Nowhere Else to Go: Housing Insecurity in a Hispanic-Majority Rural County During the COVID-19 Pandemic☆

Abstract

Northern New Mexico was uniquely vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic and its fallout. Its Hispanic majority, aging population, and decreased access to healthcare put many of the communities in this area of the United States at risk. Taos County was particularly at increased risk of impact from COVID-19. The county was also more vulnerable to the economic consequences of a pandemic due to reliance on tourism; this meant major impacts for individual households. As unemployment and poverty increased—and pandemic relief program rollouts floundered—the consequences meant precarity for many families. One of the most visible impacts of the pandemic was the inability to access affordable housing. This paper, based on 58 in-depth interviews and 5 months of participant observation, explores experiences of homelessness and housing insecurity among an already vulnerable population during the pandemic, illustrating the ways in which many people struggled. Importantly, this paper explores differences in patterns of housing insecurity among rural White and rural Hispanic participants during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, this paper advocates the importance of looking at nuanced patterns of dealing with housing precarity in the rural setting as the ways in which different populations cope impact the forms of help that are needed when housing becomes a problem.