Historical and present discriminatory policies around housing, land use, property rights, criminal justice, and health care have made homeownership and wealth accumulation inaccessible for many people of color. As a result of these often deliberately-racist economic and housing policies, communities of color have always disproportionately experienced homelessness and housing insecurity.

Homelessness places people at greater risk to viruses due to preexisting health conditions, inadequate access to nutritious food, hygiene, sanitation, and health care, as well as stigma and discrimination— people experiencing homelessness have more difficulty accessing necessary resources than people who are housed, often due to local regulations and laws that limit housing and services. Communities of color also face health inequities that put them at a greater risk, as we have already begun to see.

The inequities that people of color and people experiencing homelessness face will only be heightened by the COVID-19 crisis. It is crucial to recognize the existing inequities in order to understand how we can best protect the health and wellbeing of these communities and support equitable and just responses to the crisis.