The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the social environmental aspects of the urban poor in Medan City, North Sumatra Province, Indonesia

This study aims to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the urban poor's social environment in Medan City in the context of sustainable development. This research was conducted from September to November 2020 on the suburban of Medan City, namely in Subdistrict of Medan Tuntungan, Subdistrict of Medan Sunggal, and Subdistrict of Medan Tembung, which were determined on purpose. The sample in this study was the suburban community with 99 respondents who were determined using the Slovin method. The data used in this research are primary data and secondary data and are processed descriptively. The COVID-19 pandemic has a negative impact on the urban poor's social environment in Medan City and resulted in a decrease in the average number of community meetings with relations by 85.56%. The COVID-19 pandemic has also caused average communication and interaction between communities to decrease by 87.2%. Visits of fellow decreased by 92.6% during the pandemic and caused a decrease in community gatherings as an indicator of the poor's social environment by 85.5%. The COVID-19 pandemic has a negative impact on the urban poor's social conditions in Medan City and the sustainable development process in Medan City. Following the conclusion, it is suggested that the public optimize online media for meetings with relationships, communication, the interaction between communities, and optimize virtual community meetings and replace online visits so that kinship is appropriately maintained.