Target: US Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer
Goal: Raise minimum wage to keep up with high cost of housing.
Staggering numbers of people living in the United States do not have a roof over their head. In 2021, there were over 550,000 houseless. The crisis continues to deepen in 2022 as low wages do not keep up with the high cost of living. Federal minimum wage has been $7.25 since 2009. A person working full time at those wages can only make $1160 each month before taxes. That is less than the cost of rent in many places.
Many workers – whether they make the federal minimum wage or not – simply can’t afford to put a roof over their head and take care of their basic needs. “We’re in a very precarious moment, where the cost of living is going up so quickly — through the price of gas and food and rent — that more people can’t afford a place to live anymore. Everywhere you turn, prices are rising, but wages aren’t keeping up,” Meredith Greif, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University, told the Washington Post. This issue disproportionately impacts already marginalized members of US society, like BIPOC and LGBTQ+ community members who are more likely to experience houselessness and low wages.
Starting with the Covid-19 pandemic and worsened significantly by inflation, houselessness in the United States is far outpacing the resources to help those without a roof over their head. The New York Times reports shelter waitlists have been doubling and tripling throughout 2022 as more and more people struggle to find a place to sleep each night. Lawmakers must address this.
Sign below to call on the US Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer, to do whatever it takes to raise the minimum wage.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Senator Schumer,
The United States is facing a houseless epidemic. Too many of our neighbors and community members are facing the brutal reality of not knowing where they will sleep or when they’ll next have a roof over their heads. This has to be addressed.
As workers across the board struggle to keep up with the skyrocketing cost of living, workers earning the federal minimum wage are being left behind. Earning only $7.25 per hour, many full-time minimum wage workers don’t even earn enough in a month to pay their rent, never mind other financial necessities. Please do whatever you can to raise the minimum wage and help more Americans falling victim to the US houseless epidemic.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Elvert Barnes
Raise the minimum wage so that more Americans don’t fall into a homeless situation. Workers making $7.25 an hour can’t afford the prices in today’s market. I feel corporations and industry have both greedy hands in this situtation as they raise prices but don’t lower them. Some corporations appear massive with uncountable wealth and power yet there are small companies starting to make an impact in clean necessities for the home and also in green industry. It would be appropriate to watch these big corporations have a massive downturn possibly one in which they may not recover. They deserve no less but the people they harm deserve so much better. Thank you.