More from The Appeal:
Tenants and progressive leaders who cried out for a national action must now grapple with two truths: This eviction moratorium will save lives, but everything about it is a page out of Trump’s re-election playbook.
Tara Raghuveer | September 2, 2020
Tom Wolf said Tuesday that legalizing and taxing recreational use of marijuana could help solve fiscal woes that arose from the pandemic, and address long-standing racial injustices.
Joshua Vaughn | August 26, 2020
The committee signaled an unprecedented desire to break with one of the most durable, and damaging, economic frameworks of the last 50 years: the 1970s-era, hands-off antitrust ideology that helped bestow these titans of tech with such extraordinary power to begin with.
Sarah Miller | August 6, 2020
The Doe Fund says it pays homeless and formerly incarcerated people New York City’s minimum wage of $15 per hour. But the nonprofit charges weekly fees that can drive their wages below the federal minimum of $7.25.
Jonathan Ben-Menachem | July 29, 2020
Housing rights activists in California are pushing for taxation of rich residents to help the hundreds of thousands of people who may be at risk of losing housing after COVID-19 eviction restrictions end.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg | July 27, 2020
Hundreds were forced from an encampment to fenced-in, asphalt parking lots with no shade in Phoenix’s triple-digit summer heat. At least three people have died.
Meg O'Connor | July 24, 2020
Through this mechanism, communities can accept accountability for the racism they allow to flourish by failing to disrupt it.
Monica C. Bell | July 17, 2020
Tens of thousands of people in Los Angeles County are at high risk for becoming homeless after the temporary halt on evictions is lifted—one of the largest mass displacements the region has ever seen.
Organizations in New York City have stepped in to help families with funeral costs and related matters in communities hit hard by the disease, but their money and resources are strained.
Bryce Covert | July 15, 2020
The frustrations of residents in the Powderhorn neighborhood, not far from where George Floyd was killed, have gotten some national coverage. But the homelessness crisis in the city isn’t new, and it could soon get worse.
Rachel M. Cohen | July 15, 2020
As a ‘heat dome’ descends on much of the country and local governments scramble to provide safe refuges, concern grows over the effect of a disease that has ‘totally demolished the homeless people.’
Daniel Moritz-Rabson | July 13, 2020
You can’t incarcerate a public health problem. It doesn’t make us safer. It doesn’t repair harm.
Daveen Trentman | July 7, 2020
A survey published by the National Domestic Workers Alliance in April found that 55 percent of respondents were unable to pay April’s rent, and 84 percent were either not able to or didn’t know if they could afford food.
Lauren Gill | July 1, 2020
The nation has an opportunity to take advantage of this transformative event and pursue an alternative to the current system.
David A. Love | June 30, 2020
From grocery store workers to nurses, from home care workers to janitors, from teachers to delivery workers to domestic workers -- there is an invisible, undervalued army of people who make our lives possible. Their work is essential, and it always has been.
Ai-jen Poo | June 29, 2020
The July 4th event will only serve to endanger the Black Hills National Forest, spread contagion, and continue the president’s pattern of sowing hatred and division.
Ruth Hopkins | June 29, 2020
Workers report facing a difficult choice between earning a living and feeling safe and healthy at their job.
Amir Khafagy | June 26, 2020
Yes, we must radically transform policing in America. But we cannot stop there. We must transform the pervasive systems of economic and carceral injustice that are choking our common life.
The lawsuit says the Small Business Administration overstepped its authority by imposing ‘arbitrary and capricious’ restrictions on a loan program passed by Congress.
Bryce Covert | June 17, 2020
Although the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis are both provoked by natural phenomena, the dangers they present are just as political as the crisis of police violence.
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò | June 16, 2020
While 80 percent of state health departments are recording race as part of their COVID-19 statistics, around half are not including Natives and are simply labeling them as “other.”
Ruth Hopkins | May 26, 2020
The City Council must not let Mayor Eric Garcetti’s unconscionable priorities dictate how Los Angeles responds to the COVID-19 crisis.
May 21, 2020
Advocates say states aren’t doing enough to close the gaps in the federal stimulus bill.
Rebecca Chowdhury | May 20, 2020
States must fund stable housing for all formerly incarcerated people to neutralize the spread of COVID-19 and create equitable opportunities for social reintegration.
