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This is astonishing: People in Atlanta, like everywhere in the US, are facing homelessness on a truly horrific scale, and yet the city is *cutting* its rent assistance fund in half because tenants have been unable to access the money https://www.wabe.org/atlanta-may-cut-covid-19-housing-fund-in-half-redistribute-relief-money/
This is NOT about need—as @stephannnnie writes, 10k eviction notices have gone out in Fulton County alone since the pandemic started. It’s about the many hoops tenants are forced to jump through and the prohibitive requirements (proof of job loss, etc) attached to these programs.
As with most programs geared toward poor & working-class families, Atlanta’s rent assistance program evinces a fundamental distrust of tenants—seen in its layers of required verification and demand that funds go directly to landlords, as if tenants might try to steal the money
Rental assistance programs, of course, are better than nothing at all. But what we’re seeing in ATL is part of the reason why many people have been calling for rent cancellation or monthly cash payments: A well-founded concern that those in most desperate need will be left behind
As @thrasherxy put it earlier, safe, stable housing is absolutely vital to any positive public health outcome—now more than ever. Which makes this situation here in Atlanta that much more infuriating. https://twitter.com/thrasherxy/status/1334181424845479943