CovOps
Location : Ether-Sphere Job/hobbies : Irrationality Exterminator Humor : Über Serious
| Subject: 'Thank' the statists: The evictions crisis is coming. We have barely begun to face it. Sun Dec 20, 2020 7:24 pm | |
| The United States is dancing on the edge of an eviction crisis, and so it is darkly fitting that this is the time of year when we recount the story of a family of color desperately seeking shelter.
As the story of the Christmas Nativity goes, Joseph and a very pregnant Mary could find no room at an inn, and so they had to resort to a stable, where Mary gave birth to her baby. Those of us who celebrate Christmas find deep meaning in the notion that the King of Men — the one who would grow up to be the savior of mankind — was born homeless, his parents refugees from the wrath of Herod.
But, of course, homelessness is nothing to celebrate, and much of the way we mark the holiday bears little resemblance to the spirit of the story. Holiday advertisers are relentlessly encouraging lucky Americans to buy more stuff to fill their homes, even as millions of other Americans risk having their stuff put out on the street. Many millions, actually. After Dec. 31, when a federal evictions moratorium is set to end, more than 30 million people in the United States could be in danger of losing their homes. Nearly 12 million Americans — disproportionately Black people and other families of color — will be an average of almost $6,000 behind on rent and utilities by the new year. That’s an increase of 3 million people in a month. Millions of others are falling significantly behind on their mortgages. We now have covid-19 vaccines that will save lives. But if the United States does not move decisively to stave off its looming eviction and homelessness crisis, lives and livelihoods will be destroyed another way. These Americans are as much victims of covid-19 as the thousands fighting for breath in our hospitals.
.https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/12/19/evictions-crisis-is-coming-we-have-barely-begun-face-it/.
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