The role of housing, as the site of social reproduction, includes a range of benefits that have heightened significance in the context of COVID-19. Housing provides (or not) immediate safety and security for the most basic human activities. A formal registered dwelling also provides access to such state entitlements as ration cards, water subsidies and legal protection. Through its location, housing provides access (or not) to such essential particulars as health clinics and emergency response, income-generation possibilities and social networks, as well as to the basic infrastructure that determines access to water, sanitation, drainage, electricity and waste collection.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations on self-protection in the face of COVID-19 depend heavily on housing quality. Caitlin Brown et al., estimate that 90 per cent of households in the global South cannot comply with these recommendations because of housing inadequacies. Their index of adequacy considers six measures: no more than two people per room; a toilet that is not shared; proper walls and roof; a water source in the house or yard; a place to wash hands; and internet, phone, TV or radio. In this issue, the papers by Annie Wilkinson and by Isabel Duque Franco, Catalina Ortiz, Jota Samper and Gwynna Millan detail how COVID-19 has highlighted the challenges for those in overcrowded, underserviced neighbourhoods, and their capacity to conduct such basic family functions as childrearing and self-care.

These challenges are heightened by government response measures and their economic consequences. These authors also discuss the stress levels associated with overcrowding, lack of privacy and other deprivations, and the related erosion of social relations. In the absence of affordable state provision of areas zoned for residential development, with services compliant with building regulations and standards, housing informality remains the only way for households to secure social reproduction. The scale of neglect is astounding; even in relatively higher-income Latin America, millions still live in precarious conditions.