With unemployment levels at record highs and social safety nets evaporating, America is staring down what could be the most severe housing crisis in the nation’s history.
Across the country, about one in seven tenants has no confidence in their ability to pay rent this month, according to data from the US Census Bureau. Some estimates suggest 19 to 23 million US renters may be at risk of eviction by September 30.
Housing insecurity was already a trouble spot for the US even before the coronavirus hit. For renters who have managed to get by during the first part of the pandemic, vulnerabilities increased recently with the end of emergency protections from the CARES Act—as Congress remains deadlocked on a second relief package. Housing advocates say a surge in evictions and homelessness is inevitable in the coming months.
Here, Meredith Greif, an assistant research professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University who specializes in housing and homelessness, talks about the shortage of affordable housing in the US and how the pandemic has made everything worse:
The post COVID-19 makes US housing crisis even worse appeared first on Futurity.
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