Giving Compass' Take:

• With unemployment levels at record highs and social safety nets evaporating, due to COVID-19, America is staring down what could be the most severe housing crisis in the nation’s history.

• How can donors help address these housing gaps? What are other causes for these disparities? 

• Here are seven principles for solving America's housing crisis. 

Across the country, about one in seven tenants has no confidence in their ability to pay rent this month, according to data from the US Census Bureau. Some estimates suggest 19 to 23 million US renters may be at risk of eviction by September 30.

Housing insecurity was already a trouble spot for the US even before the coronavirus hit. For renters who have managed to get by during the first part of the pandemic, vulnerabilities increased recently with the end of emergency protections from the CARES Act—as Congress remains deadlocked on a second relief package. Housing advocates say a surge in evictions and homelessness is inevitable in the coming months.

Here, Meredith Greif, an assistant research professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University who specializes in housing and homelessness, talks about the shortage of affordable housing in the US and how the pandemic has made everything worse:

Q: To what extent does COVID-19 exacerbate an existing housing crisis in the US?

A: We already had a crisis of evictions in this country, pre-pandemic. Of course, that’s a complex issue and details vary by region, but essentially, housing unaffordability comes about through a mismatch between the resources people have and the cost of their rent.

Read the full article about how COVID-19 makes the housing crisis worse by Johns Hopkins University at Futurity.