The importance of a stable, affordable, healthy home has never been more evident than during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our collective success in combatting this global crisis hinges on every person having a home where they can shelter in place and take the precautions needed to remain healthy. However, the economic downturn resulting from the pandemic threatens not only individual health and housing stability but the actual supply of affordable homes across the country—which has long been insufficient to meet the growing need. To restore the health of our nation and advance racial equity, we must preserve affordable homes by maintaining their long-term financial and physical viability and keeping rents affordable for current and future tenants.

An affordable stable home was already out of reach for millions of people before the pandemic and not just in high-cost markets. Nationally, a family needs to earn an hourly wage of $19.53 to afford a modest one-bedroom apartment, yet the federal minimum wage is only $7.25. Not only are rents too high, but incomes are also too low. This is particularly true for Black and Latinx people who are disproportionately likely to be low-wage workers. The pandemic has only exacerbated these challenges. Millions of people, including those who were already rent-burdened, have lost jobs or income, leaving them unable to pay rent. In an April poll by the Pew Research Center, 52 percent of low-income adults said that someone in their household had experienced a job loss or income reduction due to the pandemic. However, when disaggregated by race, those numbers varied widely: 61 percent of Latinx adults, 44 percent of Black adults, and 38 percent of whites. These disparities are particularly striking given that people identifying as Latinx and Black comprise only 18 percent and 13 percent of the U.S. population, respectively.