 Thank you for coming out to this very important press conference. My name is Moka Jasmine Johnson. I'm running for Georgia State House District 120. The reason why I am here today is because there is an affordable housing crisis that's happening in Athens-Clarke County and throughout the state of Georgia. It is impacting not just people that live in the housing authority, not just people that live in apartments, but also folks that lives in home and have to continuously rent. And these investors are coming in our community, and they are increasing the rent and pushing our residents out of Athens-Clarke County and out of their home. This has been going on for quite some time. I myself experienced homelessness here right in Athens-Clarke County a few years ago. It was a very difficult time for my husband and I. It was simply because of a pre-existing medical injury that came back that put us out of work for a week or two that led to the catch-up game, which eventually pushed us out of our home. When we moved out of our apartment, we decided we want to stay here in Athens, so we're going to do everything we can to stay here. We moved into the Howard Johnson off of Athens-Alana Highway. Before the UGA game began, it was around $78.00. We had to pay per night. So that means we had to figure out how we were going to hustle up that money to keep a roof over our head and keep our children safe. By the time the UGA games came in, the rent or the price for the hotel doubled. It went from $169.00 to $200.00, pushing us out of Athens. We didn't want to leave Athens, but we could not find how to survive here. We knew the housing situation was already occurring before this day. This was approximately in 2014. This issue has been bubbling, and it has been existing, and it's going to impact us whether you like it or not. We see the situation with the homelessness. We talk about the homeless camps, and we want these people off the streets, but people are being pushed out their homes. The wages are not enough that they're getting. They're increasing the rent, but they will not increase the wages so that people are able to take care of themselves. They're allowing investors to come in our community and to benefit from folks and to push folks out of their own home. And it is not right, and it needs to stop. Our local government said their hands are tied, and there's nothing they could do because of state laws. So it leaves it on the shoulders of community advocates and people that care, like myself, Imani Scott Blackwell, Broderick, and all of these folks sitting behind me fighting for these people. I ask, where is our government? So I'm running for Georgia State House. So they say, in order for the local government to have control, we need our state leaders to repeal laws. They need to allow local government to be able to put a cap on rent. So we have a petition that we need for everybody to sign. We need 2,500 signatures. We need everyone to sign that petition to understand this is a crisis. And it might not impact you today, but it's going to impact you some way, somehow. Myself, my organization deal with mass incarceration. Over the past year since COVID, we've had to pay for people to stay in hotels because they're being pushed out of their homes. When folks are locked up in jail and they come out, they have no place to go. We have to pay for hotels, transitional housing. I had a single mother walker to our office, even though she had nothing to do with the incarceration system. We had paid so much for people's rent and transitional housing, she walked in and said, I have to leave where I live in 24 hours, and I have this little baby in my hand, and I don't know where to go. I do not have a credit score of 650. I've been working at my job for seven years. I don't know what to do. I don't have enough money to put down for a deposit. I was on a waiting list that I was number 11, and now I'm number 53. And when I call, they basically tell me there's nothing they can do. Where am I going to go? I can't even afford to be in this hotel. What am I going to do? Those are the circumstances as they are. That is the reality. So the people that are making decisions for us, they don't have that on their shoulders of having a young mom with a baby that's three months old that walks into an office that been living in Athens-Clarke County. That's been working at a fast food restaurant for seven years that do not have a record, but she doesn't have the credit score or enough money or cannot find someplace to live in Athens-Clarke County. What is happening in Athens-Clarke County and why our local officials cannot help us? This was coming a long time ago, and it's going to get worse. So we can turn our heads. We can go to the UGA Games. We can pretend this is not happening, but it's going to impact you. I was lucky enough to find some place to live after I ran for office in 2020. Within one year, my property tax increased. So they're coming. It's coming for you one way or another. It is not right for people to live here and cannot find someplace to live, even if they have been working on the job but because they don't have a credit score and there's no more spaces for affordable housing. That is why we're here today. We need justice. We need change. We need for our