A Philly cash assistance program is proving successful at keeping low-income renters housed. Will it continue?

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A new study shows an experimental assistance program in Philadelphia is “dramatically” improving the housing stability of low-income renters — an encouraging outcome researchers say could help bolster similar efforts across the country.

Launched as a pilot in the fall of 2022, PHLHousing+ provides families guaranteed monthly cash payments to help cover housing costs, an alternative to traditional housing vouchers from the federal government.

The money, loaded onto prepaid debit cards, ensures that participants pay no more than 30% of their income on housing. The payments, however, are “unconditional and unrestricted,” meaning they can be spent however a household sees fit.

After two years in the program, the data shows participants were far less likely to face eviction or experience homelessness than households that received no rent subsidy, in part because they were able to easily access the assistance.

“That’s a real tangible outcome … that really makes the case that this cash-transfer program is dramatically improving people’s housing outcomes,” said Vincent Reina, founder and faculty director of the Housing Initiative at Penn.

More housing stability over time

The one-of-a-kind pilot is the result of a partnership between the University of Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Housing Authority and the Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation, which has operated the program on behalf of the city.

A total of 301 renter households agreed to participate after they were randomly selected from waitlists maintained by the PHA. To be eligible, they had to earn less than 50% of the area median income — $59,700 a year for a family of four in 2025 — and have at least one child under 16. They also couldn’t have a housing voucher or live in a public housing unit.

Each month, households received between $45 and $2,433, depending on the need, according to the report.

Researchers compared the program participants’ experiences to the experiences of two other cohorts — a group of 170 households who were offered tenant-based housing vouchers and 725 “control households,” who received no rental subsidy and remained on a PHA waitlist.

They found that, relative to households receiving no subsidy, the cash assistance led to a 75% reduction in so-called “forced moves” for participants after two years in the program. The term covers formal evictions, as well as more informal actions that left families looking for a new place to live, such as a landlord changing the locks.

The study also shows that participating households experienced homelessness at about half the rate of the control households after two years in the program.

Penn psychology professor Sara Jaffee, who directs the university’s Risk and Resilience Lab, said that, over time, housing stability often helps improve a family’s overall quality of life.

“There’s robust literature showing that households that are more housing secure, households that are not facing evictions, who are not making multiple moves, who are living in higher-quality homes, that adults and children in those households have better mental health, have better physical health,” Jaffee said.

PHLHousing+ was launched not long before the housing authority reopened its waitlist for the Housing Choice Voucher Program — often referred to as Section 8 — for the first time in more than a decade.

The agency’s new list was capped at 10,000 applicants, a total PHA has said would take between three and five years to clear.

An immediate impact

Unlike the pilot’s cash payments, landing on the waitlist doesn’t come with a guarantee, only the opportunity to search for a landlord willing to accept the rent subsidy, which is often a daunting, monthslong process in a city experiencing an affordable housing crisis.

Tracey Nathaniel said she’d been waiting for a housing voucher for well over a decade when she agreed to participate in the PHLHousing+ pilot.

At the time, she was struggling to make ends meet, always having to choose which bill to put off to cover the $1,150 in rent she owes each month for the rowhouse she shares with her two children in South Philadelphia.

“It was literally robbing Peter to pay Paul,” said Nathaniel, a certified nursing assistant.

These days, that balancing act has more breathing room, thanks to the cash payments she receives through the program — what Nathaniel calls her “security blanket.”

Money is still tight, but she said she doesn’t worry as much about paying for life’s basics, which was taking a toll on her mental health.

Nathaniel is also more optimistic about the future. With the cash assistance, she was able to cover the co-payments for the doctor’s appointments required to work in certain nursing facilities. She said that’s giving her the ability to work more shifts than she could before joining the program, potentially putting her in a position to fill a full-time slot if one becomes available.

“It opened doors for me that were initially closed,” she said. “If not for the program, I don’t honestly know where I would be going.”

The $10.8 million pilot, paid for using a combination of public and philanthropic dollars, is scheduled to conclude in June 2026.

For now, it’s unclear if the program will become a permanent part of the city’s menu of housing initiatives. But the study’s findings may help make that case, said Rachel Mulbry, director of policy and strategic initiatives at PHDC.

“These results are a really important, foundational piece for that conversation. It was really hard to have those longer-term conversations before we knew whether this was working for the housing stability outcomes that we care most about,” Mulbry said.

“They’re not in court, they’re not getting locked out more informally by a landlord, they’re not sleeping on couches or in a car, in a shelter. That’s absolutely huge,” she said.

The results come as the administration prepares to launch its Housing Opportunities Made Easy, or H.O.M.E., initiative, a multipronged effort dedicated to preserving and creating 30,000 units of housing.

The initiative will be backed by $800 million in bonds, which will be used to support dozens of programs, including several designed to help low-income families keep a roof over their heads.

Its first program budget and statement is expected this fall.