Americans already enduring the most frayed financial safety nets now find themselves on the fault lines exacerbated by the novel coronavirus. New polling reveals the strain born by families caught in the crosshairs of several issues converging on the country: COVID-19 and systemic racial, socioeconomic and health inequality.

The survey, released Wednesday from NPR, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, explores COVID-19’s impact on households in the nation’s four largest cities: New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston.

At least half the households in all four cities report facing serious financial problems in the midst, and because, of the pandemic. The study, conducted July 1 – Aug. 3, found many households’ savings are drained. It also showed many are struggling to pay rent, pay major bills and ensuring the household has enough to eat. More than half are reporting serious problems caring for their children.