state officials to do something. We need for the local officials to do something and stop allowing just the community to carry this weight on our backs. Far too long, we have been advocating for justice and economic freedom. We need livable wages and we need affordable housing here in Athens-Clarke County. So that is why I'm here. I'm using my platform. I know some of these residents that don't live in my district and it doesn't matter to me. This is an issue that all of us should care about, whether they live in your district or not and we need for our local officials to stand up. So I wanted to use my platform so these folks could share their story. And this is just the beginning. We need to continue this fight. So I'm going to pass the mic on and I would like for each and every one of you to just introduce who you are and what you're dealing with today and what type of change you want to see, who you are and what it feels like. Because I know what it feels like to have to be in a car, to live in a car. I was lucky enough to have friends to say, okay, can my kids stay here? And me and my husband stay in a car. I know what that is like, even though I have a master's degree and I've bust my butt to avoid those circumstances from happening to me. So you are not safe because if you get sick and you miss a paycheck or two, it could happen to you. Good afternoon. My name is Joanna Hewland. I currently reside at Highland Park Properties. My property was one of the ones that got bought from the developer Prosperity Capital Partners. I have been in my residence for five years and I am a single mom. I have three girls and I do work. I've been there, like I say, five years and they had came in and doubled, over doubled to my rent, literally overnight without even a conversation, without even a heads up, not even to prepare me, to let me know, say, hey, I'm letting you know this is what's gonna take place. I was literally told overnight. And honestly, it's been taking a toll. I'm not gonna lie, it's been taking toll on me mentally and emotionally, and I'm not gonna cry. But it's been hard, had no good night's sleep because I work. I don't get any government assistance once I got through the school and got my degree to be a hairstylist. They cut my Medicaid off, they cut my food stamps off, they cut off all of my assistance, so I have to pay for everything out of my check. So it ain't just the rent, it's the utilities, the household expenses. So when you add up $17, $1800 plus my utilities, plus the buy grocery, plus insurance, and just household supplies, that's a lie if the amount that you make per hour don't equal out. And like I said, and then they only give you like 15 days. They like, if you don't give it, if you'll have the 15 days, they already served me my first eviction notice. And I don't want that on my record. I work so hard to get my, to keep a good rental record, and I'm working on getting my credit score up. I mean, I wish I was a doctor or a lawyer. I had more creditors, but this is where I'm at. And I don't know, I just feel like, I feel like they just pulled a rug off and under me and they don't even care. And I even reached out to them, I emailed my new landlord and I say, I said, hey, I say, I work every day. I got two jobs now. I work two jobs. When I leave here, I have to go and work all night. I won't get home until the morning. I can't even be with my daughter at night anymore. It just hurts. I'm sorry, y'all, I'm sorry. Asking for a handout. I'm not asking for anybody to feel sorry for me because I work my way. I work for everything I got. I work. I got two jobs. But the rent that they're asking plus my utilities, you know, you got your light bill, your water bill, all these other bills. But like I said, I don't get any food stamps. So, and we all know groceries is high. So I got to take one check or two to buy food. The other check to pay help with utilities. And then how am I gonna work out this $17, $1800? Where am I gonna get that from? I was doing good to pay my rent the way it was. But they don't care. They don't care. And then I have a daughter who's going through mental health right now. See, they don't know what's going on inside of these homes. I'm trying to keep my girls healthy, mentally healthy, you know, but like I say, it's taking the toll because they've already told me that if my rent ain't in there by the 20th, they're gonna file eviction notice on me and they're not even gonna accept the money after the 20th. Even if I get the money, they don't even want it after the 20th. So they're gonna put me and my children out, period. So it like I said, it's a lot, it's a lot. It's a lot on me. It really is. And thank you for letting me share my story. Thank you. Hello, my name's Catherine Titus. I'm currently in my 33rd month of renting at Highland Park property. It's been through change of ownership. And it was unacceptable enough before, but in the past few months, since capital partners purchased the property, the disrespect has got even worse, okay? And there is no respect. It's give us the money and shut up. That's the attitude, okay? Now, I'm not a person to sit around and not do nothing, not formulate solutions. I actually managed after weeks of trying to find out who I could get to at capital partners. Managed