Poverty in America During COVID-19
The unemployment rate in the U.S. right now has rapidly increased and millions report that their households did not get enough to eat or even caught up on rent payments.
The impact of the pandemic has been widespread and prevalent towards Black, Latino, Indigenous and immigrant communities. According to Household Pulse Survey data collected on Jan. 6–18, 11 percent of all adults which is nearly 24 million in the country reported that their household sometimes or often didn’t even have enough to eat in the last seven days.
Additionally, 15 percent of adults with children are more likely to report that their household didn’t get enough to eat compared to 9 percent without. Black and Latino adults were twice more likely to report not getting enough to eat in their households than compared to white adults.
As more people lose their jobs, many necessities such as rent and paying for food start to become an issue to people who are struggling through this pandemic. Lately, house expenses have been a difficulty to cover for more than 80 million adults, according to collected data done on Jan. 6–18.
Although poverty in the U.S. cannot be ignored due to the pandemic, it doesn’t help that this economic issue has always been apparent even before COVID-19. Nowadays, many family-owned establishments and restaurants continue to shut-down which mainly affect a large portion of Black, Latino, Indigenous and immigrant households.
During the pandemic, 1 in 5 are not caught up on rent with people of color facing the most hardships. Nowadays, renters who are responsible for their children are twice as likely to not be caught up on rent due to the damaging impact that COVID-19 inflicted.
The unemployment rate skyrocketed in Apr. 2020 to an unimaginable level not seen since the 1930’s. Before COVID-19, the monthly poverty rate for white individuals was 11 percent compared to the Black and Latino communities in which resulted to be nearly 24 percent.
The virus has worsened the poverty rate and deepened struggles amongst many individuals with paying rent, food and any other household expenses. In response to the rapid drop in employment, the U.S. government has been providing stimulus checks to many individuals in need, however, it is not enough.
Better solutions must be made because the unemployment rate continues to rapidly plummet and make people’s lives difficult unless further action is taken throughout this pandemic.
