There’s no amount of lipstick that the spinmeisters can spackle onto the “Bidenomics” pig to obscure the fact that real people are being crushed by inflation.
In the latest dispatch from the frontlines of the real America courtesy of Newsweek, squeezed renters are now having to rely on the generosity of others by begging for money on GoFundMe to avoid being evicted.
Struggling renters turn to GoFundMe to avoid evictions https://t.co/bqi3UjfHi5 pic.twitter.com/Wo3hNhROSt
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) July 7, 2024
The left-leaning outlet tells the story of Michelle and Ken Lau, a Las Vegas couple with two young kids who ran into tough times after they both were stricken with COVID in November 2021.
“It was several months of being sick, and then Ken couldn’t go back to work. That’s when we started falling behind with rent,” Michelle Lau told the outlet. “At first it was OK, our landlord was amazing,” she said. “Everyone was in panic over COVID-19, we said, ‘It’s OK, we’ll see what happens.’ But [the debt] just kept building, we weren’t able to catch up.”
After Ken was recently laid off from his commercial HVAC job and has been unemployed for several months, the Lau’s landlord was forced to give them an ultimatum to pay their past due rent of $10,000 or get thrown out onto the streets.
“She wanted the best for our family, she was being really patient and trying to waive late fees for us,” Michelle Lau said. “But we’re in a situation where we can try and juggle our bills, but that back rent balance never goes away. It’s just kept climbing, and it’s been a really stressful few years.”
So the couple turned to GoFundMe for help, an option that more and more struggling renters are using with the fundraising website featuring a section on “Tips for Emergency Rent Assistance” for those seeking help.
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“Crowdfunding is a great solution. A good way to alert friends and family to your situation is by starting an online fundraiser on GoFundMe. They provide fundraising so you get to keep more of the funds you raise for assistance with rent. You might be surprised how supportive your friends and family are in helping you get back on your feet,” GoFundMe says on their tips page.
“GoFundMe really is a mirror of social trends. And we often see that when there are patterns or reports of people feeling economic pressure, there are signals of that same phenomena reflected on GoFundMe,” said GoFundMe chief corporate affairs officer Margaret Richardson.
“We know that people are feeling the real effects of our nation’s housing crisis,” Richardson told Newsweek, adding “that precarious experience of feeling on the edge of economic security” has contributed to the uptick in fundraisers to stave off eviction on the platform.
While the Lau’s were unsuccessful in raising the full amount, they did get $5,000, enough for their landlord to give them an extension to come up with the rest of the money.
“We feel already like we’ve achieved a miracle,” she told Newsweek. “We were really hesitant to put that out, and it was a last resort, but we finally did it. And we kind of thought just some of our friends and family would see it, which they did.”
“Getting sick was not our fault. We haven’t done anything wrong,” she added. “We’re good people with good values and we have good hearts. And sometimes difficult things just happen.”
The truth is that ordinary Americans are suffering in the real world, not the fake one portrayed by the government and media gaslighters who have spent months falsely trying to convince voters that the economy is fantastic, much like they did for four years that Joe Biden wasn’t senile.
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