Better housing can help to reduce COVID-19 deaths among African Americans in SC

The COVID-19 pandemic is ravaging the health, social fabric and economies of our communities, our country and our world.

And the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed two powerful facts:

▪ The virus is having a disproportionate effect on communities of color due to the widening gap of racial health and economic disparities.

▪ The systems that perpetuated the racial health and wealth gap still exist.

In 2017, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve and Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis co-published a study in which they determined that “where individuals reside — particularly where children are born and grow up — is closely correlated with their future health, education and employment outcomes.”

Right now approximately 21% of all U.S. asthma cases and 40% of childhood asthma cases are attributable to residential exposures, highlighting the importance of housing quality and safety. Meanwhile, families of color are disproportionately impacted as African American children are twice as likely to be hospitalized for asthma as white children — and four times as likely to die from it.

The reality is that the African American children of yesterday who contracted asthma because of poor quality housing are the African American adults who are dying today from COVID-19. And it is clear that a major reason for the present disparities leading to COVID-19 deaths is because many African Americans lack access to affordable housing.

The data from a recent Prosperity Now Scorecard found that nationally 28% of homeowners and 50% of renters were classified as “cost-burdened.” In South Carolina, meanwhile, 35.8% of African American households were considered cost burdened compared to 23% of white households.

The housing expenses of these individuals exceed 30% of household income, causing them to be at risk of foreclosure or homelessness if they suffered a decline in income — and a decade of high rates of gentrification has caused housing costs to rise significantly in cities like Charleston, Columbia and Greenville.

This highlights the important role that housing plays as a social determinant of health for African Americans. And that’s why In this age of COVID-19, the South Carolina Association for Community Economic Development recommends that state policymakers consider the following:

▪ Prioritize funding for the production of and access to affordable housing in South Carolina.

By increasing access to both affordable rental and home ownership opportunities in underserved areas, the state can ensure that families are able to access safe, healthy and affordable housing. This can be done by directing a variety of resources — including housing trust funds — toward making affordable housing available to working families and low-income residents.

▪ Call on the General Assembly to provide additional allocations to the SC Community Development Tax Credit initiative.

The program provides private donors and investors a state tax credit of up to 50% for contributions to — and investments in — state- certified community development corporations and community development financial institutions.

Both of these recommendations would help our state make strides in reducing the health disparities that are contributing to so many COVID-19 deaths among South Carolina’s people of color.

Bernie Mazyck is CEO of the South Carolina Association for Community Economic Development.

This story was originally published May 30, 2020 at 1:59 PM.