NBC News, April 12, 2020: Coronavirus Could ‘Decimate’ Latino Wealth, Which Was Hammered by the Great Recession
The economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic is dealing a hard-hitting blow to Latinos who barely recovered from the hammering they took in the Great Recession, raising the possibility of a setback from which many may not recover.
Millions of Latino families were just bouncing back from losing 66% of their household wealth, lagging far behind their white peers. During the Great Recession, Latino median household wealth plummeted from $18,359 in 2005 to $6,325 in 2009, the largest of any racial or ethnic group, according to Pew Research Center.
But the pandemic has left many out of work and pushed Latino business owners to the brink of shutting down. The crisis has either erased or is threatening to erase Latinos’ decade-long climb back to financial stability.
More than half of Latino families live one crisis away from financial disaster and wouldn’t be able to cover basic expenses for three months in the event of an economic burden, according to the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a nonprofit targeting discrimination in lending, housing and business practices.