to get a hold of an executive there. And I explained to him, you've hired strategic property managers to manage these properties. And other family members of mine have rented out their other properties. I said, basically, they're stealing your money because they're not managing these properties, okay? There is no significant evidence that anything is being managed and not to mention outright lies and persecution and all that stuff. So, you know, 89% of my social security check goes into their pocket every month. And they want you to pay them 40 bucks to give them the money, unless, okay, I have two adopted minor grandchildren I am responsible for, you know? It's like they're just the people next to me who had the remodeled unit. They were trying to jack their rent up to 1700 and they left. And I have an unremodeled unit where if that's a sign of what they're trying to do, that'll be an additional $600 a month overnight for me. And then, so I went down the office, by the way, there has been nobody managing office for most of the pandemic period of time, okay? Okay, so I went down there, I spoke to Portia Westbrook, I believe her name is, and you know, I had my camera on, I told her that, you know? But when I finally got to, I didn't get to all the points I wanted to make with her, but once I started with, can you give me an idea of how much a rental increase you're talking about? Because I do not want to sign another lease. I want to go back on months to months the way I had been until I was coerced until getting back on a lease. So, no sooner did I ask her, how much money are we talking about? Then she kicked me out of her office. She said, you didn't get that camera in my face. You knew I had a camera when I came in here, you know? It's just, so I couldn't get to any of the other points and I won't even go into all the great details. What I will tell you as a person who knows how to analyze things and if you know how what a root cause is, you know what the solutions are, okay? So the root cause, okay, yes, state laws, okay? That's part of the problem. The problem is our local officials, although they do some wonderful things for this community, don't seem to have the willingness to take a stand against the big fish, okay? And I've told them that long before I lived at this people's property, I'm dealing with stuff like this at other properties. And I've told them the only way you're going to change the state law is to disrupt, to defy the law. And the way you do that is you pass an ordinance or regulation or whatever here in this county defying the state law, giving you the authority to cap rental prices and to restrict the influx of out of state capitalistic, vulture capitalistic organizations and you've got, these things have to be done and then it goes, it has to be challenged in court. If you don't get it in front of a judge, hopefully a judge not taking campaign contributions from property owners. If you don't get it before a judge, nothing is ever going to change the state law. That's what has you have to disrupt and defy or it's never going to be fixed and that's one of the most important points I have today. Good afternoon everybody. My name is Barbara Daniel. I'm a, was a resident at Leshna height. I was there for 22 years until this new landlord came in. What I'm so upset about is that they come in overnight and destroy and they have no remorse about anything. I've been there 22 years and I was on session eight but I wasn't always on session eight. My apartment was my home. It was my life. I fixed it the way that I felt that it should be. They never came out to do anything to fix like they supposed to be. So they come in and say they are no longer gonna self section eight. Okay. Since he's supposed to be a pastor, he have no remorse, no respect and he have the nasty attitude about everything. Now the thing about them taking over is that they put people out, certain people, mostly I know I was target and the people in the neighborhood know I was target. But the thing is that they have certain people that they get a month to month rent. They have certain people can be on vouchers. They have certain people that they communicate with. But they also need to come out and talk to everybody. But if you let them tell you, they say they talk to everybody, but it happened. They start off with me with 30 days that would have been July the 31st. I came back to Bridget and I told her I'm not going anywhere. Then what hurted me so bad when she certified me a note to tell me I had 30 days. So when I replied back to her, I did the same thing to her. But I went to DCA and DCA said they could not do that in 30 days. It had to be 60 days. So I went back to her again and she gave me another letter, said 60 days. But when I became and talked to Pichagali about what's going on, she said that she never signed me a letter for 30 days. I have the paper, I have the proof. And she's not, she don't have anything to do with. That's what they say they do, but that's a lie. A lot of people out here can help us. They refuse to help us. They look down on us. They get the money and they do what they wants to do with the money and they sit back and look down on them. Nobody in this world got the right to look down on nobody, nobody. Because we all as