Recent data show 5.3 million renter households have lost a job since the pandemic’s onset, and many more have experienced cuts to hours, pay, or to gig and contracting work. These losses have hit Black and Latinx families and families with low incomes especially hard because of systemic inequities in the labor market.

New data show nearly 60 percent of low-income families with young children who report challenges paying for basic needs had trouble paying for housing in June and July. Seventy percent of unemployed or laid-off families report the same. Even for working low-income families, nearly half report challenges paying for housing.

These findings come from a new survey from the University of Oregon’s Center for Translational Neuroscience. The Rapid Assessment of Pandemic Impact on Development (RAPID) - Early Childhood Survey is designed to gather essential information regarding the needs, health promoting behaviors, and well-being of families with children ages 5 and younger during the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States. To help put the RAPID data in context for policy, Urban Institute researchers Kathryn Reynolds and Aaron Shroyer shared expert insights and resources documenting the housing needs of low-income families and policy solutions that could help meet them.

With COVID-19 cases increasing nationwide and all 50 states’ GDPs having dropped year-over-year, it is unlikely that low-income families will recover any stability before the CDC’s eviction moratorium ends. The longer the federal government waits to provide rental assistance at scale, the larger these families’ debts will grow, and the more limited their resources will become. These families are already paying with their futures. Federal intervention can help them avoid paying with their children’s futures too.

Read the full article about generating more affordable housing by Erica Greenberg at Urban Institute.