Eviction Moratorium & Hunger Are Linked
At the end of this month, the COVID-inspired federal pause on most evictions will end, putting one in seven Coloradans who are behind in their rent – almost 200,000 – at risk for losing their homes. Most of these families depend on income from low wage jobs in food service, arts, and entertainment – and many were laid off during the economic downturn.
With tent camps springing up all across Denver and more than 6,000 metro-Denver residents already experiencing homelessness, those encampments are likely to grow exponentially without focused, rapid intervention to prevent a looming eviction crisis that could push people out of their homes and into the street.
Colorado has become an unaffordable place to live. More than one in two renter households are cost burdened, paying more than a third of their income towards housing; one in four pay more than half of their income toward rent. The state has a shocking shortage of affordable housing for working class families and their children, college students, older adults living on a fixed income, people with disabilities, and caregivers.
When renters devote half or even one third of their income to housing, it means they are forced to forgo other essentials like healthy food and medical care just to keep a roof over their heads. The Overlooked & Undercounted Report from The Colorado Center on Law and Policy notes more than one in four Colorado households don’t earn enough income to cover basics like food, shelter, transportation, health and childcare.
Many stressed renters are Black and Latinx – and this is not by accident. Centuries of systemic racism have produced largely segregated neighborhoods due to the pernicious legacy of “redlining,” a historical lack of living wage jobs in these neighborhoods of color and an absence of facilities promoting health, like medical clinics, recreation centers and full-scale grocery stores.
Even before the pandemic, far too many Coloradans faced both housing insecurity and hunger. Low wages, unstable schedules, soaring rents, low social security levels and limited or no health benefits all add up to an impossible situation of too many bills and too little income.
Every Colorado family should have not just a safe, affordable place to live, but also the nutritious food they need to be healthy and thrive. But hunger is real in our state.– and it’s because they don’t earn enough to buy groceries, not due to a shortage of food, or because they’re lazy or make poor choices.
One in three families go hungry every day in Denver and the state as a whole. The food system is a whole ecosystem – we need all the parts like farmers, the food industry, consumers and government to be in balance. But things like low wages and the high cost of living disrupt the food ecosystem so people can’t get the healthy food they need.
With a newborn, a lost job and her partner hospitalized for over a month, Danette turned to our nonprofit organization for food. Soon she started attending their business classes three times a week and soon launched her own pop-up food business. Danette found not just nutritious food when she needed it, but more importantly, enrolled in training that allowed her to become an entrepreneur to earn enough to achieve the stability her family experiences today.
The roots of housing insecurity and hunger run deep. We need to invest the time, energy and money addressing the root causes and reimagining new solutions to old problems, including developing affordable housing, creating good-paying jobs, and dismantling racism.
We strive for a future in which we are safe, housed, nourished and well — without exception.
Teva Sienicki is the executive director of Metro Caring and a member of the Denver Community Food Access Coalition, made up of nine local nonprofits tackling immediate hunger relief like food pantries and urban agriculture and long-term solutions to end the root causes of hunger, from racial equity to living wage jobs.