The Coronavirus is Exposing America’s Housing Crisis

Stoneleigh Fellow Vincent Reina spoke to Vox about how the COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating the housing crisis in the United States.

On March 31, about 300 tenants received an email from their apartment management company. The email listed resources for tenants struggling financially during the coronavirus pandemic, but the sign-off message was clear: The rent is still due.

But whichever employee of Saturn Management, the Los Angeles property management company, sent the message to the 300 or so tenants across their various properties forgot to hide the email addresses of the recipients. Almost immediately, tenants started responding, replying-all.[…]

“I think this moment highlights the precarity of people generally, and how important housing is to all of us,” Vincent Reina, assistant professor of urban economics and planning at the University of Pennsylvania, said. “And I think it highlights the limited safety nets we have in place.”

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