one, we all have our ups and we all have our downs. So therefore, I cannot understand how he could sit there and say he's a pastor. What kind of pastor is that? Is he some anacribe? He's worse than anacribe. It's cause he shows not worse than the one that I'm dealing with. Because he's not the one that gonna be doing things like that. Because God said, first of all, love all your neighbors. So you come in because you got that money and you think you can do anything to everybody. No baby, you might be laughing right now, but the man that I am in control with has the last say so. And can't you see what's going around in this world today with the weather? It's all because of what's going on with here in Avon Clark County. So that's the thing about it that I cannot understand that it's so low down. It is so low down. I see kids with their parents walking have nowhere to stay. I don't have nowhere to stay. I stay with somebody right now. By the grace of the Lord, he found me somewhere to stay. But I'm gonna stand. I'm gonna fight. I'm gonna continue. And something in this world gonna be all right with you all. Tawanda, we are like a group. We are like sisters. You need anything I got, you got it. You need me to do anything, you got it. And that just don't go for you. That go for all of us. We gonna stand. So if you out there listen to this, continue on laughing like they said, be the first one to laugh and at the end you gonna be crying. Thank you all. I'm so emotional. I'm Audrey McInnis. I'm a Holland Park resident. I've been in Holland Park over 13 years. And since I've been there, we've changed owners and hands so many times. So many times. It's like everyone said, we haven't had anybody to really manage the property. They don't come and fix anything. When I got my notice that the rent was doubling, and then when I got my notice that the rent was doubling and that if I didn't sign a lease, it would be an additional $100. I put in a notice because I knew that we could not, I couldn't afford to live there. However, my son, I actually baked for a living. I had my own little business called Ugly Duckling. Last year I had to have a surgery. The pandemic happened, I gained a lot of weight. So I decided to go and get myself together and hire a personal trainer. I went to Crunch Fitness. And the first day I went there, I was working out with two or three hours with a personal trainer. And I let him know, I said, hey, I'm hurting. But I look around and he said, push through it, push through. So I pushed through. When I got done, I could not walk. So I ended up having to go see an orthopedic and had to have surgery two weeks later. On the meniscus tear repair. The repair turned out awful. I ended up worse than what I am, than where I was. So now I'm at end stage arthritis with my knees. And the arthritis is going in my back and my hips. So I'm in the process. I applied for Medicaid. I have not been out of, I haven't been working since November the 30th. And they denied me. I rely on my family, my daughter, my husband, and my son to make his meat. However, in my situation, I have this thing called lupus and lupus antipossilipid disorder. So when you up, you're up. When you down, you're down. And so I recently applied for disability. Because in my mind, no, I got to work. I got to work. I got a hustle. I got to do this and that. But reality has set in that I got to apply for disability. So I applied for it. When I got the letter, I ended up giving them a notice. I thought I had somewhere lined up to go. Today is my day to be out. So I thought I had somewhere lined up to go. We paid, my son paid the first month rent and deposit to a place. We're supposed to be out. Not knowing that by the time the people moved out, the tenants that moved out, they destroyed the place. They destroyed the place. So I went, I asked the landlord, the one that's managing the property, they allow us another week or so. And she said, no, I'll give you to the end of the month. She took me to court for that one month rent. She took me to court. So I counter sued them because my place is filled with mold, mildew. I had a leak. I had a toilet at the floor about the front room. A lot of repairs. I went to Ms. Bridget about a month or two ago when she told me they didn't even have, she said everybody quit. That they don't have any maintenance. Don't ask for any. So what I do, I try to do what I can. I needed a stove. They didn't want to put a stove in. I bought my own. Like I said, I baked for a living and now I had to, now I'm doing nothing. You know, I'm just trying to make ends meet. My husband actually works, but the money he makes goes for medical insurance for the family. And so he only makes nothing because the insurance. And on top of that, not only does he pay for the insurance, I out of pocket expenses for me to be able to, for the insurance to kick in and pay, I had to meet a $7,000 deductible. So that's on top of the insurance that he already pays. And so my children, I thank God for them, but my son is 23 years old. He works hard. Six days per week, 10 to 12 hours to take care of everybody. And my husband does, he can't work all the time as well. And so when I went and I countersued my management, all I wanted was a week or two to give us some time to see what we're