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Njoku, A.; Joseph, M. COVID-19 and Housing Injustice. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/51487 (accessed on 02 July 2024).
Njoku A, Joseph M. COVID-19 and Housing Injustice. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/51487. Accessed July 02, 2024.
Njoku, Anuli, Marcelin Joseph. "COVID-19 and Housing Injustice" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/51487 (accessed July 02, 2024).
Njoku, A., & Joseph, M. (2023, November 13). COVID-19 and Housing Injustice. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/51487
Njoku, Anuli and Marcelin Joseph. "COVID-19 and Housing Injustice." Encyclopedia. Web. 13 November, 2023.
COVID-19 and Housing Injustice
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This entry is adapted from the peer-reviewed paper 10.3390/hygiene3040029

In the United States, there has been a long history of environmental injustice that disproportionately affects racial and ethnic minorities and low-income communities due to racially targeted policies and widespread discrimination. Environmental racism can be revealed in housing discrimination that perpetuates inequities in exposure to environmental pollutants. Biased credit and mortgaging practices such as redlining have led to housing segregation of racial and ethnic minorities in the USA, permitting policymakers to diminish and disinvest in these communities. The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified housing instability for families of color, including Black and Hispanic/Latinx communities, putting them at increased risk for COVID-19 exposure. There is a need to investigate how environmental injustice intensifies the COVID-19 pandemic, illuminates racial and ethnic inequities in exposure to environmental contaminants, and fuels disparities in COVID-19 outcomes.

COVID-19 housing environmental injustice environmental racism eviction public health health disparities social determinants of health

1. Introduction or History

COVID-19, a pandemic of lower respiratory tract disease, has beset the world, resulted in a high number of infected individuals and deaths worldwide, and presented an international public health emergency [1][2][3]. Guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to prevent the spread of COVID-19 include eligible individuals receiving vaccinations and staying up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines. For unvaccinated individuals, COVID-19 prevention actions include handwashing with soap and water, staying home if one has suspected or confirmed COVID-19, improving ventilation, increasing air filtration, following CDC recommendations if exposed to the virus (e.g., wearing a high-quality mask at home or indoors when in public, isolating immediately if developing symptoms, testing, and monitoring symptoms), avoiding contact with individuals who have suspected or confirmed COVID-19, and being tested for COVID-19 if needed [4]. In addition, United States (U.S.) data reveal that racial and ethnic minority groups have endured a disproportionate burden of COVID-19-associated outcomes [5]. Black or African Americans, Hispanic or Latinx persons, and non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native persons are more likely to become sick with, be hospitalized for, and die from COVID-19 compared to non-Hispanic Whites [5]. Even with growing supply and increases in COVID-19 vaccination rates across racial and ethnic groups, structural barriers thwart vaccine access for these groups [6]. Disparities also exist in access to COVID-19 treatments and uptake of booster shots among Black and Hispanic children and in health and economic tolls among racial minority and immigrant communities [7].
While predisposition to pre-existing health conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and asthma are factors, systemic barriers such as the likelihood of being uninsured, decreased access to affordable medical testing, diagnosis, and treatment; food insecurity; work-related exposures; and housing insecurity have contributed to racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 outcomes [8]. Many of these underlying health conditions develop from exposure to environmental contaminants. Consequently, the established risk factors for COVID-19 complications need to be evaluated as they relate to the context of environmental toxins and the adverse social determinants of health that place racial and ethnic minority communities at increased risk for disease and mortality. The main categories of social determinants of health that contribute to racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 outcomes include neighborhood and physical environment (e.g., quality of housing and access to healthy foods), health and healthcare, economic stability (e.g., employment, housing instability, job conditions), and education [9]. Discrimination, including racism and chronic stress, influences these critical topic areas [10]. Moreover, historical racial residential segregation in the USA shaped by institutional racism, including unfair housing policies, can be linked to present-day racial disparities in COVID-19 infections and deaths, due to inequitable exposures to environmental pollutants influenced by discriminative historical practices [11].

2. Racial Discrimination in Housing

In the United States, ongoing discriminatory, racially targeted public policies have systematically displaced racial and ethnic minority groups. Examples of this are biased credit and mortgaging practices such as redlining. According to the New York Times, redlining is defined as racial discrimination of any kind as it relates to housing. It stems from government maps that outlined districts where people of color lived and were therefore regarded as risky investments [12]. This caused many real estate agents to direct Black homebuyers and renters away from buying homes in predominantly White neighborhoods, alternately isolating Black families from integrated neighborhoods and placing them into racially segregated neighborhoods [12]. To influence these decisions, private bank lenders use racial discrimination tactics to deny Black homes from qualifying mortgage loans, such as government map lines [12]. Racial segregation in the environment within communities of color still shows its lingering effects to this day. Areas that faced racial segregation have dealt with increased health inequities related to education, housing conditions, inequities to transportation infrastructure, access to health care, and increased risk of COVID-19 exposure due to physical, economic, and social conditions linked with redlining [13].

