The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated housing challenges long predating the pandemic, suggesting we can expect another housing crisis for homeowners, renters, and rental property owners.

Recent data and past crises indicate that people of color are most at risk for housing instability during economic downturns. Pandemic-related job and income losses Black and Latinx adults at increased risk of housing instability, including falling behind on rent and mortgage payments (PDF) at more than twice the rate of white homeowners.

Owners of rental units in small buildings, a large source of affordable housing without subsidies, are also particularly vulnerable: nearly one of every three feel more pressure to sell their properties now primarily because of reduced rental income. And Black and Hispanic owners are likely to be hit harder. A loss of these units would reduce the stock of affordable rental housing, further limiting housing options for struggling renters.

Housing policy responses to past crises—including Hurricane Katrina and the Great Recession— have fallen short of advancing racial equity and economic mobility. Launching a more equitable housing recovery and preventing a return to the current, inequitable status quo requires digging up the racist roots of housing policy while promoting choice and community belonging.

Many present-day housing outcomes reflect historically racist intentions and practices. Though they have evolved or been outright outlawed, these policies’ racist beginnings still inform who owns homes, where these homes are, and who possesses wealth in the US today.

No evidence makes these trends more apparent than the widening racial homeownership gap and related lack of intergenerational wealth-building opportunities for Black Americans. Today, the Black homeownership rate is more than 30 percentage points lower than the white homeownership rate, a larger gap than when racial discrimination against homebuyers was legal.

Read the full article about housing policy by Corianne Payton Scally, Elizabeth Champion, Michael Neal at Urban Institute.