Ensuring Fair Housing During the COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 has upended life in the United States since the virus hit the nation early this spring, devastating families, communities, and businesses across the country. Since March 2020, nearly 160,000 people have died, and sophisticated models predict an eighty-six percent increase in that death toll by December 2020 in the United States alone.1 And while the disease has impacted the country broadly, people of color have been hit hardest.2 When adjusted to account for population age differences, Black Americans are 3.6 times more likely to die than white people from the virus, and Latinos are 2.5 times more likely.3 Racial bias in medical care is likely compounding these disparities, leading to uneven treatment for people of color.4 Beyond the stark health outcomes resulting from the virus, COVID19 has led to tremendous economic upheaval, with communities of color again feeling the brunt of the impact. Before the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968, as today in many ways, people of color faced significant barriers to finding a home: landlords and real estate agents could refuse Black consumers without any recourse.6 Neighborhood associations pursued zoning restrictions designed to keep Black households out of certain neighborhoods, while contracts known as restrictive covenants were used to keep white homeowners from selling or renting their property to prospective Black residents and other people of color.7 At the same time, government agencies, including the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), institutionalized segregation through policies that essentially barred FHA-insured loans to Black borrowers or FHA backing for construction loans to suburban subdivision builders selling to Black homebuyers.8 While the landmark Fair Housing Act made it illegal to discriminate in housing on the basis of race, color, religion, and national origin-and later, as amended, on the basis of sex, disability, and familial status-it is clear that segregation and broader economic disparities remain widespread, more than fifty years after the passage of the law. Being evicted is itself an expensive process and can consume an affected household's entire savings through court costs and moving expenses.20 Going forward, having an eviction on a tenant's record or debt owed to a previous landlord (even if of questionable legality) may serve as an insurmountable barrier to obtaining housing, forcing those tenants to live in "disinvested" neighborhoods with inequitable access to