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Unaffordable Housing Harmed Black & Latinx Children Even Before COVID-19

December 2020 | By Aureo Dias Mesquita

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Happy Latin American family smiling in front of their new rural house - housing policy concepts

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Congress’ Failure to Extend UI is an Economic Attack on Workers & Families, Particularly Black & Brown Californians… Here’s How We Know

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Another day ticks by and out-of-work Californians are increasingly uncertain how they’re going to pay their rent and put food on the table if Congress cuts federal unemployment benefits, as Senate Republicans have proposed. This much is clear: Cutting federal unemployment benefits by any amount attacks the economic security of Black and brown workers and families across California, as well … Continued

Introduction

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, unaffordable housing costs represented one of California’s most pressing challenges – and the job losses triggered by stay-home orders necessary to address the public health emergency threaten to exacerbate this long-standing crisis. Housing affordability is a problem throughout the state when housing costs are compared to incomes, and the Californians who are most affected by the affordability crisis are renters, households with the lowest incomes, people of color, and immigrants. Many of these same Californians are also especially hard hit by the economic effects of the COVID-19 public health crisis. Policy solutions that particularly address the needs of these households represent a promising approach to tackling the state’s housing crisis strategically, with a focus on those most deeply affected. The current pandemic highlights the urgency for strategies to eliminate unjust disparities in who is burdened by unaffordable housing, including racial inequities in housing affordability.

Among the key findings based on the most recent data available from 2018:

Housing & Homelessness

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https://youtu.be/1bks1DvdSIs

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, unaffordable housing costs represented one of California’s most pressing challenges – and the job losses triggered by stay-home orders necessary to address the public health emergency threaten to exacerbate this long-standing crisis. Housing affordability is a problem throughout the state when housing costs are compared to incomes, and the Californians who are most affected by the affordability crisis are renters, households with the lowest incomes, people of color, and immigrants.

See our report — Staying Home During California’s Affordability Crisis — by Research Associate, Aureo Mesquita, and Senior Policy Analyst, Sara Kimberlin to learn more.

This video is part of our Policy Perspectives Speaker Series. Thank you to our 2020 series sponsors: First 5 California, First 5 LA, and the Stupski Foundation, for making this programming possible.

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On a given night, more than 150,000 Californians are homeless. These individuals face significant risk of exposure to COVID-19 and serious barriers to following stay home orders to limit the spread of infection. Due to older ages and high rates of physical health conditions, they are also at high risk of severe complications or even death from the virus. Black Californians are greatly overrepresented among homeless individuals, making their health especially endangered by COVID-19. Policymakers should make sure the urgent housing and health needs of Californians who are homeless are met, to protect their health and the broader public health and to address racial health disparities exacerbated by this pandemic.

  • Nearly 3 in 4 Californians experiencing homelessness are unsheltered– living on the street, in cars, or in other places not meant for habitation. Lack of proper housing makes it impossible for these individuals to follow stay home orders or even practice basic hygiene, such as washing their hands.
  • Social distancing and self-quarantine are also a challenge for Californians staying in emergency shelters and transitional housing, due to shared sleeping, eating, bathroom, and living spaces.
  • The lack of housing and inability to consistently follow public health recommendations puts Californians who are homeless at greater risk of contracting COVID-19. This also hinders statewide efforts to stop the virus from spreading.

  • Older adults are at high risk of developing severe health complications from COVID-19. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), adults age 50 and over have the highest rate of hospitalization due to COVID-19 — and those age 55 and older accounted for 92% of provisional COVID-19 deaths as of April 21, 2020.
  • Even prior to the pandemic, the aging of the homeless population meant that older adults are now – and will continue to increasingly be – a large portion of Californians experiencing homelessness. In Los Angeles County, about 2 in 5 homeless adults are older than 50.
  • Further, homeless individuals demonstrate rates of illnesses and geriatric conditions on par with or higher than adults with stable housing who are 20 years older, increasing their risk of complications from COVID-19.

  • People with chronic health conditions also tend to have worse COVID-19 outcomes. A preliminary study by the CDC found that adults with COVID-19 who had at least one  underlying health condition or risk factor were significantly more likely to require  hospitalization or ICU admission, compared to those who did not.
  • In addition, experiencing homelessness exacerbates existing health conditions and can lead to new ones, such as chronic illnesses and infectious and communicable diseases. In a national study of homeless single adults, more than 8 in 10 unsheltered individuals (84%) reported having at least one physical health condition.

  • Racial disparities linked to current and past discriminatory policies and practices are startlingly apparent in Black Californians’ overrepresentation both within the homeless population and among severe health outcomes and deaths related to COVID-19.
  • While Black Californians only comprise 6% of the state population, nearly 1 in 3 individuals experiencing homelessness are Black, and therefore face high risk of COVID-19 exposure and significant barriers to preventing and addressing infection.
  • Black Californians accounted for 12% of COVID-19 related deaths statewide as of April 19, 2020 — double their share of the state population. In Los Angeles County, where 1 in 11 residents (9%) are Black, they have accounted for 1 in 6 deaths (16%) due to COVID-19 as of April 18, 2020.

Federal and state policymakers have taken initial steps to address the needs of Californians experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 crisis, such as providing support to house some individuals in hotels and allocating funds to local jurisdictions to address local homeless services needs. This support for individuals without a permanent home will be needed as long as the pandemic lasts. It is also critical to ensure that Californians at high risk of severe COVID-19 health outcomes – including older adults and individuals with chronic health conditions – do not fall into homelessness. Strong interventions are also important to avoid further exacerbating the disproportionate burdens of homelessness and COVID-19 among Black Californians. Given the high risk and devastating consequences for both individuals’ health and broader public health efforts, policymakers should prioritize the urgent COVID-19 health and housing needs of homeless Californians, while taking steps to address the state’s long-term homelessness challenges and racial health disparities.

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Housing costs vary substantially throughout California, with the highest costs in coastal urban areas and the lowest costs in inland rural areas. But incomes also vary regionally, and areas with relatively lower housing costs also tend to have lower typical incomes. The result is that housing affordability is clearly a problem throughout the state when housing costs are compared to incomes. Across every region of California, from the high-cost San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles and South Coast to the lower-cost Central Valley and Far North, at least a third of households spent more than 30% of their incomes toward housing in 2018, and as many as 1 in 5 spent more than half of their incomes on housing costs.

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Supplemental Security Income/State Supplementary Payment (SSI/SSP) grants are a critical source of income for well over 1 million California seniors and people with disabilities who have low incomes and need help paying for basic necessities, such as housing. Grants are funded with both federal (SSI) and state (SSP) dollars. The maximum monthly grant for an individual is about $944, which consists of an SSI grant of $783 and an SSP grant of $160.72.

To help close budget shortfalls during the Great Recession, the state made deep cuts to the SSP portion, reducing it from $233 per month in early 2009 to $156.40 per month by mid-2011. State policymakers increased the SSP grant by $4.32 per month starting in January 2017. However, no additional state grant increases have been provided since then, and the Governor’s proposed 2020-21 state budget assumes the SSP portion will remain frozen for another year.

Because state cuts largely remain in place, SSI/SSP recipients have less money to meet their basic needs, including housing. This is particularly concerning in light of California’s high housing costs. In all 58 California counties, the “Fair Market Rent” (FMR) for a studio apartment exceeds 50% of the maximum SSI/SSP grant for an individual. Moreover, the studio FMR exceeds the entire grant in 22 counties. People are at greater risk of becoming homeless when housing costs account for more than half of household income.

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