The housing sector creates multiplier effects throughout the economy, so contractions in construction, upgrades, and sales can translate into reduced employment and consumer spending, deepening the recession. As the Great Recession showed, concentrations of foreclosed and vacant homes create negative spillovers across entire neighborhoods. Housing instability can impede workers’ ability to secure and maintain employment. Stable, decent-quality, and affordable housing is also critical for communities and the overall economy. These households are also unable to accumulate savings that could help them weather temporary income losses like so many have seen during the pandemic. Cost-burdened households are at risk of losing their homes to eviction or foreclosure, especially during economic downturns. Housing costs are a major financial stressor for low-income households, who typically devote between a third and a half of their incomes to housing.
Many people in this population also face risks of instability. People living in poor-quality, overcrowded, or unstable housing-or without any home at all-cannot follow public health directives to safely “shelter in place.” As a result, they are at far greater risk of contracting the virus, along with other chronic illness.
Now, the crisis has highlighted the social and economic costs of this crucial gap in the safety net. Twitter before the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of Americans lacked stable, affordable housing.
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