Strategies for increasing affordable housing amid the COVID-19 economic crisis

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of Americans lacked stable, affordable housing. Now, the crisis has highlighted the social and economic costs of this crucial gap in the safety net. 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.

Many people in this population also face risks of instability. 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. Cost-burdened households are at risk of losing their homes to eviction or foreclosure, especially during economic downturns. These households are also unable to accumulate savings that could help them weather temporary income losses like so many have seen during the pandemic.

Stable, decent-quality, and affordable housing is also critical for communities and the overall economy. Housing instability can impede workers’ ability to secure and maintain employment. As the Great Recession showed, concentrations of foreclosed and vacant homes create negative spillovers across entire neighborhoods. 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. Financial pressure on low-income renters also harms small landlords, who are disproportionately people of color and account for a large share of unsubsidized affordable housing.

Local governments and nonprofit service providers are scrambling to put in place temporary measures to help those who lack stable housing, such as purchasing motels to shelter unhoused families, placing hand-washing stations in homeless encampments, and providing emergency rental assistance. This puts additional strain on the staff and budgets of local governments and nonprofits at a time when resources are especially scarce and long-term planning is hardest.

Future pandemics and natural disasters will put similar strains on housing systems. Once the current public health crisis has been contained, policymakers should make more serious efforts to reduce the number of households who lack affordable, stable, decent-quality housing, and focus on three goals:

• Increase the amount of long-term affordable rental housing, especially in high-opportunity communities.
• Protect existing affordable rental housing from physical deterioration and financial insecurity.
• Support affordable housing projects currently in the pipeline that face financial obstacles due to the pandemic.

In this piece, we explain why each of these goals is critical to supporting affordable housing infrastructure across the U.S. We then explore strategies aimed at achieving the first goal, specifically through the acquisition of existing housing….