Pamela Cruz. Manuel Ortiz. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
San Francisco, California. With 30 vehicles, the Bay Area participated in a large demonstration across the country from January 30 to February 1, where, through protests and banners, they demanded that the government cancel rents and mortgages, stop evictions, and thus prevent more people from finding themselves on the streets.
Thus, 24 cars and six bicycles took to the streets of Oakland and San Francisco demanding in Spanish and English the cancellation of rents and mortgages, an end to evictions, foreclosures, and that homeless people be placed in vacant housing.
San Francisco residents actively participated with a caravan that began in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood, wound through the Mission and culminated near the home of Mayor London Breed who, just on January 25, announced that the city received $26 million from the federal government to provide rental assistance to people financially affected by COVID-19.
In the case of Oakland, participants began their march at the San Leandro BART station and headed to the Alameda County Courthouse where they began a rally.
For many of the plaintiffs, the fact that there is a large amount of empty housing and thousands of people on the streets is simply not fair, as they consider that they are profiting from a human right, to have a roof over their heads. A home.
"Housing in this country, and especially in this state [California], is considered a luxury, it's something that is sold for profit, but it's not considered a human need when it is," said San Francisco elementary school teacher Nathalie Hrizi who, witnessing the enormous housing problem facing her students, became an activist. "In San Francisco County there are 34,000 uninhabited homes, when there are 8,000 homeless people, and we know this number will increase. Housing should be a right, and currently it's not.
Hrizi, who has been a teacher for the past 14 years, said children are suffering greatly in this pandemic. "We are teaching children who can barely get access to a computer and are living with a lot of stress because of housing issues. We have families who have been evicted, even though we have sent letters to prevent it."
In San Diego, there were also protests. After a press conference, about 40 cars surrounded working-class neighborhoods, protests that were joined by a group of people from the city of San Diego. Anak Bayan SD and Cancel the Rent Coalition, of San Diego.
The city of San Diego has very few tenant protections and the caravan's call for rent cancellation was enthusiastically supported by pedestrians, drivers and workers throughout.
These protests were part of protests in 30 cities across the country, from Tampa Bay, Florida, to Portland, Oregon, from Los Angeles to Boston, people organized to stop and get help in the face of the dire economic situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The extensions to the eviction moratoriums have only stopped millions of evictions, but what happens next? How will the months of rent owed be paid? The situation has reached a limit and an eviction crisis is looming where oppressed and vulnerable communities will be the hardest hit.
For their part, homeowners have initiated eviction lawsuits for hundreds of families, regardless of whether there is an extension in the moratoriums, detailed hundreds of citizens who showed their concern in all the caravans and marches.
The situation is not limited to certain cities in some states, but encompasses and affects localities all over the country, where, soon, the situation will be unsustainable.
Protests that pointed to the need for workers to fight for their rights were coordinated by Cancel the Rents and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
