Housing

Housing is something not everyone has to stress over. Although, it is fair to say that overall, in today’s economy it is a problem that needs to be addressed. It can easily be considered the worst economic crisis. The homeless population is heart-wrenching and has dramatically increased with Covid, as seen in the article “The Rent Eats First, Even During a Pandemic”. The rise in evictions was devastating and I must say I am lucky to have never experienced this kind of pain and uncertainty. Watching the video of evictions really opened my eyes to how serious our housing problem is in America. It is sad to know the lack of accommodations in our housing systems and that the “big guys” with “big money” show little to no remorse. People with “big money” tend to make big promises when running for elections and then when they are in power and have control, they tend to “forget” about the “little guys”. Learning about hostile design was also very enlightening. It is crazy how subtle these things are when they are not directly affecting you. Also, evictions are shown to have harsh long-lasting effects. In the video, it states evictions are linked to “heightened residential instability, standard housing, declines in neighborhood quality, and job loss”. As we discussed in our class discussion, homelessness is almost a never-ending cycle once you are thrown into it. Very similar to incarceration, our governmental systems are so broken that once you reach rock bottom it’s hard to ever get up from it. With this, you may ask, why do we prioritize making the rich richer? Why doesn’t our government help our poor people with more urgency?