Friend -
I remember a time when “starter home” meant a modest place to grow your family — not a 2-bedroom fixer-upper going for half a million dollars.
Today, even renting feels like a luxury. Families are priced out of neighborhoods they’ve lived in for generations. Teachers, nurses, service workers — the backbone of our communities — can’t afford to live where they work.
This isn’t an accident. It’s the result of decades of policy decisions that favored developers and landlords over working people. And while our elected Democrats say they care, too many are afraid to challenge the real estate industry or pass rent control, housing-first programs, or tenant protections that actually work. |
Meanwhile, corporate landlords gobble up homes, turn them into investment properties, and jack up rents. Moms like me are left wondering if our kids will ever be able to afford a place of their own someday — or if they’ll be stuck in the same cycle of debt and displacement. We can’t accept this as normal. A livable wage is meaningless without a livable home. Just like healthcare, education, and safety — housing is a foundation. It’s a public good. It should be protected and expanded, not commodified.
The American Dream wasn’t supposed to come with this price tag. It’s time we demand better. Up next: public education — the one institution that was supposed to give everyone a fair shot. Spoiler: it’s under attack too. In solidarity,
Edil Mari De Los Reyes
Mother. Advocate. Trouble Maker.
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