Originally published on Reuters.

NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The economic blow of the coronavirus could push 1.5 million U.S. families to the brink of homelessness, housing experts warned, not only increasing poverty but accelerating the spread of the pandemic in overcrowded homes.

Those families would join some 8 million existing U.S. households on the verge of losing their homes, who pay half or more of their income on rent, said researchers and activists in a webinar about housing and the pandemic.

“It’s just a shocking number of people in our country who are losing jobs, who are losing hours, who are losing income,” said Diane Yentel, head of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.