COVID-19 and Housing

Page Contents

• Selected HUD Materials

• Selected Advocacy Letters

• Selected Coalition Partners’ Resource Pages

• Selected COVID-19 Resource Links

• Selected COVID-19 Links

• Future Housing Policy

• Selected Media Coverage of Social Housing

The racially disproportionate health, mortality, and economic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis demand a response that responds to the underlying inequities – and this is nowhere more important than in our separate and unequal housing sector.  Congress and state governments need to act immediately to ensure short-term housing security for the next 18 months and beyond. Emergency rental assistance and wider moratoria on evictions and foreclosures are the first steps, followed by  expanded – or universal – rental assistance for all families in need, national source of income discrimination protections, an end to utility shut-offs, and forgiveness of housing and utility debt when the crisis abates.  Future housing policy needs to prioritize a shift to expand the social housing sector – and this process should begin now, with financial support for the development and public acquisition of community-controlled housing that is spatially distributed to both protect communities from economic exploitation and expand housing choice and integration.

Selected HUD Materials

• Eviction Moratorium COVID-19 FAQs for Public Housing Agencies (HUD, April 2020)
• HUD Office of Public Housing: Implementation of the CARES Act (HUD, April 2020)
• COVID-19 Statutory and Regulatory Waivers for Housing Programs (HUD, April 2020)
• Questions and Answers for Office of Multifamily Housing Stakeholders (HUD, April 2020)
• COVID-19 FAQs for Public and Indian Housing Agencies (HUD, April 2020)
• Public Health Research and Resources Page (HUD Office of Policy Development and Research, April 2020)

Selected Advocacy Letters

• Recommendations for Upcoming HUD Guidance on Waivers (submitted by NHLP, PRRAC, NLIHC, CBPP, June 2020)
• Civil Rights Coalition Letter on Federal Policing Priorities (submitted by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, June 2020)
• COVID-19 Legislative Priorities Letter (submitted by Congressional Tri-Caucus and the Native American Caucus, May 2020) 
• Congress Must Protect Equal Educational Opportunity During COVID-19 and Beyond Letter (submitted by Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights, May 2020)
• COVID-19 Demographic Data Sign-On Letter to HHS (submitted by Asian Pacific Islander American Health Forum, May 2020)
• COVID-19 Demographic Data Sign-On Letter to Congressional Leaders (Asian Pacific Islander American Health Forum, May 2020)
• Federal Support for Housing Counseling During COVID-19 (Submitted by UnidosUS and other groups, April 2020)
• Urging Nondiscrimination in COVID-19 Relief (Submitted by Family Equality and other groups, April 2020)
• CARES Act Funding Guidance and the HCV Program (Submitted by PRRAC, April 2020)
• Addressing Housing Instability and Homelessness During and After the COVID-19 Crisis (Submitted by Opportunity Starts at Home and other groups, April 2020)
• COVID-19 Health and Economic Security Priorities  for Lawmakers to Consider (Submitted by Leadership Conference and other groups, April 2020)
• Urging HUD Suspend All Nonemergency Rulemaking (Submitted by NLIHC and other groups, April 2020)

Selected Coalition Partners’ Resource Pages

• National Housing Conference’s COVID-19 Housing Resource Center
• Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies COVID-19  Resources Page
• NAACP COVID-19 and Our Communities Page
• National Council for Occupational Safety and Health Resources Page
• National Fair Housing Alliance COVID-19 Resources Page
• National Health Law Program COVID-19 Resources Page
• National Low Income Housing Coalition’s (NLIHC) COVID-19 and Housing and Homelessness Resources Page
• NLIHC Searchable Database and Map of Multifamily and Affordable Housing Properties Covered by Federal Eviction Moratoriums
• UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge COVID-19 Page
• PolicyLink – COVID-19 & Race: Principles

