Two Powerful Tools for Preventing Eviction
The Flagstone Team • September 26, 2023
The Flagstone Initiative News, September 2023
Greetings from your nonprofit Flagstone friends!
For those of you just tuning in, The Flagstone Initiative is a nonprofit working to prevent eviction and homelessness.
We focus on prevention because we believe that it’s way better to help people upstream rather than waiting until problems have piled up.
We do this by improving financial stability for low- to moderate-income renters who are living paycheck to paycheck.
Over the past year, we’ve seen very encouraging results from our ongoing demonstration projects with Rent Splitting and Rent Loans. Residents and housing owners/operators alike have recognized the benefits.
Rent Splitting helps with tight cash flow.
Most people get paid weekly or bi-weekly, and rent is by far their biggest expense.
In recent surveys, over 80% of residents reported that most or all of their first check of the month goes to rent—”Rent eats first.”
“Do I want to pay my rent, or do I want food in the house?” —J.S., Kentucky
With Rent Splitting, residents can pay rent in two installments, which smooths cash flow and enables people to keep food on the table and stay current on their other bills.
“I feel like if I didn't have rent split and I had to literally pay the whole thing and then pay bills, it would be a struggle to eat.” —S.G., Oklahoma
Rent Loans help when life happens.
We all experience small financial shocks from time to time—things like car repairs or missed hours due to illness.
These common shocks can lead to bigger problems if you don’t have savings. Unfortunately, 60% of the residents we serve report having zero savings.
“It can be the smallest thing. It can go from $200 today to the start of a real bad downfall.” -—E.M., Kentucky
To help residents absorb these shocks, we offer $500 Rent Loans with no fees and no interest. Residents repay with automatic $20 weekly transfers for 25 weeks, spreading out the impact of the shock.
The money is applied directly to rent, which helps avoid delinquency, late fees, and the specter of eviction.
“I appreciate the loan, you know. It helped my family extremely. We wasn’t put outside for it, so it did good.” —J.S., Kentucky
Rent Splitting and Rent Loans are more powerful together.
For 60% of Americans who live paycheck-to-paycheck, tight cash flow and lack of savings to handle life’s little shocks are common problems.
Rent Splitting and Rent Loans each do a good job of addressing one of these common problems.
Rent Splitting helps with tight cash flow.
Rent Loans help handle life’s little financial shocks.
These two solutions complement each other and are a powerful combination for preventing people from falling behind on rent and other bills.
“It’s juggling, sweetheart… I’ve been robbing Peter to pay Paul, and it’s been working until last month… I could handle things, but then the unexpected things came up.” —A.S., Chicago
Together, the combination of Rent Splitting plus Rent Loans prevents small problems from becoming big problems like eviction and homelessness.
We currently reach 2,500 residents of workforce/LIHTC housing in five states (AL, IL, KY, OK, and NY), and we’re adding more partners to extend our service to more struggling renters. Eventually, we want to offer these solutions nationwide, and change the way that Americans pay rent.
How you can help:
Please connect us with anyone who can help us scale our impact -- especially foundations and landlords. We are keen to grow and provide more help to more people!
As always, we are sincerely grateful for the help and support we receive from our incredible network of partners and friends. We couldn’t do this without your help.
Thank you for your support!
The Flagstone Team
Chip, Grace, Gregor, Keith, Shashank, and Shin
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We are pleased to announce that The Gheens Foundation has renewed their support for Rent Loans in Louisville, KY, playing a critical role in making Rent Loans available to Louisville renters at risk of eviction, helping to keep them in their homes. We are extremely grateful for the support of The Gheens Foundation and other generous foundations dedicated to helping Kentucky renters. With their collective support, we have made hundreds of Rent Loans to Kentucky renters, stabilizing their finances so they can remain stably housed.
Happy summer from your friends at Flagstone! We’ve been busy helping paycheck-to-paycheck renters stay in their homes with our no-fee, no-interest Rent Loans. We’re growing fast: We now reach 6,500 households, on pace for 10,000 by year end Over 330 loans made in 2025 so far, already more than double all of 2024 We’re on track to make over 1,000 Rent Loans annually
We are excited to announce that the Community Foundation of Louisville (CFL) has made a multi-year project-related investment supporting Rent Loans in Louisville, KY. With this loan capital from CFL, we will be able to make thousands of Rent Loans to Louisville renters at risk of eviction, and help keep them in their homes. We are extremely grateful for the support of CFL and other generous foundations dedicated to helping Kentucky renters. With their collective support, we have made hundreds of Rent Loans to Kentucky renters, stabilizing their finances so they can remain stably housed.
