BOSTON – August 13, 2024 – MassHousing and Esusu, the leading fintech platform leveraging rental data to build and establish credit scores and improve property performance, today announced a pilot program for Rent Reporting and Rent Relief at six Massachusetts rental housing communities to encourage the broader use of rent reporting services within the affordable housing ecosystem and test approaches to rental assistance for households with missed rent payments.

The program aims to boost credit scores, reduce evictions, and advance economic opportunities for renters across the Commonwealth.

"MassHousing is excited to partner with Esusu in this pilot program with the goal of boosting credit scores for people who rent as a key to open doors to them for homeownership," said MassHousing CEO Chrystal Kornegay. "This is a tool that housing providers and agencies can use to confront disparities in credit scores between renters and homeowners and address systemic barriers to wealth building and homeownership. We are looking forward to assessing the impact of this pilot program and fostering new practices and opportunities in the rental housing ecosystem."

"We are thrilled to partner with MassHousing to provide transformative credit and wealth-building opportunities for residents across Massachusetts," said Samir Goel and Wemimo Abbey, co-founders and co-CEOs of Esusu. "To date, over 45 million Americans are credit invisible, exposing them to high-interest capital, limited access to homeownership, and other financial opportunities. Our partnership with MassHousing will help create a financially stable entry point to credit-building for low-income renters and a pathway towards wealth generation."

MassHousing, through its Housing Stability Department, has contracted with Esusu to provide on-time rent reporting and rent assistance services powered by Stable Home Fund for approximately 1,300 rental homes, across six Massachusetts housing communities and four rental management companies. The four management companies are Beacon Communities, Peabody Properties, Inc., UHM Properties and Appleton Corporation. The properties are in Boston, Brockton, Worcester, and Springfield. 

The pilot program has three components:

Rent Reporting to help establish and boost credit scores. The participating sites and their residents will have access to the standard Esusu rent reporting platform that uses technology to integrate with property management software for automatic data ingestion for monthly on-time payment reporting to the three major credit bureaus. On time rent payments can be reported for all adult household members.

Rent Assistance for residents in arrears of their rent payments. All residents at a pilot site will be eligible to apply for Esusu’s 0% rent stability program in partnership with Esusu’s Stable Home Fund, a 501(c)(3) public charity organization.

For households who cite a job loss as a reason for their rent relief request, MassHousing, upon approval, will pay 100% of the grant amount up to 26 weeks. This component of rent relief is modeled after MassHousing’s highly successful MIPlus mortgage insurance, which provides a MassHousing homeowner with up to six months of principal and interest payments with no additional cost in the event of a job loss.

Additional assistance will also be provided by MassHousing for households with very low incomes to reduce their rent burden and support their long-term housing stability.  

Social Impact reporting will provide key data for properties and other stakeholders. Sites will have access to a data dashboard showing the impact of rent reporting and rent relief, allowing them to measure and report the key social impact metrics that support a stronger environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategy. 

MassHousing will have access to an enhanced data dashboard to assess and analyze program outcomes across the pilot sites and will collaborate with the management companies on additional data sharing, learning opportunities, and outreach to their residents. 

Residents of participating properties will have access to the Esusu App (available on iOS, Android, and web browser). This convenient hub allows renters to check their credit score for free, get credit building and financial insights, vetted financial products and services through the Esusu Renters Marketplace, find the best free local and government financial resources and support available, and share their rental payment track record with the Esusu Passport.

About Esusu

Esusu is the leading financial technology platform that leverages data solutions to empower residents and improve property performance. Esusu's rent reporting platform captures rental payment data and reports it to credit bureaus to boost credit scores. This allows renters to build and establish their credit scores while helping property owners mitigate against initiating evictions, powered by differentiated data and insights. Founded in 2018, Esusu reaches over five million rental units across all 50 states in the United States. Learn more at www.esusurent.com and follow us on Instagram @myesusu and on Twitter @getesusu.

About MassHousing

MassHousing (The Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency) is an independent, quasi-public agency created in 1966 and charged with providing financing for affordable housing in Massachusetts. The Agency raises capital by selling bonds and lends the proceeds to low- and moderate-income homebuyers and homeowners, and to developers who build or preserve affordable and/or mixed-income rental housing. MassHousing does not use taxpayer dollars to sustain its operations, although it administers some publicly funded programs on behalf of the Commonwealth. Since its inception, MassHousing has provided approximately $29 billion for affordable housing. For more information, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. 

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