BOSTON -- Housing advocates say the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be contained until everyone has the ability to isolate -- and that means everyone must have an affordable place to live.

Experts on low-income housing are speaking out, emphasizing that housing is tied to health care.

Dr. Megan Sandel, an associate professor at Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health, says the stress of being homeless or close to it damages people's health and makes them more susceptible to the virus.

"These are pre-COVID era, and you know that millions more families are going to be behind on rent and suffer the same types of adverse outcomes that we associate with homelessness," she points out.

Advocates praise the CARES Act, which put billions of dollars toward homeless shelters and rental assistance, but they say more will be needed.

They note that pre-COVID, widespread poverty and a massive shortage of low-income housing means millions of Americans have no cushion to absorb the shock of losing their job during the public-health lockdown.

Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, praises states and cities that have passed moratoria on foreclosures and evictions, but she says Congress needs to enact a national policy so millions who've lost their jobs and can't pay rent aren't thrown out on the street.

"We are pushing for there to be a national uniform policy that assures everybody in the country that we won't lose our homes in the midst of a pandemic," she stresses.

Douglas Bibby, president of the National Multifamily Housing Council, says his organization is encouraging landlords to be flexible with tenants. But he adds that apartment building owners need assistance, so they can keep the lights on.

"If the apartment owners cannot get forbearance, then literally a lot of them are going to go out of business," he states.

Congress is now working on a fourth COVID response bill.

Housing advocates are pressing for another $100 billion for rental assistance and for a ban on law enforcement sweeps of homeless encampments.


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Rural New York organizations are working to tackle issues with rural housing. Rural counties throughout the state are suffering from aging housing stock and an ever dwindling supply.

In 2021, the New York State Comptroller found 10 rural counties had 5,500 fewer housing units than in 2016.

Megan Murphy, executive director of the rural housing organization Adirondack Roots, said places like Essex County are seeing the ripple effects of rural New York's housing problems.

"The county itself has dozens of jobs that are going unfilled because one of the hardest parts of this is that hiring in people from outside, they're not able to find housing," Murphy observed. "We're hearing this from health care institutions, we're hearing this from nonprofits, and from others."

She argued solutions require new rental units and affordable housing projects in rural areas. Murphy added while most rural counties are facing a housing shortage, the problems look different in each place. Essex County, for example, needs increased funding for Adirondack Roots' existing home rehabilitation, and New York State's mobile home replacement program.

New York State is investing in rural areas. Several new rental developments have been built across the state in 2023. But Murphy pointed out new projects are expensive and potential renters are already struggling to make ends meet with low wages.

"When you're talking about new builds, it's 'how do we figure out how to create a situation where we can either reduce the cost of building, or create a situation where there is a subsidy for folks so that they can get into new homes?'" Murphy explained.

She emphasized it also applies to maintaining existing homes. Murphy acknowledged there is no silver bullet to the issues surrounding rural housing, but contended it will take an interconnected, holistic approach to solve them.


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Advocates for the homeless in Ohio say effective and well-funded federal programs have helped cut the number of homeless veterans nearly in half over the past decade.

Federal agencies with a "housing first approach" have prioritized getting veterans into stable housing quickly without preconditions and provided greater assistance to landlords willing to help.

Marcus Roth, communications/development director for the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, said the same approach should apply to all homeless people.

"It's been really refreshing to see that we can make progress for homeless veterans," he said. "If we apply the same approach to other populations, we can help other folks, too."

There are still more than 600 homeless veterans in Ohio, according to federal data.

Advocates for these veterans have said high rental prices and increasing eviction rates statewide could add to that number. Rent prices skyrocketed a year into the pandemic, increasing nearly 25% in Ohio from 2021 to 2022 with Cleveland and Cincinnati alone showing some of the highest rent increases in the country.

Roth said the state's continued lack of affordable housing is driving people into homelessness.

"We hear about tenants that are getting bills with a rent increase of 40% to 50%," Roth said, "and a lot of people can't afford that, and then they look around to find another place to live and they can't find anywhere else that's affordable either."

Roth said the General Assembly's creation of a new affordable-housing tax credit could offer some relief. The Senate Select Committee on Housing has been holding a series of hearings to address the affordable-housing crisis.

This story was produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.


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A Connecticut group is holding several roundtable discussions about ways to end homelessness.

The Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness is speaking with elected officials to bridge the gap between understanding what it will take to reduce homelessness in the state and actually ending it. Between 2021 and 2022, a point-in-time report tracked a 13% increase in homelessness on a single January night. This year's report saw an almost 3% increase.

Sarah Fox, CEO of the Connecticut Coalition for Ending Homelessness, said the numbers are trending up for several reasons.

"They're becoming homeless due to poverty from returning back to the community after incarceration, from just generally not being able to thrive in the current environment," Fox observed. "We also know that you cannot uncouple homelessness from the affordable housing crisis."

Other reasons people are becoming homeless include the economic impacts of the pandemic, and rising rents. While Fox is eager to see progress, she is aware of the challenges ahead. In addition to competing fiscal priorities in the General Assembly, there is also the need to raise funds for homeless service systems. She said helping legislators understand the pressure the system is under to serve a growing population is a step in the right direction.

During the past session, the group brought legislation to the General Assembly to allocate funds to begin work necessary to end homelessness. The bill called for $50 million in funding to improve Connecticut's Homeless Response System.

Fox noted lawmakers approved far less.

"We received in total, $7 million, including $5 million for shelters, and $2 million that the Gov. had issued for flexible funding subsidies."

She added though it was not nearly enough, it is more money than other groups and causes got, many of whom received nothing.

As winter approaches, Fox is concerned about how to keep the growing elderly homeless population safe. A National Alliance to End Homelessness report predicted senior homelessness will grow from 40,000 to 106,000 by 2030.


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