gonna do because my place fell through. She was so nasty about it. And now the pictures of the judge, the only thing they gave me was $1,000. And I can't even believe they did that. At least I stood some type of statement. And the judge had already told us, they said repairs doesn't matter. It don't matter if they make repairs or not. That's separate. And I said, your honor, it's more than repairs. When it comes to mold and mill, do it becomes a health issue. And so that's the only reason why she granted me $1,000. But because all the fees they threw on there, I didn't see that $1,000. And so my heart goes out to you all. I don't get any section eight, food stamp or anything either. You know, I rely on help from family. And I'm originally from Mississippi. So a lot of my family's in Mississippi. I have a couple of siblings here. I have a daughter that has a one bedroom apartment. And of course, and my sister, my daughter will let us come, but you know, there's not enough room there. But you know, lo and behold, I thank God to have somebody. And my sister, hopefully she'll let us, you know, and she just had a small, little bit of place. And there's six of us. And I have one daughter that's in school, in college, and my grandbaby that's with me. And so I have to keep my faith. I have to know that, you know, look to the higher power. I have to trust God. I have such a beautiful pastor and church family and new beginnings, worship center and commerce, Georgia, pastor, Roger, or white. There are such loving people. And like, that's a real pastor. That's a pastor that shows love, not only to his people inside the church, but in the community and everywhere. He actually goes above and beyond. If you need something, pastor, got you. You know, I called him, I text him down. I was like, pastor, you know, my stuff fell through. And so there's one in the church that's supposed to be helping us trying to get, we may have to relocate to another city, maybe 45, 50 minutes away. And so hopefully that comes through. In the meantime, it takes a lot of courage for all of us to be out here. It takes a lot of courage. And so when I saw the judge and I felt in my heart, the judge did not care. The judge looked as if she did not care at all, but I have to, because you brought this up, I gotta reward you something. And I'm just like, ma'am, as she said, it doesn't matter. I can't extend nothing. No, you can't ask me anything. I'm like, what? And they had their own attorney there. They had their own attorney. I had pictures. I had communication letters and everything. Every time I speak to this company, I write down everything. The lady lied to the judge and said that, I gave her a third day. You didn't give me no days. I came to you after you put a note on my door and said that they gave us 60 days, but I had the note, the letter, the date that they dated and everything. And still it's like, we get nowhere. And like she said, they picked us because I've seen a girl there that they actually set her up for failure though. They actually told her she can stay. She had to pay $1,800 that day and by the six, gotta come up with $2,200. That's hard. That's hard. And so I'm speaking out for all of us because I know who, God is able to do all things except fail us, but as a community, it doesn't matter our race, our religion. We all are human. We all are human and God is love. What this pastor doing is not love. And so I hope that something, some type of change could happen for all of us. And I hope from a year from now that there'll be change. There's something to be different because I know for sure won't nothing change if people don't come together and speak up. So I think each and every person that's out here, I'm trusting God. I've never been at peace in my life like I am now to trust God no matter what it looked like. You know, I've gone through so much of my health. I've gone through so much with my career and jobs. And so now the only thing I can see is that God has a better plan. I don't know what his plan is, but I want him to use me to help me to be a better person. Help me to stand up and fight for something. Because if you don't stand up for something, you'll fall for anything. So thank you all so much. And ladies, we're gonna be all right. It might not be today, but God has a plan for all of us. So I'm staying with everyone because we're all sisters and connected. This has connected us. And I hope that change comes. And that's it. Thank you all. Hello everyone. My name is Lisa and I am from Athens, Georgia. And I reside on Lexington Heights, but today I will be moving out today as well with nowhere to go. I too received notice had to move. I also was on section eight because I did time in prison a few years ago. And ever since I've been out of prison, everywhere I go, I have a hard time. No one wants to accept me. I mean, they don't want to write to me. A couple of years ago is when I from WC land holding. And then after that, it went to feel more property. And then a couple of months, probably about not even a year, it went to these people here, prosperity, but as everybody is saying, as I already said, it is low down. And the thing that I really don't like is our commissioners and our Mr. the mayor, Kelly Gris. And I'm Kelly, whatever his name is. Y'all