According to the Pew Research Center discovered that US families are renters at the highest rate in 50 years, and rising. The “Rent Man” (or the Rent Corporation, as is becoming the norm) is becoming a more universal experience for the majority of Americans. Langston Hughes reveals this common scene to us, becoming an opportunity to better understand and support our neighbor.
Madam and the Rent Man
By Langston Hughes
On their face, infrastructure initiatives seem like a win-win situation for the entire country — a necessary and overdue project for our crumbling public amenities. But too often in our history, these initiatives have been weaponized against Black and brown neighborhoods and their efforts for self-reliance and a place of belonging. Kai Ryssdal of NPR’s Marketplace interviews Christopher Tyson about how this latest infrastructure bill can be a force for good in all of our communities.
What does equitable infrastructure look like in communities of color?
By Kai Ryssdal and Richard Cunningham
We know by now that President Biden and congressional Democrats believe funding America’s crumbling infrastructure should be one of Congress’s priorities. The administration’s infrastructure and urban renewal proposals have sparked conversations about equity.
There are millions of Americans who are houseless or are close to living on the street. Many of those who do have a home, however, are dealing with their own crisis — dangerous building practices and lack of government and industry accountability resulting in nightmarish living conditions. Often targeted to poor and racially marginalized communities, Michael Brice-Saddler and Marissa J. Lang report on the other side of the housing crisis.
They found dream homes through D.C.’s first-time homeowners program. Now they have to evacuate.
By Michael Brice-Saddler and Marissa J. Lang
Jeanita Brown shows one of the many cracks in the floor her townhouse’s basement in D.C. on Thursday, Aug. 26. (Astrid Riecken/For The Washington Post)
When she bought her home on Talbert Street in 2018, Jeanita Brown was certain she’d live there forever. But within weeks, she began to feel uneasy: Her windows weren’t closing, and small cracks began to spiderweb up her walls — but contractors assured her the newly constructed home was just settling.
It wasn’t long before she needed a crowbar to open and close her back door. Insects started crawling out of the cracks, which appeared on both levels. Seeking repairs, she hired a contractor in July who discovered a five-inch-wide crack under her carpet, spanning multiple rooms. The contractor suggested her unit was unlevel and too unsafe for them to fix.
The needs of young people are the center of the country’s most volatile debates, but what are children really asking their community? For this week’s Reader, we chose thoughtful content that seeks to illuminate the ways in which young people need our collective support, today and always.
Change is hard. Author and poet Nikki Grimes gives voice to the strange time in a child’s life when their outside, and inside, begins to change. Change does not wait for us to understand or agree, but comes to all of us. Grimes poem reminds us of this universal change, and evokes an empathy for our fellow humans in a moment of great change.
New Math
By Nikki Grimes
Up till now,
the math of my life
has been pretty simple:
friends
plus family
plus sports.
What more
could I ask for, right?
But lately,
my outside has been changing
and my inside keeps telling me
more is on the way.
Trouble is,
I’m not sure
I’m ready.
Nikki Grimes, “New Math” from Planet Middle School. Copyright © 2011 by Nikki Grimes. Originally republished by the Poetry Foundation.
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