OPINION: Congresswomen Cori Bush, Maxine Waters and Ayanna Pressley are standing in the gap for Black women who are disproportionately experiencing eviction or foreclosure
Freshman Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-Mo.) has been sleeping on the steps of the U.S. Capitol since Friday night to protest her House colleagues’ refusal to extend the federal eviction moratorium which expired on July 31. While her peers are home on August recess, Bush is calling attention to a crisis that many Americans will face in the coming weeks.
Bush, a formally unhoused single mother, is an activist and organizer who is taking the same tactics she used to call national attention to Michael Brown’s murder in Ferguson, Missouri to the Capitol. Now in Congress, Bush is using her experiences to give a face and name to a bill that was introduced by Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) that would have protected renters.
Her story is one that should be better known. Rep. Cori Bush and her two very young children lived in her car and then an extended-stay hotel until a family friend offered her a rental property until she could get on her feet. This experience led her to organize in her community around the needs of the unhoused. When the government could not help those in her community – particularly given the lackluster response from those in power during the Ferguson uprising – she ran for Congress in order to do something for her community.
Bush went from being unhoused to the United States Congress. And she used her experiences to implore her colleagues to act now in order to prevent a similar situation from happening to millions of Americans.
Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) speaks with supporters as she spends the night outside the U.S. Capitol to call for for an extension of the federal eviction moratorium on July 31, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Joshua Roberts/Getty Images)
Prior to Bush’s arrival in Congress, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) led the efforts to protect Black women renters. During the initial congressional debates on the proposed governmental response to COVID-19 in July 2020, Congresswoman Pressley was the only member of the Congressional Black Caucus to distinctly advocate for Black women renters who disproportionately bear evictions. Over a year ago – on July 23, 2020 – she remarked that Black people will continue to face challenges in their attempt to live the American dream as homeownership remains elusive for so many in our community.
The Hearing on Economic Recovery During Coronavirus Pandemic did not center the disparate impact of race and racism as providing additional obstacles for some Americans during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. In sum, she blatantly urged her colleagues to act. Rep. Pressley stated that unless Congress acts to continue the unlimited eviction moratorium that there would be a financial and health crisis for Black Americans.
Rep. Pressley specified: “We know the burden will disproportionately fall on Black renters and Black women in particular … In my home state of Massachusetts, Black renters are almost two and half times more likely to have an eviction filed against them, while Black women are three times as likely to have evictions filed against them that are ultimately dismissed – a stain that remains on their credit report, nonetheless.”
Source: Black congresswomen are leading the fight against eviction — that’s not coincidental
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