Selected COVID-19 Resource Links

• CDC Eviction Moratorium – Revised Analysis (NHLP, October 2020)
• CDC Eviction Moratorium Fact Sheet (Alliance for Housing Justice, September 2020)
• CDC Eviction Moratorium – Initial Analysis (NHLP, September 2020)
• Using a Down Market to Launch Affordable Housing Acquisition Strategies (Brookings Institution, July 2020)
• Protections for Renters During COVID-19 (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, June 2020)
• COVID-19 and the Unequal Surge in Mortality Rates in Massachusetts, by City/Town and ZIP Code Measures of Poverty, Household Crowding, Race/Ethnicity, and Racialized Economic Segregation (Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, May 2020)
• Opinion: How Not to Distance Ourselves: Thinking About Coronavirus, Living Apart and School Segregation (New York Daily News, May 2020)
• What Can We Learn from New State and Local Assistance Programs for Renters Affected by COVID-19? (Urban Institute, May 2020)
• NLIHC/National League of Cities Guidance on CARES Act Implementation (April 2020)
• Memo on Disability Protections Under FHA Applicable to COVID-19 Relief (NFHA, April 2020)
• Protecting Renter and Homeowner Rights During Our National Health Crisis (NHLP, March 2020)
• COVID-19, Data, and Health Justice (Commonwealth Fund, April 2020)
• COVID-19 Combined Federal Legislative Response (Raben Group, March 2020)
• COVID-19 & Health Justice Resource Document (Spirit of 1848 & Public Health Awakened, March 2020)
• Federal Foreclosure and Eviction Moratoriums During COVID-19 Crisis: Who is Protected, and Who Left is Out (NHLP, March 2020)

Selected COVID-19 Links

• Your Essential Worker May Be a Voucher Holder (Shelterforce, May 2020)
• Housing Justice Organizers Don’t Want to Return to ‘Normal’ (Shelterforce, May 2020)
• COVID-19 and Health Equity—A New Kind of “Herd Immunity” (Jama Network, May 2020)
• Why are Blacks Dying at Higher Rates from COVID-19? (Brookings Institution, April 2020)
• What COVID-19 Laid Bare (National Center for Law and Economic Justice, April 2020)
• The Interwoven Threads of Inequality and Health (New Yorker, April 2020)
• john a. powell: Coronavirus is Not the ‘Great Equalizer’ Many Say It Is (East Bay Times, April 2020)
• Business as Usual: Trump Agencies Resist Calls to Suspend Non-Essential Rulemaking (Shelterforce, March 2020)
• Health Justice Strategies To Combat COVID-19: Protecting Vulnerable Communities During A Pandemic (Health Affairs, March 2020)

Future Housing Policy

• Policy Briefs: Transfer of Private Rental Housing to Public or Community Control (April 2020)
  • Using Eminent Domain to Acquire Private Rental Housing
  • Right of First Refusal (Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Acts)

Selected Media Coverage of Social Housing

• Opinion: Coronavirus Rent Freezes are Ending — and a Wave of Evictions Will Sweep America (NBC News, June 2020)
• ‘A Terrible Price’: The Deadly Racial Disparities of COVID-19 in America (New York Times, April 2020)
• Housers: Now Is the Time to Buy Land (Shelterforce, April 2020)
• Woodlawn Residents, City Officials Call For Quick Action To Protect Affordable Housing Near Obama Center (Block Club Chicago, March 2020)
• Should Berkeley Tenants Get First Dibs on Buying Their Landlord’s Property? (Berkeleyside, March 2020)
• Can Eminent Domain Preserve L.A.’s Affordable Housing? (Capital & Main, February 2020)
• Social Housing in the U.S. (Community Service Society – New York, February 2020)
• Bill: Make Landlords Give Tenants First Shot to Buy Buildings (The Real Deal – NYC, January 2020)
• A Group of Mothers, a Vacant Home, and a Win for Fair Housing (CityLab, January 2020)
• As Home Prices Rise, Neighborhoods Turn to Community Land Trusts to Preserve Affordability (Public Source Pittsburgh, August 2019)
• CityLab University: Shared-Equity Homeownership (CityLab, April 2019)
• Decommodifying Housing Without Reproducing American Apartheid (Shelterforce, December 2018)
• Why America Needs More Social Housing (American Prospect, April 2018)