Renters’ Experiences During COVID-19 provides new evidence of how the pandemic has increased housing insecurity among renters and how households have navigated this ongoing hardship. Drawing from the January 2021 wave of the Consumer Financial Institute’s COVID-19 Survey of Consumers, which was designed to explore in detail renters’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, this research brief summarizes missed or partial rent payments, the amount of back rent currently owed, interactions with landlords, worries about eviction, and the resources and strategies renters have used to afford monthly rent payments. Overall, the results reveal a substantial amount of rental debt among households, some difficulty accessing state and local rental assistance, and financial precarity beyond what is implied by rental debt alone.

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