This short guide has been prepared to help local officials and community stakeholders start thinking about how to address the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic in economically stressed and physically disinvested areas.
- The first section looks at the forces driving the post-pandemic aftermath – what are the likely impacts of what is currently going on, and how might they interact with each other, and impact communities?
- The second section focuses on how local stakeholders can address these impacts – what steps they can take to plan for them and tackle them as they arise.
- Recognizing that local resources are unlikely to be sufficient, the third section looks at the need for continued, targeted federal action.
- The final section looks at a longer-term question, recognizing how many of the post-COVID-19 problems will simply magnify and exacerbate the long-standing crisis facing lower-income communities and communities of color in the United States – can we build a post-pandemic future for our neighborhoods that is better than the past, and that places equity at the center?