Alqaisi 1 Joud Alqaisi Dr. Garnica English 1 9 December 2022 Evictions In America Poverty is the state of being extremely poor. Too many families are struggling to pay rent every day and no one is really doing anything about it. One would say that minimum wage is the cause for this, no one can survive on $15 an hour in California today. Especially with children. Another might add that many kids don't have access to good education, and that's why so many are poor. While these reasons aren't incorrect and do a factor in being poor, the cause of so many being stuck in poverty is the lack of action by the government. Families are struggling to make ends meet and keep up with the rent. No one is doing anything. There are no laws set or systems made to help low-income people get out of poverty. There are programs helping some but it's just repeating the cycle by giving barely the help they need to survive. Families don't need a couple hundred sent every month to help pay to feed their children, they need a support system to get out and not have to worry about paying rent ever again. Affordable housing needs to be a right, not a privilege. The rise in evictions has been an ongoing epidemic in America today and there are certain solutions that could be used to decrease the number of evictions and make housing more affordable. There should be programs and laws created that would prevent evictions from happening and help people in case they do get evicted. Our government needs to take action to prevent the rise of evictions. The only way to do this is by creating systems such as afterschool programs because by doing so, they would prevent evictions. There needs to be a program for families who need more time to make money. Creating free after-school programs for kids while parents work is very helpful since it provides them with more time to work and help pay rent, which prevents them from eviction. In the podcast, “Scarlett E. lV” by Brook Gladstone, she mentions how childcare can support low-income parents. “One of Summerdale Commons' most notable features is its free after-school program to help the children with their homework and ensure they are safe while their parents are at work. That means they can work longer hours without worry and reliably pay their rent” (Gladstone, The Scarlet E Part lV). This program is just one of many that could help families coming from poverty. Parents alone cannot take care of their kids, have food on the table, and pay for rent/utilities, especially with the minimum wage in America today. Providing this support system would allow parents to have more time to work on making money without worrying about their kids. Many would argue that this is not possible due to the amount of money it would cost to create these types of programs. However, there are always ways that the government can reallocate funds to help low-income families. Alqaisi 2 Many would argue that providing low-income families with free child care isn't realistic as it is too expensive. However this isn't necessarily true, the government would have plenty of money if they organized how they would distribute everything. In an article written by James Stockard from Ted Talk, he explains how getting rid of mortgage tax reductions would help make programs, such as free child care, for people coming from poverty. He explains how affordable housing allocations make up about: “1.1 percent of the national budget, or $41.8 billion, and serve about one-quarter of the people who need assistance” (Stockard, Ideas.Ted.Com). James remarks how quadrupling that amount in order to cover everyone would bring it up to: “4.4 percent, or $168 billion. It might seem like a huge amount but when considering that our government already spends about $150 billion a year on the: “mortgage interest deduction clause in its tax code, which subsidizes homeownership for its wealthier citizens” (Stockard, Ideas.Ted.Com). There is no reason why we shouldn't help people coming from poverty. It seems that there are ways to fund these programs, just no one is doing anything about it and that doesn't help the increase in Evictions. Many would argue that it's not possible but other countries have found ways around this issue. If they can do it, why can't we? Stockard also mentions that “[t]he government of Scotland committed three billion pounds, about $3.8 billion, in 2016 to build 50,000 new affordable homes over the next five years, a significant investment for a country with a population of 5.4 million, or about 1.7 percent of America’s” (Stockard, Ideas.Ted.Com). The government wouldn’t lose any money because if housing becomes more affordable, then people would have the freedom to save money and create an education for themselves which leads to higher-paying jobs that eventually lead to economic growth. All of these solutions provided are to prevent evictions. Things in life do happen so not only should we prevent them, but also help people in case they do occur. The eviction process is another issue that needs to be addressed and laws need to be set in place to help in case an eviction does occur. Programs created by the government could provide legal counsel to people who are being evicted, in order to lessen the likelihood of eviction taking place. In the process of Eviction, a court date takes place. Many low-income people don't have access to a lawyer. This decreases their chance of having a fair say in what, how, or why an Eviction was placed on them. Mathew Desmond, author of the book Evicted, goes deeper into this topic. “In some urban courts, only 1 tenant in 10 showed…When tenants did not show up and their landlord or a representative did, the caller applied three quick stamps to the file— indicating that the tenant had received a default eviction judgment—and placed it on top of a growing pile” (Desmond, Evicted). In most housing courts across the country, most landlords are represented by lawyers, while most tenants are not. This means that many low-income families are not able to hire legal counsel. Having lawyers can help tenants keep their homes. Providing legal services to low-income families in the housing court would be more affordable compared to the costs of other programs. It's also an effective way to prevent homelessness and improve the living conditions of these families. Unfortunately, landlords have an unfair advantage when it comes to evicting tenants. Not saying that landlords are at fault or should not evict at all, since in many cases it's just something they are forced to do Alqaisi 3 because any loss of money would affect them directly. However, if landlords can have lawyers, tenants should too. Evictions can be decreased. Starting one step at a time is the only way we can stop this ongoing issue in America. Helping low-income families prevent themselves from getting evictions is really important for them to get out of poverty. If the government spends a little bit of time focusing on these problems, then maybe in the future there won't be so many poor people struggling with making ends meet and hopefully, evictions won't even be an issue anymore. Affordable housing needs to be a right, not a privilege.
