John Oliver has addressed the growing housing crisis that is affecting many Americans as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The host of Last Week Tonight used his latest show to discuss the evictions and how a “completely predictable” problem has left millions of people vulnerable.
“The coronavirus crisis could also soon become a total crisis for the homeless,” he said. “It is even hard to imagine something that is already so bad turning into something so terrible.”
He spoke about the new eviction processes of someone involving a day in court by video. “It might be worth thinking twice about what you’re participating in if you kick people out of their homes through Zoom, a platform you’re only using because it’s not safe for people to leave their homes,” he joked.
Oliver continued: “The fact is, we are about to do everything we can to kick people out of their homes at the worst time.”
The issue of affordable housing is by no means a new one with “rents so high and tenants so burdened” in the United States for many years. More than 1 million homes have been evicted each year for more than a decade, and this disproportionately affects blacks of color with black households twice as likely to be evicted as whites. Twenty-three states do not have statewide protections for individuals against eviction.
Oliver showed pictures of a landlord stating that tenants should have planned better and saved for a rainy day. “Why are tenants the only ones involved who are told they should have planned better?” I ask. “It is important to remember that we are all in this together now and that it is not just a rainy day, it is the great flood.”
During a recent protest, an attendee asked why banks are rescued more than people. “We must treat families at least as well as banks,” said Oliver.
He added that “rent strikes are a risk” since people could be evicted for lack of payment, which could make it difficult to find homes in the future, but “people are desperate.”
Houston developed its own fund to help distressed tenants, but its total of $ 15 million disappeared in just 90 minutes.
“The truth is, cities can only do so much without federal intervention,” he said. “They have essentially the same amount of power as Downton Abbey’s servants.”
Those within the government have “shuffled” and Oliver declared: “We have waited too long here and there is absolutely no excuse not to attack this problem with real urgency.”
He continued: “Everyone deserves the basic stability of the shelter and if you are in a position where you have started to despise the house you have been locked up in for the past three and a half months, it is worth remembering the only thing worse than knowing what you are going to go through. another day trapped under the same roof is not knowing that. “
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