Housing insecurity is by no means a new problem, as the Great Recession made very clear. But the unique mix of circumstances defining our present have made the problem that much worse in recent months, particularly for Black and Latino communities.
It is worth understanding what housing insecurity looked like in the United States prior to the pandemic in order to get a better sense of how the issue has recently morphed and expanded. To begin on a more general note, the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment is greater than $2,000/month in most affluent cities, and a quarter of Americans are spending more than half of their monthly income on rent. If you earn minimum wage, it is now impossible to rent a two-bedroom apartment in any city in the United States without being “cost-burdened,” which is defined as spending over 30% of income on rent.
Last year, in a time before quarantines and politicized masks, the gap in homeownership rates between Black and White families had reached record highs. Alongside this, the combined effects of gentrification (see part 3 of this Housing and Race series) and median rent increasing 150% since 2010 have had a far-reaching and disproportionate impact on BIPOC communities. On top of these data, Black people were found to be more likely to live in densely populated housing (meaning more shared spaces and surfaces for COVID-19 to spread), and Black and Latino workers were reporting higher rates of financial insecurity. That was in 2019.
Here’s the thing about pandemics- all disasters (economic, natural, humanitarian, etc.) tend to expose and widen existing inequalities, and the housing inequality crisis is no exception. In fact, the required social distancing inherent to this health disaster has in a way caused housing insecurity to grow even more rapidly in this country.
Up until recently, the best experts could do was guess at how bad the problem had gotten. Now, we have actual data to paint a housing insecurity picture for us, thanks to the US Census Bureau’s “Housing Pulse Survey” results collected from May 14-19.
The survey shows that, for some Americans, today’s “stay home, stay safe” orders hold deep irony.
Let’s check out the numbers- 25% of Black and Latino renters and 14% of White renters were unable to pay rent in May, and just under a third of Americans were unable to pay rent in April. Looking forward (remember, this data was collected in May), 50% of Black and Latino renters reported being concerned about paying rent in June. And finally, Black and Latino Americans are overrepresented in low-wage jobs that can’t be done remotely. This, plus their reported higher rates of financial insecurity, leads to these populations being uniquely vulnerable to housing instability following job loss. If you have read our posts on Hiring & Workplace Discrimination, A Tale of Two Deadly Pandemics: Coronavirus & Racism, or The Racial Wealth Gap, you’ll already have a solid grasp on the context behind this perfect storm.
But renters are not the whole story. As simply put by the Urban Institute, “among people with mortgages, 28 percent of Black homeowners did not pay or deferred their mortgage in May, compared with only 9 percent of White homeowners.” As citizens continue to defer these payments and the current housing crisis gets even worse, homelessness is expected to spike, adding to the already 550,000 individuals experiencing homelessness across the country.
The housing insecurity crisis has gone from already bad to desperate in a span of months. So, where do we go from here? While stimulus relief packages and eviction suspensions should be extended immediately, these actions do not address the systemic issues of housing insecurity at play. Again, the Urban Institute sums up the necessary response well: “...the policy and programmatic responses to the COVID-19 crisis and its impact on housing stability cannot take a one-size-fits-all approach; rather we need
race-conscious interventions that address the needs of renters and homeowners of color. In addition, policy solutions should focus on meeting the needs of lower-income renters who faced housing instability before the crisis began and now face the greatest risk of eviction.” Real, immediate federal action is required to move forward, and it's beyond time for our government to come together and work to keep people, particularly communities of color, in their homes amidst a global pandemic.
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