Member-only story
Homelessness Creation 101
Look Upstream to Find Out Why!
If you want to know why and how we have so much homelessness in America, look upstream!
People experiencing homelessness don’t just drop from the sky. They don’t grow up wanting to be homeless. And, contrary to misguided opinion, people don’t want/choose to be homeless. They end up in this abysmal situation for a number of reasons, a few of which I’ll discuss in this post.
Loss of Housing
In the past 4 days I’ve heard 3 instances of property managers notifying existing tenants of sizable rent increases, evicting scores of tenants who’ve lived in units for years, and then doing cosmetic tweaks so they could take advantage of the hot rental market.
In frickin’-freezin’ New Brighton, MN, a suburb of Minneapolis-St. Paul, frustrated tenants took their case to their city council. Good on them!
More than two dozen tenants showed up Tuesday at the New Brighton City Council meeting, many with young children in tow, pleading for assistance and more time to move. Some asked how it can be against the law in Minnesota to shut off the heat in the middle of winter but legal to kick people out of their homes. Council members listened closely for more than an hour.
