1,323 8 minutes read Chicago. Liberation photo.
From Tampa Bay, Florida, to Portland, Oregon, from Los Angeles to Boston, people took to the streets Jan.30-Feb 1. They organized car caravans, speakouts and dropped banners demanding that the government immediately cancel the rents and mortgages, house the homeless and stop evictions.
Actions took place in 30 cities as national and local eviction moratoriums have only paused millions of evictions, and a third of the population can’t pay their bills and are unable to catch up with the rent. An eviction crisis looms that will hit oppressed communities, already especially affected by the pandemic, the hardest. Meanwhile, big landlords are abusing loopholes and filing eviction lawsuits against families regardless of the moratoriums.
Justin Micháel Hendrix was born and raised in Champaign, and became a familiar name in the community last year. First as an activist, then because of a battle to get his name on the ballot as a candidate for Champaign City Council District 3 in the consolidated election this April. Hendrix faced challenges to some of the signatures on his ballot petition; signatures that he obtained through good faith efforts, but ultimately kept him off the ballot after the electoral board accepted just enough of lawyer Rochelle Funderburg’s challenges that he fell short of the amount needed. You can read what our editorial board had to say about this here.