Definition

Jun-24 Status Update (Updated Default):

As part of its American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) expenditure plan adopted in July of 2021, Council allocated a total of $1.5 million over three years to develop and implement the City’s Shallow Rental Subsidy (SRS) program, in accordance with the strategy outlined in the Let's House Hayward Plan. Shallow rental subsidies are partial rent payments made on behalf of a tenant directly to their landlord to reduce their household rental cost burden and increase their available income, with the goal of preventing future homelessness. Shallow rental subsidies are distinguished from other forms of rental assistance in that they offer a generally lower level of assistance in comparison to other, “deep” subsidies such as Housing Choice Vouchers or Permanent Supportive Housing.

The City issued a request for proposals in the spring of 2022 and selected Bay Area Community Services) BACS as the operator for the SRS program. BACS administered the City’s COVID-19 rental assistance program in 2020 and operates SRS programs in Oakland and Berkeley.

The City worked closely with BACS to design the program based on learnings from other SRS programs in the region, as well as research and best practices shared by All Home and national studies. The design of Hayward’s SRS program was modeled on Oakland’s SRS pilot, which had launched in the summer of 2021. Aligning the City’s program with an existing SRS program allowed the City to learn from that program, leverage BACS’s established infrastructure, and participate in regional impact discussions and evaluation activities.