Community Legal Services of Philadelphia recently released a report analyzing COVID-19’s impact on Philadelphia’s historically Black neighborhoods and other communities of color and to what extent these communities are experiencing housing instability or evictions. The report finds that many areas with the highest rates of COVID-19 are also majority Black communities experiencing high eviction rates. The authors report that landlords have filed to evict more than 2,760 families—especially those in Black neighborhoods—since the beginning of the pandemic. The report also finds that Black Philadelphians are more susceptible to contracting COVID-19 due to a history of systemic racism that impacts access to healthcare and housing.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly exacerbated the difficulties facing Black women, seniors, people with disabilities, queer and transgender people, and others who routinely face housing instability due to systemic oppression and racism,” write the study’s authors, “demonstrat[ing] the need for a tailored approach that takes into account the disease’s disproportionate impact on Black communities in particular.”
Read the report here.