News Roundup

  • Gaps in Eviction Moratoria during COVID-19 Pandemic
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    Last Friday, President Trump signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, which includes instruction that property owners with mortgages backed by the federal government cannot evict tenants nor charge rent nonpayment penalties for 120 days. However, this provision does not waive rent payments, and only 40 percent of rented single family-homes and about 50 percent of rented multifamily homes qualify. A comprehensive eviction moratorium could help flatten the curve, Shelterforce posits. The magazine suggests that to be most impactful, government agencies should also advance social distancing by eliminating unnecessary interpersonal contacts for notice serving, lawsuits, and hearings and develop policies that allow tenants who fall behind on payments during the pandemic to remain in their homes after moratoria are lifted.

  • Communities Most Exposed to Air Pollution Face Increased Risks of COVID-19 Symptoms
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    Low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately exposed to industrial air pollution, which causes chronic lung disease and asthma rates that make residents particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. In New York City, the virus’s US epicenter, Central Harlem has childhood asthma rates four times the national level. Texas has one of the nation’s highest rates of Black residents living within a half-mile of an oil or natural gas facility, concentrated in Houston. “We see this unequal pattern across the United States. We know this kind of air pollution can really impact people across the life course, from babies to the elderly. It’s something that’s important when we think about health, to think about air quality,” said Jill Johnston, assistant professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California. Environmental justice and health experts are urging public health officials and governments to consider this increased vulnerability in their COVID-19 response plans.

  • Homeless Shelters Across US Struggle to Maintain Capacity, Properly Distance Shelter Residents
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    Shelter-in-place orders and social distancing measures have limited the number of staff serving many homeless shelters, especially those run by volunteers, and have even forced some to close. Although some municipalities, such as Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle, are working to secure hotel rooms to house people experiencing homelessness during the crisis, some providers say governments aren’t moving fast enough. In response, many nonprofit shelters with decreased capacity are taking on the responsibility of finding hotel rooms and shelter for the people they serve. In New York City, which has set up 500 isolation units, the Coalition for the Homeless reports that strict criteria prevent people from accessing these shelter units and that people with presumed, but undiagnosed, COVID-19 have been sent back to shelters without isolation.

  • Overcrowding, Lapses in Federal Policy Influence How COVID-19 May Impact Tribal Communities
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    Overcrowding in American Indian and Alaska Native households on tribal land is eight times the national average, threatening the feasibility of social distancing on reservations. Many tribal homes are intergenerational, creating increased transmission risks to the elderly and other at-risk people, according to the National Indian Health Board. Combined with high rates of preexisting health conditions, like diabetes, economic strain from closing hospitality businesses, weak funding to the Indian Health Service, and long-standing issues between federal and tribal governments, experts say reservations and tribal communities are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. “It’s so short-sighted to think that this isn’t going to get to tribal communities—and when it does, it’s going to be worse,” said Allison Barlow, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health.