New Developments: COVID’s Long Tail and Hidden Trauma
By Thom Amdur
4 min read
Later this month marks the one-year anniversary of when our world was turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic. Friday, March 13, 2020 marked the last day the team at NH&RA was all together in person at the office and the beginning of a scramble to adjust to the new reality of the pandemic world. Today, we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Tens of millions of Americans have been vaccinated. After a year of remote learning, my kids are scheduled to start in-person school in the middle of the month. We are beginning to shift our attention from responding to the dual health and economic crises to what happens next.
There are many reasons to be optimistic about a return to normalcy in 2021. The role affordable housing and community development professionals have played in providing safety during the public health crisis will increase as we lead the economic recovery by bringing back construction and infrastructure jobs with shovel-ready affordable housing projects across the country. Yet many challenges lie ahead of us as well. Some we have watched unfold with growing concern over the past year – supply chain shortages, rising labor costs and rising insurance premiums create new operational and financing challenges. Others have been downright alarming, like the increasingly vitriolic partisan political violence that exploded in the state capitals over the summer and fall, and culminated in armed insurrection in Washington, DC on January 6.
The experience of the past 12 months has been nothing short of harrowing, and though the open wound is beginning to close, the hidden damage is also beginning to reveal itself. There will be predictable consequences to this lost year. While many of us have been fortunate, staying fully employed throughout the pandemic in various community development roles, it has been exhausting, around-the-clock work. We have been on “emergency” response for a year while also continuing our regular duties. Our colleagues on the frontlines, in particular, have heroically borne the stress of potential exposure to the virus every working day, the fear of bringing that exposure home to their families and witnessed untold numbers of individuals and families in crisis. This takes a psychological toll, and those of us in a position to do so must take proactive steps to ensure the mental health of our colleagues in the months and years to come.
Likewise, there is undoubtedly hidden trauma within the communities and portfolios we manage. I think the following anecdote illustrates on a personal level what is undoubtedly playing out in many apartment communities around the country.
An industry colleague expressed fear of going to the dentist. I myself could relate to this—I have sensitive teeth but haven’t had my teeth cleaned professionally in a year—it just seems like an unnecessary risk. Recently, we had to reschedule my son’s routine orthodontist appointment because of COVID exposure at their practice. Two weeks later, when we went to get his appliance adjusted, we were told progress had been impeded by a baby tooth and that it would have to be pulled by his dentist. We attempted to schedule the extraction only to find out that the dentist was also sidelined by COVID, his return to practice, TBD. Fortunately, our immediate dilemma was solved when my boy wiggled the baby tooth out, but I ask myself what sort of tooth decay or periodontal woes will we discover when we finally do go to the dentist?
Likewise, who knows what we will uncover at our communities after a year of putting off unit inspections and preventive maintenance. How many plumbing leaks will have bloomed to black mold? How many fire hazards will remain unmitigated for lack of detection? How many small, everyday problems will have ballooned to full-blown emergencies for lack of visibility to professional managers and asset managers? In many cases, these dynamics will be intensified by diminished project reserves due to the economic crisis.
One year in, we are all experiencing COVID fatigue, but we cannot afford to be complacent. Sadly, I anticipate COVID-19 will have a long tail. With the end of the public health crisis, we will need to turn our attention to the recovery. Now is the time to start mapping out strategies for healing the emotional and physical trauma our friends, families, colleagues, residents and communities have endured over the past year.
