of course we can. joining me now are twoexperts on the issue, rasheedah phillips, making her the cross connection, and friend of the show, diane yentel, president and ceo of the low income housing coalition. i want to start with you, diane. is this a case of many people regardless of race owing back rent, but black women bearing the brunt of the eviction crisis. that s certainly a part of it. the eviction crisis existed long before the pandemic, but the pandemic exacerbated it. and certainly pre-pandemic, during the pandemic, and after the pandemic, black women are most harmed. you know, it happens as a result of structural racism. it happens through a broken housing system that favors landlords at the expense of renters, and through a social safety net with gaping holes for
everywhere. we need tenants to be able to access free legal representation, that, you know, just diminishes the risk they won t be homeless and put out on the streets, and we also need protections and measures that are going to seal people s evictions records, so again, that record doesn t follow them for the rest of their lives and prevent them from housing opportunities in the future. we need to transform our housing policies and systems so they prioritize black people and other vulnerable people. i have to say it s a scary thing i would imagine for a mother to be with her children and know that she has to vacate the premise and have nowhere to go. those women deserve our empathy. thank you so much, rasheedah phillips, and diane yentel, glad to have you on the show this morning. tomorrow morning, tune into my friend s katie phang s new show. that s tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. right here on msnbc. katie s show is fire. check it out. congrats on a wonderful debut