Page 13 - Delaware Lawyer - Winter 2021

can do to help with problems that dis- proportionately affect racial minorities and have the most immediate effect on people’s daily lives, such as food inse- curity and housing instability.
Food Insecurity
While many are struggling with food insecurity during this pandemic, racial minorities in particular are hav- ing difficulty affording food. Accord- ing to a recent survey on COVID- related hardships by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), “Nearly 26 million adults — 12% of all adults in the country — reported that their household sometimes or often didn’t have enough to eat in the last seven days... Black and Latino adults were more than twice as likely as white adults to report that their household did not get enough to eat.”
Although there have been steps taken to address food insecurity dur-
ing the pandemic by local food banks, non-profits and the government, those measures have still left many behind. For example, although states have been providing emergency SNAP food benefits that raise households’ ben- efit levels to the maximum amount for their household, no increases were made to the maximum benefit levels themselves. This means that house- holds with the lowest incomes (who were already receiving the maximum level of benefits) were excluded from any extra help.
In addition, while many Delawar- eans applied for food benefits for the first time and others saw an increase, some lost their benefits during the pan- demic. As thousands of residents filed for unemployment benefits, many who were eligible to receive the additional $600 per week as part of the federal pandemic relief package had their SNAP benefits closed due to this “increased”
income. Although this unemployment relief provided some financial assistance for those who did receive it, the relief was only temporary and sometimes off- set by a loss in food benefits.
Even though SNAP and other pub- lic benefits programs are critical to meeting the immediate needs of low- income families (especially low-income families of color), the pandemic has drawn attention to the inadequacy of our current safety net. Governments should strengthen and expand access to programs like SNAP, ensuring that households who have fallen on hard times or are living in poverty can re- ceive essential help.
Housing Insecurity
The impending eviction crisis is one of the most significant problems we are facing. The loss of housing can be the first domino to fall, creating a cascade of tragic events for a family. The CBPP estimates that nearly one in five adult renters are not caught up on rent, and renters of color are even more likely to report being behind. While 14% of white renters said they were not caught up on rent, 33% of Black renters, 17% of Latino renters and 16% of Asian renters reported that they were not caught up on rent payments.
Although Delaware put an eviction moratorium into effect that provided certain protections for renters, that moratorium has ended, and with a fed- eral moratorium set to expire at the end of the year, the threat of eviction is still a dark cloud looming over the heads of renters. Evictions have always been a problem in the United States and in Delaware, particularly among popula- tions like poor women of color, who have a particularly high risk of eviction.
Too many of these tenants in Dela- ware are evicted unnecessarily due to a lack of legal representation. A study conducted by the Biden School of Public Policy & Administration at the
WINTER 2021 DELAWARE LAWYER 11
SAQUAN STIMPSON