Demar F. Lewis IV | May 18, 2020
Expansion of an existing federal rental subsidy program, the Housing Choice Voucher, could stabilize housing for millions of households.
The Fed’s new Municipal Liquidity Facility can be a necessary financial lifeline to states facing a cash crunch -- but only if they use it properly and completely.
Robert Hockett | May 13, 2020
‘It’s not only poor people standing in food lines, or going to food pantries and soup kitchens. Now you have the middle class and businesses that are suffering, too,’ one organizer said.
Elizabeth Brico | May 7, 2020
The pandemic is making it clear that it’s time to radically rethink the social contract.
The federal government is not going to lead the way on addressing the economic pain caused by the shutdowns. But states have the power to do something about it now.
David A. Love | May 1, 2020
Laid-off workers say they face insurmountable debt and homelessness if they have to pay back months of rent after the pandemic.
Supriya Yelimeli | April 30, 2020
An overwhelming majority of Americans support the federal government paying all healthcare costs for the duration of the coronavirus emergency.
Alison P. Galvani | April 30, 2020
Americans overwhelmingly support imposing a merger moratorium on large corporations and private equity firms.
Sarah Miller | April 28, 2020
There are certain universal human needs that any governing structure — from local to federal — is responsible for. Among these are housing, healthcare, education, public parks, clean water, and clean air — the things that make life beautiful. These needs touch every single living being and as such, are non-negotiable. They do not belong on the open market.
Elected officials need to stop making excuses for not getting unhoused people into hotel rooms.
Jonny Coleman | April 24, 2020
Intentionally disqualifying millions of American citizens from much-needed stimulus funds during this unprecedented health crisis is both unnecessary and cruel.
Jane Lilly López | April 24, 2020
As the coronavirus crisis continues to expand, it is clear that America needs a robust assistance program for the most vulnerable, such as the elderly and physically disabled, to ensure they have what they need to survive. The health, safety, and stability of all communities depend on it.
Rashida Tlaib | April 23, 2020
The city has created the structural conditions that have engendered disproportionately high rates of infection and death among its Black and Latinx residents.
The Small Business Administration has created barriers for people re-entering the workforce after serving time in prison.
Alex Sherman | April 20, 2020
Local budget cuts enacted a decade ago left states and cities dangerously unprepared for COVID-19. We shouldn’t make those same mistakes again.
Nathan Tankus | April 17, 2020
Neither the coronavirus nor anything else is a ‘great equalizer’ because we aren’t, actually, all in this together.
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò | April 16, 2020
Advocates say the “progressive” city has left them to die.
Rebecca Chowdhury | April 14, 2020
Voters want the government to take common sense measures that meet the scale of the crisis and preserve the economy so that when the coronavirus is contained, economic life can resume as rapidly as possible. It's time for lawmakers in Washington, D.C. to listen.
New polling finds strong bipartisan support for recurring government payments to Americans, rather than a one-time payment.
They make roughly half the average national income, and they’re at risk of COVID-19 exposure as they continue to work to ensure shelves are restocked and communities fed.
Lizzie Tribone | April 8, 2020
This is still a severely inadequate response to this deadly pandemic. The Mayor has both the power and the obligation to house every single person in hotels; failing to do so puts thousands of lives at risk.
Quiver Watts | April 7, 2020
Powerful interests exploited Katrina to enrich themselves and transform the city. As a reporter who covered the fallout explains, our government’s lax oversight means the same could happen now, leaving those who most need help behind.
Gary Rivlin | April 7, 2020
In Austin and across the country, service providers are dealing with spikes in demand, new logistical challenges, and mounting uncertainty about the months ahead.
Jay Willis | April 6, 2020
To leave hundreds of people in mass congregate shelters could be a death sentence for many of our vulnerable neighbors.
Quiver Watts | April 6, 2020
There’s still a chance to make sure some of the most vulnerable people can benefit from the federal stimulus bill.
Yonah Freemark | March 31, 2020
The COVID-19 crisis is shining a light on America’s worsening housing crisis and limited resources for response.
Mara Kardas-Nelson | March 27, 2020
Advocates for the area’s homeless residents say the pandemic will worsen the crisis they have already been living through.
Jay Willis | March 26, 2020
But the proposals on the table are leaving our most vulnerable neighbors behind.
Yonah Freemark | March 19, 2020