While much of the economy has fared better than expected during the COVID-19 pandemic, racial and ethnic minorities have faced enormous challenges over the past two years.
Entering the pandemic, non-white households were more likely to be poor and to work in professions that would increase their risk of exposure to COVID-19 and their risk of unemployment during the pandemic. When COVID-19 hit, non-white households faced greater economic hardship, with less certainty about their ability to pay for essential expenses like food and housing. Now, with inflation on the rise, prices for food, energy, transportation, and housing are taking a disparate toll on non-white households: a recent Wall Street Journal poll found that 35% of minority respondents were experiencing inflationary pain, compared to 28% of white respondents.
These conditions have combined to make it more difficult for racial and ethnic minorities to keep up with major household expenses. One of the most significant of those expenses is rent. According to survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau, racial and ethnic minority renters have struggled much more than their white counterparts to keep up with their regular rent payments. Minorities were around twice as likely to report being behind on rent payments as white renters over the second half of 2021 and beginning of 2022. Around one in five minority renters reported being behind on payments, compared to just one in 10 white renters.
These disparities are also apparent in different groups’ confidence in their ability to pay rent. In recent months, 38.8% of white renters have expressed a lack of confidence in their ability to pay rent, compared to 46.5% of Asian renters, 62.8% of Black renters, and 62.9% of Hispanic or Latino renters. But there are also gaps between racial and ethnic minority categories in terms of ability to pay rent. Despite having similar rates of confidence in the ability to pay rent, 25.6% of Black renters are behind on payments compared to 18.9% of Hispanic or Latino renters.
Interestingly, minority groups’ struggles with rent vary substantially across states. Some states with small non-white populations, like Vermont, Utah, and West Virginia, have lower shares of minorities behind on rent payments, but more diverse states like Arizona and Nevada also have fairly low figures. And the list of states with the most minority renters behind on rent includes both lower-cost states like Louisiana and Wyoming and expensive states like New York.