We are proud to announce that the Mike & Gillian Goodrich Foundation has renewed and extended their support for upstream eviction prevention in Alabama, with a multi-year grant. Their support helps enable Flagstone's no-fee, no-interest Rent Loans for renters, improving housing stability and helping people stay in their homes. We are extremely grateful for the support of the Mike & Gillian Goodrich Foundation and the many other generous foundations dedicated to helping Alabama renters. With their collective support, we have made hundreds of Rent Loans to Alabama renters, stabilizing their finances so they can remain stably housed.
We are happy to share that the Louisville Affordable Housing Trust Fund (LAHTF) has contributed to our upstream effort to improve housing stability with Rent Loans in Louisville, KY. We are extremely grateful for the support of LAHTF and the other generous foundations dedicated to helping Kentucky renters. With their collective support, we have made hundreds of Rent Loans to Kentucky renters, stabilizing their finances so they can remain stably housed.
We are delighted to announce that the Housing Affordability Trust (HAT) has renewed their support for upstream eviction prevention in Alabama, doubling their support from last year. Their support helps enable Flagstone's no-fee, no-interest Rent Loans for renters, improving housing stability and helping people stay in their homes. We are extremely grateful for the support of HAT and the many other generous foundations dedicated to helping Alabama renters. With their collective support, we have made hundreds of Rent Loans to Alabama renters, stabilizing their finances so they can remain stably housed.
Earlier this month, The Flagstone Initiative's CEO and co-founder Shin Inoue was invited to present at the Community Preservation Corporation (CPC)'s 50th Anniversary Symposium in New York City, as part of their " Innovative Ideas for the Future of Housing " program. Shin made a presentation entitled "Improve Housing Stability for Rent-Burdened Families with Rent Splitting and Rent Loans," an idea that resonated with the assembled housing innovators, including academics, policymakers, advocates, and community leaders. The event featured an impressive collection of innovators working to tackle the most pressing housing challenges facing American communities, and we are honored for the opportunity to share what we've learned about the impact of upstream financial stability programs for preventing eviction. From Shin's presentation:
The Flagstone team is pleased to announce the Alabama Power Foundation will continue its generous support of our eviction prevention programs. Their support of these programs creates lasting impact for the Alabama renters we serve. Their contribution will help us create a sustainable fund for Rent Loans, our no-interest loan that helps residents stay current on rent through small-dollar financial shocks like car-repairs. Thank you to the Alabama Power Foundation, we are excited to continue our work together in the coming year!
We are excited to share that The Daniel Foundation will continue to support The Flagstone Initiative's work to provide upstream eviction prevention solutions to Alabama renters. Our team is thankful for their dedication to helping us provide housing stability to the Missing Middle. Their support includes a multi-year grant that will allow us to greatly expand the number of renters we can help in Alabama. We are grateful for the Daniel Foundation’s support, and look forward to growing our impact with their help.
The Flagstone Initiative News October 2024 Happy fall from your friends at Flagstone! Fall is a time of change, but one thing that isn’t changing is that millions of paycheck-to-paycheck renters need help. So we are changing, to help more people, more quickly. We are now offering standalone Rent Loans. Offering standalone Rent Loans (without Rent Splitting) means fast, easy implementation, with no changes for housing partners. Instead of waiting until renters need large grants to avoid eviction, smaller loans can be used to improve financial stability and keep people in their homes. The value of this type of upstream prevention continues to gain broader recognition. Just last week, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) published the first-ever Federal Homelessness Prevention Framework . No-fee, no-interest Rent Loans can be a cost-effective successor to the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP), and much less expensive than traditional grants, but they are not entirely without cost. Will you make a $150 donation today to help a struggling family stay in their home? Your $150 donation covers all of the costs for a Rent Loan, making them an evergreen replacement for expiring ERAP. Thank you! The Flagstone Team Chip, Grace, Gregor, Keith, and Shin p.s. In partnership with the Housing Solutions Lab and the NYU Furman Center, we’re working on a study understanding the impacts of greater rent payment flexibility . Exciting!
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