Pandemic continues to impact unevenly across Sacramento region, COVID-19 poll finds
Across the board, Black, Latino, lower-income or younger people generally report the highest level of concern about the coronavirus and its rippling impacts on health, jobs, education and more, a new poll found.
It’s difficult to determine the magnitude of how many struggle to get by during the coronavirus pandemic, but growing traffic at local food banks suggests the number is alarming.
The River City Food Bank, which distributes food in midtown Sacramento and in Arden Arcade, used to serve an average of 12,000 people a month, according to Erika Fatula, director of fund development. Since the pandemic broke out in March, the food bank now sees about 20,000 people monthly.
“What we’ve really seen is an increase in people coming in for the very first time,” said Fatula, standing outside the 28th Street food bank surrounded by boxes of carrots, potatoes, hamburger buns and grapes.
“Folks who lost months of income, were laid off and who may be receiving unemployment, but not enough and they need to supplement,” she said.
The new reality at the food bank reflects trends illustrated in a new report published last week that provides further evidence that the pandemic is unevenly impacting residents across the Sacramento region. The COVID-19 Resilience Poll, administered by Sacramento State’s Institute for Social Research and published by Capital Public Radio and Valley Vision, shares responses taken from about 1,000 residents in September.
Despite loosening restrictions, a partially reopened economy and lower infection rates across much of the region in recent weeks, anxieties surrounding the short-term and longterm effects of the pandemic remain high. People are tired. Trust in government and other institutions is waning. Residents, stretched thin for months, say their financial situations are precarious and the stress has become untenable.
Black and Latino workers, who are more likely to be working in-person, are worried about contracting the virus at their jobs. Low-income residents fear they may lose their jobs. Remote learning is unsustainable for most families. Young people and women in particular are feeling hopeless and distressed.
“This is a challenging report to read, because the numbers and the data lay bare the difficulties being lived every day, for months now, by all of us across the Capital Region,” the report stated.
Nearly half of respondents across age groups and race said their income had significantly or somewhat reduced, with younger residents and people of color reporting losses more frequently.
Among very low-income earners making less than $30,000, 44% say they are very concerned about their personal finance. Those with significant reduction in income were twice as likely to struggle to pay down debt and four times more likely to struggle to afford childcare, compared to the overall group surveyed.
Nearly 40 percent of women said they have found it very challenging to have children doing remote learning, compared to about 13 percent of men. A majority of parents with kids under 18 at home are very concerned about finding childcare and the loss of services like school lunches and counseling, but respondents were split on whether to reopen school and how.
Rachel Rios, executive director of La Familia Counseling Center, said the findings of the report are unsurprising. The nonprofit, which primarily serves Latinos in the Sacramento-area, helps a community “already under stress, a community that was already fearful because of anti-immigration rhetoric” and a lack of access to healthcare services.
“We were already impacted by so many adversities prior, and you just add one more layer to that and you can see where that really breaks people,” Rios said.
The nonprofit has kept its computer lab open for residents to apply for unemployment benefits, Rios said, and partnered with small businesses to cover the cost of wages for new hires. La Familia is also working on starting an after school program over Zoom to help overworked parents and give children a safe space to learn and stay engaged.
About four in five respondents said they have experienced feeling stress or anxiety at least once in the last seven days. Nearly two-thirds have felt depressed or hopeless one in the last seven days. Those who are Black, Hispanic, or younger were more likely to report concerns about abuse, substance use, and the well-being of children in their household.
“I think the seven or eight months of this is really adding up in terms of mental health and well-being,” said Kiran Savage-Sangwan, executive director of the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network.
When people have lost their job-based health insurance because they’ve recently been laid off, she said, they may also be losing their health services. The poll found 77 percent of Black respondents have more difficulty or are unable to secure doctor’s appointments.
“That’s alarming to me,” Savage-Sangwan said. “We had disparities in access to healthcare before the pandemic and it’s getting worse.”
The poll is the second of three polls planned by Capital Public Radio and Valley Vision to better understand how the pandemic is affecting all residents in the Sacramento region. The first poll was published in July, based on responses collected in May.
The new poll results reveal potential bright spots. Respondents overall are reporting “somewhat less difficulty” paying for essential expenses now compared to before the summer. A larger percentage of parents now say it’s not very challenging to have school-age children at home, up now to 29%, more than double the level in May.
“What is important is that we move forward together — with urgency and empathy — to reshape our institutions and systems, making something better than what we had before COVID,” the report concludes.
Throughout the pandemic, Black and Latino communities across the country have experienced higher rates of COVID-19 transmission. The disproportionate outbreaks prompted local officials in California to get more aggressive about targeted outreach and testing over the summer.
Though discussion around the timeline of a COVID-19 vaccine remains politically fraught, when a safe and effective vaccine is available, public health agencies must create a distribution plan “to reach particularly low-income communities of color with trusted messengers,” Savage-Sangwan said.
This story was originally published October 26, 2020 at 10:28 AM.