The coronavirus has exacerbated numerous social issues around the country, one of which is the huge housing/homeless problem we have. I know it was with the best of intentions that the U.S. government poured billions of dollars into the issue early on, giving money to landlords and homeowners to keep them afloat.
In the meantime, the numbers of homeless people on the streets in every state have grown immensely. With the end of these available funds, that issue will get much worse than it is today. The costs of homeownership and rentals continue to skyrocket with no end in sight. It doesn’t seem that any of the funding that was put out there has done anything to keep people in their homes or rental units. In the meantime state governments are taking millions and millions of dollars of funding and spending it on new high-rise hotels, huge improvements in baseball fields and numerous other politically driven projects. In the end the funds that were intended to be used for socially needed issues are being used to make the wealthiest 1% in this country even richer.
There is something really wrong with this, in my humble opinion, and it absolutely amazes me that we keep sending the same idiots to Washington, D.C., year after year and these kinds of things continue to take place. We are in desperate trouble, and standing by with blinders on is not going to make it better. We need desperate change in D.C. before we are all on the outside looking in and wondering how it happened.
— Gene Sanderson
Anchorage
Have something on your mind? Send to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Letters under 200 words have the best chance of being published. Writers should disclose any personal or professional connections with the subjects of their letters. Letters are edited for accuracy, clarity and length.