, and if at all possible, give them an estimated time frame for when they might expect payment. Being transparent about where an application is in the process and expected processing times will drive down anxiety for the applicant as well as reduce duplicate applications and contacts to your program for a status update. Emphasize that applying again will not speed up the process. Be sure to make application status information visible on both the tenant and landlord side of your application.
Application friction and barriers either slow down the process or introduce obstacles that prevent applicants from completing their ERA applications (eg. back and forth with documentation; internet access challenges; etc.) When programs reduce friction and barrier bust for applicants, they increase access to assistance, manage applicants' stressors, and increase the likelihood of applicants’ follow-through and action. People’s coping resources can be depleted under this already stressful situation. Friction and barriers to access the help they need during a crisis only exacerbate this stress and take up time that people in crisis can’t afford.
A pre-eligibility check is a screener, or first step that informs applicants whether they are likely to qualify for assistance and can help applicants know whether it’s worth investing their time in filling out the rest of the application. In addition, it can also provide households looking for new housing or those who may be in court proceedings documentation to show to a landlord or court.
The data the applicant provides through the pre-eligibility check should pre-populate their full application so that they do not have to enter the information again. Ideally, it could also help customize or streamline the full application.
Give applicants the ability to upload documents in the online application.
Documents such as tax returns or income determination letters from unemployment or other government assistance programs can satisfy document requirements for identity, residence, and income. Within the application, clearly indicate which documents can be used to satisfy the multiple documentation requirements. When applicants provide one of these “gold standard documents,” make it clear that they do not need to provide additional documents and do not prompt them to submit further documentation.
The use of self-attestation is strongly encouraged and ensures your program offers access to all who qualify. It may in fact be the most reliable form of evidence for the ERA application categories where documentation is required.
Not all applicants will have the technological skills or access to upload documents. When prompting an applicant to provide documentation, be sure to also offer self-attestation as an option at the same time. Then, applicants who don't possess or aren’t able to upload documents won’t get the impression that the absence of such documents disqualifies them from receiving assistance. Further reduce friction by allowing applicants to check a box to indicate that they provided a self-attestation.
Make it easy for applicants to sign their ERA application electronically online. Eligible households may encounter barriers in uploading documents. Offering an electronic signature removes this unnecessary obstacle and increases the chances that they are able to submit a completed ERA application online.
1 The program information provided herein is intended solely to illuminate “guidelines” that ERA grantees might consider when developing their jurisdiction’s program policies and infrastructure. All such policy development must proceed in accordance with the governing legal authorities and published policy guidance. Nothing herein should be construed as (i) altering these requirements or (ii) confirming that any specific grantee’s program policies or administrative practices have been fully reviewed and found compliant.