JPMorgan Chase Committing $8.4 Million to Improve Household Stability for Black, Hispanic and Latino and Other Underserved Households

JPMorgan Chase today announced six organizations to receive philanthropic capital as part of the firm’s $400 million five-year commitment to improve housing affordability and stability for Black, Hispanic and Latino and other underserved households. These commitments and policy solutions are part of the firm’s $30 billion commitment to advance racial equity and help drive an inclusive economic recovery.

JPMorgan Chase Institute research has shown almost one in four renters experienced a greater than 10 percent drop in total income during the pandemic, even after accounting for government support, but did not have a forbearance safety net like homeowners, creating economic vulnerabilities for both renters and landlords. Through JPMorgan Chase’s commitments, six organizations will design and test innovative models to improve household stability with the goal of expanding successful models across the U.S. This includes eviction prevention support, rental assistance, access to legal services and resources for small landlords.

“Access to safe, affordable housing is key to building wealth but out of reach for far too many families,” said Heather Higginbottom, President, JPMorgan Chase PolicyCenter and Co-Head of Global Philanthropy. “Today’s announcement will help promote immediate housing stability for underserved households and is one step toward our goal of addressing barriers to affordable housing and homeownership, especially for Black, Latino and Hispanic families.”

Organizations receiving philanthropic capital:

Community Justice Project (Miami, FL)

At least 31% of Florida renters could be at risk of eviction by the end of the year.¹ With JPMorgan Chase’s $1.6 million three-year investment, Community Justice Project (CJP) will implement a community lawyering model supporting grassroots organizations and tenant-led campaigns to help stop evictions and improve conditions for renters. CJP aims to expand this model beyond Miami-Dade to eight other counties across Florida.

Community Legal Services (Philadelphia, PA)

During the pandemic, Philadelphia landlords filed to evict 4,500 tenants, disproportionately impacting Black, Latino and Hispanic communities, and the number of filings is expected to significantly increase as COVID-related tenant protections expire.² With JPMorgan Chase’s $1.5 million three-year investment, Community Legal Services will expand its program design and build capacity to alter the eviction landscape in Philadelphia by combining the following three initiatives: eviction alternatives, right to counsel and eviction record screening protections.

The COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project (Colorado)

At least 25% of renters in Colorado could be at risk of eviction by the end of year.³ With JPMorgan Chase’s $1.3 million two-year investment, The COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project will support eviction prevention through a strategic model that provides tenants with resources for household stability such as rental assistance, negotiation services, legal services and rehousing placements.

Equal Justice Works (Richmond, VA)

Five of the top ten cities with the highest eviction rates in the United States are located in the Commonwealth of Virginia.⁴ With JPMorgan Chase’s $1.5 million three-year investment, Equal Justice Works will bring together a group of lawyers and community organizers (‘Fellows’) as part of its Housing Justice Program to increase access to high-quality legal services and tenant resources for low-income Black, Latino and Hispanic households and residents of public housing. Housing Justice Program Fellows will also engage in high impact litigation to support practices that protect the rights of tenants across Virginia.

Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago (Chicago, IL)

In Illinois, 22% of Black renters and 17% of Hispanic and Latino renters are behind on their rent, compared to 9% of white renters.⁵ With JPMorgan Chase’s $1 million three-year investment, Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago (NHS Chicago) will provide rental assistance and counseling to around 675 households. NHS Chicago will also support small-unit landlords through rental and mortgage assistance, housing mediation services, renter relocation grants, post-purchase counseling, financial assessments and foreclosure prevention support.

Texas Housers (Houston, TX)

In Texas, more than 800,000 low-income renter households compete for around 244,000 rental units that are affordable and available to them.⁶ With JPMorgan Chase’s $1.5 million three-year investment, Texas Housers will provide low-income tenants in Texas with access to resources and advice to help secure rental assistance and long-term affordable housing. This includes helping tenants understand government emergency rental assistance programs and how to protect their homes when facing eviction. The investment will also fund Texas Housers’s work to support and expand a statewide collaboration of tenants and supporters engaged in research and policy discussions to increase the supply of affordable rental housing and secure essential tenant protections at the state and local level.

Advancing Data Driven Policy Solutions

Recently, the JPMorgan Chase PolicyCenter released data-driven policy recommendations to improve household stability weakened by the pandemic. These recommendations mirror the work of the organizations receiving philanthropic commitments. For example, the firm is supporting policies that:

• Implement fair eviction standards to help ensure stability and improve outcomes for tenants and landlords;
• Reduce preventable evictions by establishing eviction diversion programs, applying eviction principles, such as right to counsel, that protect tenants from unlawful eviction and helping ensure a balanced and predictable eviction process;
• Expand access to homelessness and eviction prevention programs, as well as legal assistance services that help renters navigate their housing options and rights, emergency shelter, and rapid re-housing; and
• Standardize the collection and tracking, of state and local level eviction data to better inform policy decisions.

To learn more about how JPMorgan Chase is working to advance racial equity and help bridge the racial wealth gap, visit www.jpmorganchase.com/racialequity.

About JPMorgan Chase

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is a leading financial services firm based in the United States of America (“U.S.”), with operations worldwide. JPMorgan Chase had $3.8 trillion in assets and $290.0 billion in stockholders’ equity as of September 30, 2021. The Firm is a leader in investment banking, financial services for consumers and small businesses, commercial banking, financial transaction processing and asset management. Under the J.P. Morgan and Chase brands, the Firm serves millions of customers in the U.S., and many of the world’s most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients globally. Information about JPMorgan Chase & Co. is available at www.jpmorganchase.com.

¹https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/the-covid-19-eviction-crisis-an-estimated-30-40-million-people-in-america-are-at-risk/

² https://www.courts.phila.gov/

³ https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/the-covid-19-eviction-crisis-an-estimated-30-40-million-people-in-america-are-at-risk/

⁴ https://evictionlab.org/rankings/#/evictions?r=United%20States&a=0&d=evictionRate&lang=en

⁵ https://www.census.gov/data/experimental-data-products/household-pulse-survey.html

⁶ https://reports.nlihc.org/gap/2019/tx

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