Editorial: Pandemic rent relief is welcome, but a band-aid

Fixing the coronavirus pandemic might start with a covid-19 vaccine, but the shot isn’t a light switch that turns back the dark with a flick.

By the same token, the progress toward correcting the economic impact of the pandemic isn’t going to respond to the push of a button either.

Gov. Tom Wolf increased restaurant capacities and lifted bar curfews this month. While businesses are on the road back toward normal, that destination is still in the distance, and that trickles down to the people who get — or don’t get — paid.

That leaves many still struggling with the things those paychecks would provide, like a roof and lights.

On Monday, a $12.9 million pot of federal money earmarked for rent and utilities was opened for applications in Westmoreland County. By lunchtime, 40 people had applied at Union Mission of Latrobe Inc.

“We’re anticipating some heavy needs coming into this,” said Executive Director Dan Carney.

That probably is because the pandemic is only exacerbating a problem that has existed for years. Finding the funding to pay for the most basic needs that stand between having a home and being homeless are not new.

In 2018, the U.S. Energy Information Administration released its Residential Energy Consumption Survey, which looked at 2015 energy use. It showed 31% of households faced household energy insecurity at some point that year.

More than 20% didn’t pay another bill or went without other basic needs to keep a utility on. About 10% kept their homes at an unsafe or unhealthy temperature.

That was five years before anyone heard of covid-19. It was a year where unemployment trended down, reaching pre-2007 levels — and yet almost a third of people struggled with their utilities.

This is a problem bigger than responding to a pandemic. For the last year, it has been in limbo as covid measures have placed moratoriums on many utilities being shut off. But those are among the restrictions being rolled back.

Government — from the federal level to Harrisburg and down — needs to pay attention to this need and do some genuine problem-solving.

Because just like businesses being open trickles down to paychecks, and from there to rents and bills, the reverse also is true. If rent and bills are paid in a stable and reliable manner, that’s beneficial for landlords and utility companies, which in turn feeds into communities and taxes.