“Colored communities are hardest hit by the deportation crisis, representing 80 percent of the vulnerable,” said the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
In Atlanta, the United Way says 95% of the families it helps fight eviction are black.
And black and Latino families consistently report low confidence in the ability to pay rent during the pandemic, advocates say.
Jasmine Cruz of Atlanta says she lives on borrowed time, like so many others who are rent arrears.
The single mother, 25, owes two months in rent and was recently given a notice period to pay her.
“It’s not easy,” she says. “I’ve struggled.”
‘Children don’t know how to get over it’
With nowhere else to turn for help, Cruz visited the Thrive Resource Center, which is run from a makeshift office in an apartment building. There she met Monica Delancy, who helps people at risk of deportation.
“We don’t want you to get that far,” Delancy told her. “If you have to move, we want you to move with dignity. We want you to move and pack your things, and we’ll find you a place. But we don’t want you to be forced to leave because children don’t know how to get there. “Get over it. Adults can. Children don’t know how.”
Delancy says she was evicted this time last year – “on a cold day like this, with a Christmas tree.”
Garnell Hodge is also facing eviction. Hodge lost her job in the service industry due to the pandemic and was concerned about herself and her 9-year-old granddaughter after an eviction notice came in.
“I don’t have to go anywhere either because the places are so high and I don’t have much income,” she said.
United Way’s Protip Biswas says the agency is inundated with requests for help.
“Not only can we not help, the funding will expire at the end of December,” he says. “That’s the biggest plea we have – if there is some way to expand it so we can continue to help families.”
Millions are behind in rent or mortgage payments
CNN’s Lauren Lee contributed to this report.