Originally published 2021-01-17.
In December 2020, Beyoncé’s charitable arm, BeyGOOD, teamed up with the NAACP to offer housing grants of up to $5,000 each to people in the United States who were behind on rent or mortgage payments and facing eviction or foreclosure. The plan was for 100 grants, which puts the total pool at up to $500,000. The money was aimed especially at Black families, who were among the hardest hit by the economic fallout of COVID-19.
Below we explain how the grants worked, why housing became the focus, what BeyGOOD and the NAACP had already done earlier in the pandemic, and what a $5,000 grant can and cannot fix for a household in trouble.
What the BeyGOOD and NAACP housing grants offered
The grants were the second stage of what BeyGOOD called its Impact Fund, a pandemic relief effort run together with the NAACP, the oldest civil rights organisation in the US (founded in 1909). The first stage had focused on small businesses; the second turned to housing.
- Who could apply: individuals and families facing eviction from a rented home or foreclosure on a mortgage.
- How much: up to $5,000 per household, paid as a grant rather than a loan, so nothing had to be paid back.
- How many: 100 grants in total.
- How to apply: through an online form hosted by the NAACP. The first round closed on 15 January 2021, and a second round was due to open in February 2021, according to Global Citizen.
Some early headlines described the scheme as Beyoncé “giving $500,000”. That figure is the ceiling if every one of the 100 grants were paid at the maximum amount; each household received at most $5,000, and the final sum distributed was not published in the reporting we checked.
Why housing became the focus in late 2020
By the end of 2020, millions of American renters and homeowners had fallen behind on payments. Unemployment in the US had jumped from 3.5% in February 2020 to 14.7% in April, the highest rate since the early 1940s, and many jobs in hospitality, retail and services did not come back quickly.
The safety net for tenants was patchy. The CARES Act, passed in March 2020, protected only renters in homes with federal backing, and only until July. In September 2020 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a broader eviction order, originally set to run until 31 December 2020. BeyGOOD’s announcement warned that protections were about to run out at the end of December, which is why the fund described the timing as urgent during the holiday season.
In practice, the federal eviction ban was extended and then replaced several times before the US Supreme Court ended it on 26 August 2021. But in December 2020 nobody knew that, and many families were preparing for the worst. Rent and mortgage arrears also kept growing during the moratorium, because the order paused evictions but did not cancel what tenants owed.
What BeyGOOD and the NAACP said
BeyGOOD shared the news on its social media accounts and on Beyoncé’s website, framing the grants as some good news at a stressful time. In its statement, the foundation listed the help it had already given to organisations providing food, water, household supplies, COVID testing and mental health support, and said Beyoncé “is continuing her heart of support and helping where needed most.”
A post shared by BeyGOOD (@beygood)
The NAACP explained the purpose in financial terms. It said it was “committed to helping ensure African Americans maintain their wealth and financial security” during the pandemic. That wording matters: for many families, a home is the single largest asset they own, so losing it to foreclosure can wipe out savings built up over decades.
The earlier small-business grants
The housing grants built on an earlier round. In July 2020, BeyGOOD and the NAACP gave $10,000 grants to more than 250 small Black-owned businesses hurt by lockdowns and lost trade, according to Global Citizen. Some older write-ups claimed those grants “saved” the businesses from closing; that is hard to measure, and no follow-up figures were published, so it is safer to say the money was intended to help them stay afloat.
BeyGOOD itself dates back to 2013. Since then it has backed scholarships, water relief in Flint, Michigan, and disaster recovery work, often in partnership with established non-profits rather than running programmes alone.
Why Black households were hit hardest
The economic damage of the pandemic was not spread evenly. Black and Latino workers were over-represented in front-line and service jobs that were either cut or exposed to the virus, and they had, on average, far less family wealth to fall back on. A survey by the Social Policy Institute at Washington University in St. Louis, cited by Global Citizen, found that housing hardship rose significantly for Black and Latinx households during 2020.
Earlier that year, during the One World: Together At Home broadcast in April 2020, Beyoncé had spoken publicly about how COVID-19 was hitting Black communities disproportionately. The housing grants were one way of acting on that concern.
What a $5,000 grant can and cannot do
A hundred grants cannot solve a national housing crisis. At the time, estimates of total US rent arrears ran into billions of dollars, and Congress later approved tens of billions in Emergency Rental Assistance. Private grants like these work best as a fast bridge: they can clear a few months of arrears, stop a court case, or buy a family time to find work or move somewhere affordable.
For anyone facing eviction or foreclosure today, a few practical steps are worth knowing:
- Act early. Contact your landlord or lender as soon as you know you will miss a payment; repayment plans are easier to agree before a case reaches court.
- Look for local rental assistance. Many cities, counties and states run emergency rent or mortgage relief programmes, and 211 helplines in the US can point you to them.
- Get free legal advice. Legal aid organisations can check whether an eviction notice was served correctly and what protections apply where you live.
- Watch for scams. Genuine grant programmes do not ask for an upfront fee to apply.
Why the story still matters
The BeyGOOD and NAACP programme was modest in scale, but it pointed to a real gap: emergency help often arrives too slowly for families whose rent is due this month. Celebrity-backed funds can move faster than government schemes, and partnering with a long-standing organisation like the NAACP gives them a way to reach people who need it. The lasting lesson is about timing as much as money. Help that comes before an eviction notice is far cheaper, and far kinder, than help that comes after.
Sources: Global Citizen: Beyoncé and the NAACP housing grants; BeyGOOD announcement; NAACP; Wikipedia: COVID-19 eviction moratoriums in the United States; Wikipedia: COVID-19 recession. Instagram post: BeyGOOD (@beygood).
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