3. Lack of Affordable Housing and Exploitation by Landlords

Another challenge that is faced in the U.S. is the issue of affordable housing. Due to decades of structural racism, there are vast racial disparities in housing that persist until today. Data from the National Low Income Housing Coalition show that Black, Native American, and Hispanic households are more likely to be extremely low-income renters when compared to White households and are more likely to struggle to pay rent and find affordable, accessible, and suitable than their White counterparts [14]. Data shows that 27% of Black households are extremely low-income renters compared to 6 percent of White households [15]. Low-income renters are individuals who earn less than 50% of their area medium income, and extremely low-income renters are those who earn less than 30% of their area medium income [16]. Low-income renters are more likely to struggle to afford rent and are at increased risk of negative health outcomes such as poorer health, food insecurity, low academic achievement, and substandard housing conditions [15].
Many low-income renters of color face exploitation by their landlords and are being forced to live in substandard housing conditions. According to The State Housing Laws and the Uniform Housing Code, substandard housing is defined as “any condition which exists to the extent that it endangers the life, limb, property, safety or welfare of the occupants or general public” [17]. A prime example of this is the Church Street South Complex, which was located in New Haven, Connecticut. The building was constructed in 1969 and had 301 units, housing roughly 1000 low-income adults and children. For 50 years, the apartment complex had deteriorated due to years of poor maintenance [18]. A study done by Yale’s Occupational and Environmental Medicine Program contained information on 268 residents who lived in 118 apartments at the Church Street South complex from 2008 through 2015. Of the 170 children surveyed, they found that 48% had physician-diagnosed asthma. Of the 118 residents, 93% reported that their apartments had visible mold, and 85% had water intrusion or leaks [18]. The study found that of 170 children, 48% had physician-diagnosed asthma, and 98% of them experienced onset or worsening asthma conditions while at Church Street South. However, 66% of the 104 children who lived in the Church Street South complex had improved physician-diagnosed asthma and/or respiratory conditions after leaving the complex [18].

4. Inequitable Exposure to Environmental and Occupational Hazards

Environmental and occupational hazards disproportionately impact communities of color leading to inequities in exposure to environmental pollutants. Communities of color are more likely to be exposed to higher levels of particulate matter—fine inhalable particles like dust and soot due to living close to burning fossil fuels at a percentage 50% more than Whites [19]. The microscopic particles found in soot can cause adverse health effects due to the microscopic particles that can penetrate deep into the lungs, skin, and eyes [20]. This can cause asthma, bronchitis, coronary heart disease, premature death, heart attacks, strokes, and aggravated asthma among children [20].
Black Americans are more likely to live in older urban homes, increasing their risk of higher concentrations of indoor contaminants such as mold exposure [21]. Indoor exposure to mold and moisture is linked to and may cause various symptoms such as stuffy nose, wheezing, red or itchy eyes, or skin. Other people may experience more severe symptoms, such as asthma and other upper respiratory infections [22][23]. Houses with insignificant ventilation, poorly sealed walls, and flooding can lead to mold and moisture. Poor bathroom ventilation has also been shown to lead to increased mold and moisture. Most of these issues are found in older buildings needing renovation, which are the same houses that racial and ethnic minority groups are more likely to live in [21].
Another environmental and occupational hazard that disproportionately impacts communities of color is indoor allergens and microbial exposure. Indoor allergens and microbial exposures such as pest allergens such as mice, rats, and cockroaches have been identified to contribute to pediatric urban asthma in low-income children living in urban homes [23]. In the National Cooperative Inner-City Asthma Study, the results showed that in the United States, mouse allergen had been found in 95% of home dust samples inside inner-city homes [24]. There was an even higher rate when houses with mouse allergen had a simultaneous cockroach infestation [24]. In addition, according to the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, Black Americans were four times more likely to be sensitized to cockroaches than Whites, demonstrating inequitable housing conditions among races [25].

5. Eviction and Multigenerational Poverty

The COVID-19 pandemic has given way to devastating job loss, unrivaled unemployment rates, subsequent increased risk of eviction, economic hardship in renter households, and precarious housing all among racial and ethnic minority groups and low-income households [26]. Historical and present tendency data show that people of color are more likely to face eviction during pandemics, fueling health inequities. Studies have shown that Black renters have faced the highest eviction rates before COVID-19 and noticeable racial disparity [27][28]. Studies have also shown that eviction can lead to an increased infection rate for COVID-19 as it leads to overcrowded living environments, homelessness, transient living conditions, reduced access to healthcare, sleeping outdoors or in cars, and leading to the sharing of accomodations designed for fewer people [29]. These same factors could also reduce the ability to adhere to COVID-19 mitigation strategies (e.g., hygiene practices like handwashing, social distancing, and self-quarantine) [29]. Overcrowding can increase the risk of respiratory illness and influenza and comorbidities like diabetes and high blood pressure, increasing vulnerability to severe or fatal cases of COVID-19 [30]. Eviction may also lead to reduced access to COVID-19 testing and a reduced likelihood that infected individuals would seek timely medical care that could decrease community transmission [31]. The threat of eviction can also have negative health effects such as an increased likelihood of being hospitalized for a mental health condition [31]. Furthermore, eviction is a stressful life event that can have enduring negative health effects and promote a cycle of multigenerational poverty [32].
Pre-pandemic, over 70% of Black and Latinx adults reported not having adequate emergency funds to pay for three months of expenses. Being evicted during COVID-19 added to fuel this inequality; meanwhile, only half of the White adults reported having this issue [33]. Lacking the privilege of being able to afford an emergency savings alongside an emergency or loss of employment can give way to greater economic hardship and an unstable housing environment. This can influence a person’s ability to pay rent during a pandemic and affect their ability to treat any complications that can occur from COVID-19 [26]. Before COVID-19, 1 in 5 Black female renters reported experiencing conviction compared with 1 in 12 Hispanic or Latinx women and 1/15 White women [34]. Black women renters experienced eviction filings at double the rate of White renters in 17 out of 36 U.S. states studied [35]. These data emphasize the disproportionate health inequity fueled by the risk of housing loss occurring during the pandemic.

References

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Subjects: Public, Environmental & Occupational Health; Environmental Sciences
Contributors MDPI registered users' name will be linked to their SciProfiles pages. To register with us, please refer to https://encyclopedia.pub/register :
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