During the global COVID-19 pandemic, the San Diego Housing Commission (SDHC) worked closely with the City of San Diego to create a program to help pay rent for households with low income experiencing financial hardship because of the pandemic. SDHC then administered the City of San Diego COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program, which launched July 20, 2020.  

Through this program, SDHC disbursed more than $13.7 million in federal funds to provide one-time payments to help more than 3,700 qualifying households with low income in the City of San Diego pay their rent.

To raise awareness about the program, SDHC developed a robust, multilingual communications strategy and collaborated with elected officials and community-based organizations (CBOs), who assisted with community outreach and helped eligible households complete the online application.

• Creation of a dedicated page on SDHC’s website, including program information and “frequently asked questions” about the program

• Extensive media outreach for English and Spanish speakers

• Provision of suggested social media posts to elected officials and community organizations

• Creation of English- and Spanish-language television and radio ads 

• Outreach to 60 CBOs to raise awareness and potentially help applicants complete

• Contracts with eight CBOs to help renters complete and submit their applications, including renters without internet access

• Contract with 2-1-1 San Diego to respond to questions about the program

• Processing applications to determine eligibility and make payments to landlords

Adobe tools were essential to SDHC’s successful communications strategy, particularly as SDHC was tasked with running the communications plan with staff working remotely due to ongoing stay-home orders:

To help brand the new initiative, SDHC communications staff created a new logo for the COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program using Adobe Illustrator.

The logo reflects SDHC’s established and identifiable branding so that the public could identify SDHC’s involvement in the program at first glance. The bright color of the logo makes the program’s name stand out, and the typography is contained under an outline of a house and the City of San Diego text to illustrate the program’s focus on assisting with housing in the City of San Diego.

SDHC produced television and radio ads featuring then-San Diego Councilmember Chris Ward (now a member of the California State Assembly). The ads were part of a paid-advertising campaign that aired on English- and Spanish-language television and radio stations in San Diego.

The videos were created using Adobe Premiere Pro, which was also used to edit video of News Conferences, at which elected officials and partners came together to encourage residents who were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic to apply to receive rental assistance through the program.

SDHC also created English- and Spanish-language flyers, designed in Adobe InDesign. The flyers were essential to the efforts to increase awareness about the program. The flyers were distributed to elected officials and community organizations to raise awareness about the program.

Another flyer helped to publicize a drive for philanthropic donations, which raised additional funds that were used to assist San Diegans with low income affected by the COVID-19 pandemic who may not have otherwise qualified under the terms of eligibility of the federal funding.