know who I'm talking about, the mayor. There should be him. He can encourage, he can come right here and encourage everybody to get the business that he want them to get. But when it comes down to the people that's being displaced, he says nothing he can do. So when he was running for mayor, signs was all everywhere. That was all over everywhere. But his face ain't nowhere to be shown. And then they tell you that they're gonna help you. And not only that, I'm gonna say cause I ain't scared of the devil. They been getting money for black folks, poor black folks for over 20 years. That's right. For over 20 years. They tell us to come, we're gonna do, we wanna do, y'all know what I'm trying to say? They wanna tell us, we wanna see what they call it. I can't think of it right now but I know what I'm talking about. They wanna say, well this is what they're going, this is how a poor black folks, they're how a poor folk live. This is what we wanna try to get money so we can help them. But they get the millions and they've been getting the millions and they got money for the displacement and they gave it to four different organizations. They're one of them, and I'm gonna say it cause like I said, ain't scared of the devil. One of them is the Ark. They don't wanna give nothing to nobody. I went because my life got cut off about a week ago through $110, I called. And the lady told me, she said, the lady was busy. She told me to call back. She said, but in the meantime, call somebody else. She said, because we got to figure out how we gonna pay your life, be a $310 and they get millions, they use us to get it. So I'm trying to figure out why they don't have any money to help build a housing, why they cannot, the price, why they can't pay people more. Why they gotta keep being, I said the low is low cause they keep paying low slavery money. Slavery days is over with, it's over with. And I'm gonna say it like I said, ain't scared of the devil. But we, this is what we're going through is because of cold hearts. They're hearts are cold and they don't wanna help us. They want us out. They don't care. And like I said, over 30 years. And then I went to an apartment. I went to an apartment to fill out for apartment. They wouldn't even let me fit apartment. They wouldn't even let me finish the application. The man came in and told me, I was talking to the manager and I guess he must have been another manager. He came in and told me, we don't have nothing for you. So what do we do? And I'm not blaming nobody out here. I'm just saying, what do we do? Why do we gotta keep going? Why do we got to keep going through this? Let me tell you what, God is a God to sit high and my grandmother used to always say look low. And like she said, if you're not going through the day, you're gonna go through something cause I promise you don't fault them. They thought they were gonna be towed up today. I promise you that. But I'm just saying this gotta stop. This gotta stop and they got to stop getting them millions. They gotta stop getting millions and using us and they're not doing anything about it. I don't think they're talking about it as a bad sucker. Oh, I'm somewhere around a bad sucker. That's all they talking about but you got people that's displays and then you want to say, well we need to have a street fence because people getting hit by a car. You know why they getting hit by a car? Cause they pay attention. They running out in front of cars and it ain't because the street tow up so they can use their life for something else. But the thing is, they need to stop doing us the way they're doing us. This is not working. We don't have any way to go. I don't have any way to go. And I suppose, well, I actually suppose to bend out but because I had surgery and I had, I suppose to get, they told me I needed two knee surgeries. I had shoulder replacement, not a shoulder replacement, I had surgery on my shoulder. They said I needed two replacements and I caught COVID in the midst of getting, trying to get somewhere to stay. So this is, this is what's going on in Athens. And like she say, I mean, in less than they step up and do what's right, it's going to probably get worse because they already know this is what, they have allowed, they have allowed this to happen. They already know, they already know what they were doing because they did Bethlehem. They put the folks out of Bethlehem and after they put, they claimed they were going to remodel Bethlehem. But then again, when they got them out of there, they said we ain't got no more money. So they know what they're doing. But I wish they would stop using us to get the money and then they want to use the money on what they want to use the money on. This is what I'm sick of seeing. Tired of that. All right, y'all heard the truth. People live in it, live it, and you feel it. Y'all have, I forgot to say, there are a lot of companies around here. And it's like when you penalize if you don't have a 650 credit score and three times a month rent. And if you don't meet both of those requirements, they don't care if you're homeless or not. They don't talk to you. But to top it all off, they collect those fees, these administration fees, application fees, you can spend thousands of dollars trying to get somewhere. And they know