The Impact of Covid-19 On Affordable Housing Policies and Housing Stability in The United States
Keywords:
COVID-19, Affordable Housing Policy, Housing Stability, Eviction Moratorium, Rental Assistance, Housing Inequality, United StatesAbstract
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated prevailing housing affordability issues in the United States, subjecting millions of United States renter households to increased risks of housing instability. This paper focuses on how the policies on housing during the pandemic affected housing stability during the period of March 2020 to August 2022. The study is based on the results of the U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey, reports of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on housing policy, and the housing policy research databases to develop a mixed analytical approach that unites policy analysis with secondary data on a quantitative basis. The indicator analysis will be based on the main housing stability factors like rent arrears, eviction risk and housing insecurity among renter families, with the implications of major policy responses, such as eviction moratoriums and emergency rental assistance programs, considered. The effect of these interventions on housing outcomes by various income and demographic groups is analyzed by using comparative policy analysis and descriptive trend assessment. The results indicate that federal and state housing policy actions greatly minimized the risk of the imminent mass evictions at the height of the pandemic, especially in low-income renters. Nevertheless, the outcomes further show that there have been long-standing housing stability disparities where minority and lower-income households have been disproportionately facing greater rates of housing insecurity regardless of policy safeguards. Such results indicate the effectiveness of emergency housing policies in the short term and the structural constraints of emergency housing policies used during the COVID-19 crisis. The research also makes a contribution to the housing policy literature by offering a critical assessment of the housing interventions of the pandemic period and offers policy suggestions on how the stability of housing can be enhanced by interventions in the future in the face of future economic shocks.
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