The Week Ahead: Examining Pandemic-Related Housing Disruption

On Friday, November 19 at 11:15 a.m. CDT, the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies will deliver a virtual presentation, “Covid, Race, and Housing Insecurity.”

Speakers Sharon Cornelissen, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Joint Center, and Alexander Hermann, Senior Research Analyst for the Center will examine the economic impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic have had on Black, Hispanic, and Asian households in the United States.

Cornelissen and Hermann will report on new research that uses data to measure and better understand racial and ethnic differences in the economic impacts of COVID. Their results indicate that, during Q2 of 2020, Black, Hispanic, and Asian households were two-to-three times more likely to be delinquent on housing payments than White households.

The speakers note that while some of these inequalities can be explained by disparities that preceded the pandemic, new pandemic-related obstacles disrupted housing for Black, Hispanic, and Asian households.

A Postdoctoral Fellow for the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, Cornelissen is currently researching the intersections of urban decline, gentrification, and racial inequality in America’s post-industrial cities. She is working on a book about gentrification after extreme depopulation, drawing on three years of research gathered while living in the Brightmoor district of Detroit. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Princeton University, and a Master’s in Sociology from the New School for Social Research. Her research has been published in Urban Affairs Review, Theory and Society, and Sociological Forum.

Currently a Senior Research Analyst for the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, Hermann has worked on projects related to housing markets, demographics, and housing policy. Prior to joining the Center, he worked as a Grant Writer at a Detroit non-profit that provided housing and treatment services to homeless populations. He received his Master’s in Public Policy and a Master’s in Urban Planning from the University of Michigan.

Click here for more information or to register for this event.

Here's what else is happening in The Week Ahead:

• NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) Report (Tuesday)
• MBA Weekly Applications Survey (Wednesday)
• Realtor.com Weekly Housing Market Recap (Wednesday)
• Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey (Thursday)
• NAR Pending Home Sales Index (Thursday)
• U.S. Department of Labor's Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report (Thursday)
• Black Knight weekly forbearance data (Friday)