they're not gonna improve you. Why accept people's money when they know they're not gonna improve you? And then one place I tried to get to, they said, okay, you can have a cold signer, but the cold signer credit score has to be 700. Honey, if my credit score was 700, I'll be buying me a house. And now, unfortunately, growing up, and I don't know how everybody else grew up, I had a rough life growing up. I wasn't taught about credit makes or break you. But now I have learned that your credit is very important. It makes or break you. So now I'm at a point in my life where you know what, I'm trying to focus on my credit. But the three times the amount, and they want you to have three times the amount after taxes. A lot of them, they're not looking at before taxes. And then there's one place that I went to. They said that everybody in the house has to have some type of income. I said, well, ma'am, I haven't worked. Since last year, you know, my son take care of me. He meet their qualifications. She said, well, we can take disability checks or something, but if you don't got no income, then I'm sorry, he won't qualify. I said, that makes no sense to me. Now, Athens got, there's gotta be a change. There's no way we should be penalized because of our credit, that we can't have a place to live if our credit score is not 650. Thank you all. I'm sorry. I have one thing to say to you. Since they was taught, since they, I was listening to what Lisa was saying. You know, back in the days, we had family. We had family. Family stood by one another. Now I'm noticing here lately that they don't want family. They wanna separate everybody. What gives them the right to tell you where you could stay? What gives them the right to tell you who could stay in your home? What give you the right for them to say that one bedroom for one person, two bedroom for another person, but at the same time, you're paying different prices. Back in the day, when I was raised up in a home, we had about six, seven people in one home. We only had about one person that could afford to take care of us. But now that I noticed I went out looking for some apartments and stuff and they had a three bedroom apartment. Each room, each room was $900, $900 each room. But what if you have a little young baby like a four, five, six year old baby, you're gonna have to pay, that baby's gonna have to pay for that room. It's, that's crazy. So the thing is that I don't know UGA, but I see that things coming on because of UGA. Lesson of height is in the midst of UGA because when they first built the house in the back of UGA, I mean, in the back of lesson of height, it was told to us it's supposed to be low-income apartment. Of course, when they got, they went up for it to get the land to build for low-income apartment. They did say it's for low-income apartment, but when it got built, it wasn't for low-income apartment. It went to UGA. Even the guy who built the apartment said that he would fool his own self. He said he thought it's supposed to be for low-income. Come find out, it was a UGA. So lesson of height is in the middle of UGA. So the next thing they have to do is get rid of us over there. So they can tear that down and make more houses. More people don't have nowhere to stay. Then you look across the street from lesson of height. They build it more. So what is going on? I'm my every student out here that goes to school. I am proud and I hope you be very successful. But please stand by the ones that have been here for a long time too. Stand by us too, just as well we stand by you all. It don't have anything to do with the color. It don't have anything to do with the race, but right is right and wrong is wrong. So please, please stand by us. That's all we ask, stand by us. Like that song says, stand by me. And we know, we know the Lord stand by us. And like he said, I am, I am, I am. So please, and thank y'all for coming out and supporting us. Thank you. Tell it. One point of, let's say business before I go any further and I'm not gonna talk too long is what needs to be done yesterday is maybe that demand letter, which maybe you're directing that to the property people, but we need a demand letter directed to this mayor and commission. As of yesterday, you need to establish a several million dollar fund for these emergencies. Where's all that pandemic money? Where is it? Okay, yes. Okay, so there's your next solution, but you gotta demand it, okay? And don't take no excuses. Don't let them control the discussion. Now, it ain't just people they're abusing, okay? Not only you expect to pay a deposit if you have pets, you're doing the community a favor if you have pets, you're keeping animals out at a shelter. You're saving tax dollars, okay? Okay, not only do, yes, I expect to pay a deposit. No, I never expect to see it again, but now they are charging exorbitant pet deposits and charging rent for the animals too, each and every month. So non-refundable plus rent. I don't know if my cat dog gonna get a job to cover their part, the hamster maybe run a wheel, maybe make some energy, maybe pay my electric, I don't know, but you know what? And oh, some of the stuff you was saying is to bring back something. Cause I mean, I've been through this with many different property companies and I am never