Great piece. This makes me sad and angry. Lives are on the line here in the U.S. when clear solutions are in sight. Fortunately we are starting to build some public housing again, but not fast enough.
Last week, as part of my mini-vacation, I went on a dolphin tour in the Manteo, NC Outer Banks area. Yes, we saw plenty of dolphin. Delightful! But, to my fascinated dismay, our skipper also gave us a brief tour of Pirates Cove, a high-end gated community featuring multimillion dollar houses, over 70% unoccupied, and scores of multimillion dollar yachts, many sitting in their docks unused much of the time.
It was all my companions and I could do not to vomit. The blatant use of our tax dollars to "support" the wasteful lifestyles of the ultra-rich while way more than 600,000 people in our country go without a place to live represents all that is wrong with our government's policies today.
Yes, the Vienna example is inspiring and embarrassing. However, that won't move the bulk of our decision makers who live off the suffering of millions of our sisters and brothers mired in poverty. We could implement housing and other social policies in a heartbeat. The tenant movements you refer to are encouraging, but I doubt they'll be sufficient to move the status quo.
Thanks for shaming us. You continue to fuel the fires of justice. Hopefully that will move us in the Vienna direction.
In the meantime, we'll continue to read of tragic stories like the little girl who lived in a tent city with her parents who was raped and murdered in Topeka, KS. Homelessness is deadly. We treat it like a common cold.
A terrific piece! Thanks Fran!
Great piece. This makes me sad and angry. Lives are on the line here in the U.S. when clear solutions are in sight. Fortunately we are starting to build some public housing again, but not fast enough.
Last week, as part of my mini-vacation, I went on a dolphin tour in the Manteo, NC Outer Banks area. Yes, we saw plenty of dolphin. Delightful! But, to my fascinated dismay, our skipper also gave us a brief tour of Pirates Cove, a high-end gated community featuring multimillion dollar houses, over 70% unoccupied, and scores of multimillion dollar yachts, many sitting in their docks unused much of the time.
It was all my companions and I could do not to vomit. The blatant use of our tax dollars to "support" the wasteful lifestyles of the ultra-rich while way more than 600,000 people in our country go without a place to live represents all that is wrong with our government's policies today.
Yes, the Vienna example is inspiring and embarrassing. However, that won't move the bulk of our decision makers who live off the suffering of millions of our sisters and brothers mired in poverty. We could implement housing and other social policies in a heartbeat. The tenant movements you refer to are encouraging, but I doubt they'll be sufficient to move the status quo.
Thanks for shaming us. You continue to fuel the fires of justice. Hopefully that will move us in the Vienna direction.
In the meantime, we'll continue to read of tragic stories like the little girl who lived in a tent city with her parents who was raped and murdered in Topeka, KS. Homelessness is deadly. We treat it like a common cold.
Thanks, Sue! As for political will, I am inspired by the growing U.S. tenant movements that are organizing and pushing in the tradition of the ground-up activism that has had so much success in other human rights movements: https://housingisahumanright.substack.com/p/tenants-push-biden-for-rent-control