Editor’s Note: This article was contributed from the Laney College Chapter, Poor People’s Campaign
“We must put basic needs before luxury for the few, people before profits, and students before corporations. The demands of the poor are nothing small, because we are the many and we are powerful. Together we can get what we need.”
My first memory as a child was after my family had just been evicted which forced my parents and three siblings to sleep on the floor of my dads office for about a week. As a family, we were evicted or “self” evicted four more times by my 18th birthday.
As a child I blamed my parents for our experiences and struggles, but now as a 26 year old I have spent more years of my adult life living in a vehicle, couch surfing, in a tent, or doubled up, than I have in rental housing. In fact, every one of my siblings has spent time living in a vehicle or RV as an adult as well.
Myself, like many other queer or trans folks, felt that moving to a more LGBTQ+ friendly place would improve our social experiences. Unfortunately, economic conditions have remained the same in any location I have lived, which has not improved my ability to afford housing. Much of the media that I grew up watching or listening to led me to believe that I was a failure, lazy,
dumb, or even mentally ill or a drug addict. However, I didn’t feel that I fit that categorization nor any other people that I had met that were experiencing homelessness in shelters, tents, vehicles/ RV’s, couch surfing, or doubling up. From this, I decided to go back to school and I started realizing that millions of other people were experiencing similar situations as myself, which is when I realized that homelessness is a structural problem, not an individual problem.
Groups like Mom’s 4 Housing have pointed to the fact there are far more empty homes or apartments than there are people experiencing homelessness or entire “ghost” buildings that remain empty despite being perfectly usable. The root of this issue is that housing should be used to house people, not as a source of profit. Students and community members around colleges and universities especially have felt the pressure on the rental market due to investors using student housing as a means of stable profits instead of the basic need that housing is.
We must put basic needs before luxury for the few, people before profits, and students before corporations. The demands of the poor are nothing small, because we are the many and we are powerful. Together we can get what we need.
