Why helping people pay rent can fight the pandemic

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Erica Cuellar, her husband and her daughter moved in with her father in his home early in the pandemic, after she lost her job. She and her husband were worried they wouldn’t be able to afford the rent on their house in Houston with only one income. In July 2020, the whole family tested positive for the coronavirus.

Michael Starghill for NPR

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Michael Starghill for NPR

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This story of families moving in together when their rent became unaffordable illustrates just one way that housing insecurity has connected to viral transmission during the pandemic.

«A person loses their home; they often move in with friends or family, [or] they might enter a homeless shelter,» says Kathryn Leifheit, a postdoctoral fellow and epidemiologist at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. They might move into a motel, so everyone’s in closer quarters. Losing a home «increases your number of contacts in the community, and it increases the efficiency with which COVID can spread through a community.»

Bringing the virus home

«My dad was like, ‘Don’t worry about it. We’ll be fine,’ » Cuellar says. «My dad — he doesn’t like going to the hospital or anything. He believes he can cure himself. He was like, ‘Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.’ «

The young family broke their lease early and moved in with him. Cuellar’s husband had fewer hours, but he was still going in to work at the pipe yard, so there was a risk he could bring the virus home. «His job did not take [the pandemic] seriously, whatsoever,» Cuellar says.

Then, in July 2020, her husband got sick.

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Neither Cuellar nor her daughter developed symptoms from their coronavirus infections, but her husband and father both ended up in the hospital with COVID-19. Both men are still experiencing lingering health effects, she says.

Michael Starghill for NPR

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Michael Starghill for NPR

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When construction jobs shut down early in the pandemic last year, John Stangel moved from Pennsylvania to Maryland in search of work around the District of Columbia. As far as he knows, he says, he never got sick with COVID-19, but as he moved in with friends and then later to a crowded shelter, his risk of catching the coronavirus, especially before the vaccine was available, was high.

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Alyssa Schukar for NPR

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Stangel is currently staying in a building in Rockville, Md., that was converted into an emergency shelter during the pandemic, as increased financial stress forced more people out of their homes.

Alyssa Schukar for NPR

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Alyssa Schukar for NPR

Stangel is currently staying in a building in Rockville, Md., that was converted into an emergency shelter during the pandemic, as increased financial stress forced more people out of their homes.

Alyssa Schukar for NPR

Even though he’s vaccinated and comfortable with the shelter’s policies to prevent viral transmission, Stangel says he also knows sharing your living space with dozens of other people during a pandemic is risky. He wants to get his own place, but it’s expensive.

«Usually, to get into a room, it’s somewhere between $1,200 to $1,800 to get in,» he says of the Rockville area. He has just gotten a job working 40 hours per week, bought a small car and begun saving money for that rented room.

«What I’m trying to do now is save up enough money so I can get the first month’s rent and the deposit — and maybe have a month to fall back on,» he says.