Friends,
This has been a year unlike any other. We haven’t been able to gather with our families and friends as we always have. Our religious services have mostly become online affairs. We must wear masks whenever we are out in public, and our hands begin to grow chapped with so much washing.
Certainly these are frustrating circumstances, but minor inconveniences when we consider the impending crisis before us. While many of us have remained safe and comfortable in our homes, not worried about our next meal or whether we can keep the heat on as temperatures plummet, nearly a quarter million Pennsylvania families are at imminent risk of eviction despite multiple eviction moratoriums.
Evictions would be devastating for these families at any time. However, in the middle of a pandemic with shelters and emergency housing severely reduced and subfreezing temperatures, the implications move from devastating to potentially deadly as evicted families experience not just exposure to the elements, but greater exposure to a virus that has already killed over 330,000 Americans.
Our leaders in Pennsylvania have the ability to do more to prevent this crisis, but so far have failed to act, despite having federal funding available that could have been used to help these families–our most vulnerable neighbors–when it is needed most.
We are people of faith. We are the moral voices, and the time is now to demand compassion and justice for our vulnerable neighbors.
Please join us in signing an open letter to Governor Wolf and our General Assembly at https://org2.salsalabs.com/o/5415/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=27164 (download as a pdf).
Please sign now and share this with your faith leaders, friends, families, and anyone else who wishes to join in this urgent call to action. And to clergy and faith leaders especially–please share widely with your colleagues and urge them to sign. (NOTE: Titles are not required, but are especially appreciated if you are clergy–they matter for our elected leaders!)
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