The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated long-standing threats facing Black, Indigenous, and Latinx people in the housing market. Before the pandemic, these groups were more likely to experience housing instability, housing cost burdens, and homelessness because of decades of structural racism and discriminatory housing and labor practices. With the Supreme Court striking down the federal eviction moratorium last week, many of these families could soon face the threat of eviction and the destabilizing effects that come with it.

In June, the Urban Institute hosted a virtual event to explore how changes in local and federal policy can improve housing stability, housing affordability, and wealth building opportunities for Black, Indigenous, and Latinx communities.

Researchers, policy experts, and practitioners at the event discussed that housing stability is key to achieving racial and ethnic equity. They emphasized that stability is not simply about the capacity to increase rental and mortgage emergency assistance uptake in the short term, it’s also about fundamentally changing housing systems and improving government capacity in the long term. Given the increased urgency to focus on eviction policy after the recent end of the federal moratorium, these takeaways are important to reiterate.

Experts at the event highlighted three key ways to improve both housing stability and racial equity for Black, Indigenous, and Latinx communities in the long term.

1. Focus on affordable housing to make progress toward racial equity

2.  Boost capacity at every level of government to alleviate housing instability among Black, Indigenous, and Latinx households

3. Transform systems to ensure they are creating the most equitable outcomes

Read the full article about housing stability and racial equity by Kathryn Reynolds and Kaitlyn You at Urban Institute.