Racial disparities in access to safe, stable, and affordable housing were present long before the COVID-19 pandemic hit California. People of color are more likely to experience housing cost burdens, homelessness, and housing instability in the state and are less likely to own homes and acquire wealth, due in large part to California’s long history of discrimination in public and private housing markets, structural racism, and government-sponsored segregation. Recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s new Household Pulse Survey, conducted for twelve weeks beginning in the spring of 2020, shows that the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic has only intensified the racial disparities in California’s housing crisis. The Household Pulse Survey was created to measure the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. One telling question — respondents’ confidence in their ability to pay rent on time — offers a timely and powerful glimpse into how Californians are feeling about their current housing stability. Only one in three Californian renters had high confidence that they could pay August rent on time according to survey results, and people of color were less confident than White renters (see Figure 1). Just 19 percent of Latinx renters, 28 percent of Black renters, and 33 percent of Asian renters were highly confident … Continue reading Racial Disparities in Housing Security from COVID-19 Economic Fallout