By Reuters
About five million Americans lose their homes every year due to eviction
or foreclosure, researchers said on Wednesday, urging policymakers to
use their new country-specific data on housing loss to target
coronavirus aid more effectively.
The research by New America, a think-tank, stitches together
county-level eviction and mortgage foreclosure data for the first time
to create a National Housing Loss Index, comparing 2,200 US counties for
which data was available.
As housing campaigners warn of a possible surge in evictions and
foreclosures due to the Covid-19 pandemic, report co-author Yuliya
Panfil said the index helped highlight which were likely to be the
worst-hit areas.
“Because the same communities tend to be impacted over and over, by
looking at where housing loss has been the most acute, we could help
predict where Covid-related instability is going to happen,” she told
the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
The report said the pandemic could exacerbate higher rates of housing
loss in mainly non-white areas dominated by renters where residents
often lack health insurance. The cost of dealing with a medical
emergency is a major cause of losing housing.
At the same time, people forced to leave their homes during the outbreak
could face a greater risk of catching the virus by moving in with
friends and family, according to the report.
“In a context where social distancing is important, we see housing loss
as even more of a trigger for increased infections,” said Panfil, who
directs New America’s Future of Property Rights program.
States with the highest rates of eviction and foreclosure between 2014
and 2018 - including Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Georgia and South
Carolina - have also reported a spike in Covid-19 cases in recent
months.
The US has the world’s highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases.
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