renting from corporate again. And there are some private landlords, the one that just, my granddaughter just left the Oaks, managed by a strategic, would not let her out of her last month's lease, even though she gave them, they were in breach from the day she moved in that place because of mold and all kind of things. And they never did nothing in time manner. And if they did eventually do it, they don't think they were ever in breach, but they were in breach, okay? So they would not, she had to go ahead and pay that. And then the guy, the private property owner, she rented from three months rent in advance, three months in advance, okay? And it looks like I'm probably gonna have to go and rent a property from him as well, but I've got to come up with, and never mind all the other particulars, but you know, I could go on and on. I mean, my mailman stopped delivering my mail because for all the time I've lived there, almost three years, we've had broken mailboxes, three on a post, there's three units in each building, triplexes, all the post boxes have been broke. They've never done nothing about it. And it finally got the point that my mailbox was falling off the post. And I finally got them to send a guy to put a screw in the bottom of the post through to the mailbox to hold it in place. And then I've got proof of it in email or some communication. We're going to be replacing all mailboxes as well. How many months ago was that? And then a lot of times they'll tell you they sent you an email or something or they stuck something on your door that was never there and they lie and they ain't giving you no notice of anything. When it took me along, and when they were trying to sell the property, when the bank inspector or loan inspector came in to make sure that there really are that many bedrooms there, like you don't have a floor plan telling you that. Okay, come on in. Now, let me tell you, buddy, you buy this property, you are opening a can of worms, you do not. Oh, I don't care about that. I just want to see how many rooms are in here. Yeah, okay. So then I got their can of worms because they knew what they were going to do with it when they got their greedy hands on it. I think we'd come up, there we go. So, yeah, I go on and on, but I'm a person that understands strategies and solutions because I understand the core problem, the root cause, and that's what you always have to go to, and the problem is it's criminal behavior. It is absolutely sanctioned criminal behavior. All right, so you have been able to hear some stories hoping in some way that you mobilize, not just today, that you help us put pressure, like she said, not just on state government, but also on local government and that we continue to fight. We have some, but the petitions, do we have the petitions here? Okay, we have some petitions that will pass out, but we also want to read our demands so that everyone can know what we're asking for, okay? And remember, this is not just dealing with the folks that live here in Athens. It's happened throughout the state of Georgia. It's happened to people that are on rental properties. We see what happened with over 300 UGA students after their money was taken, and I'm thinking to myself, well, maybe now they'll listen because look at the students, over 300 students have been displaced, but we already knew this was a problem. So you keep taking people money, taking them to deposits, and now it happened to the students and it hit the news, and they're like, oh, we got a problem, no, we've been had a problem. We've had a problem, and it's been happening to many of us, and it takes a long time. Even when these folks move on into another place, it takes a long time to rebuild and to readjust to that home. And for you, they want us to vote, and they're telling people to vote and vote. If you don't have no place to live, you're not thinking about voting. If you're not making enough money, if you're not making enough money, livable wages, you're not thinking about voting. You're like, for what, they're not helping us. But I want you all to understand we can't give up. I know I might have bumped my head running for office, put myself in the machine, hoping that I'll be able to do something and make change if I take seat. But I decide before I take office, I'm gonna do the work. I'm gonna continue to do the work, and that's why I'm here today. I hope that commissioners, Mayor Gertz, if y'all know me, I can be silly at times, I can be silly at times, but Mayor Gertz, I just had to do that, that was the moment of like, I'm tearing up, I'm feeling like crying. She's giving me flashbacks, I'm sitting in the car thinking about how I'm gonna feed my kids. And then she said, Mayor Gertz, I said, oh Lord, she the, you know, we have to find, we have to, even when it's dark, we have to look for light. We have to laugh, and that's what y'all don't understand. That's what made us through a lot of our trials and tribulation is by laughing and trying to figure out how to build and how to continue moving. And I just wanna thank each and every one of you for sharing your story today, for being vulnerable, for being open, because it's not an easy thing to tell somebody that you're homeless. It's not an easy thing to tell your backstory. And no one deserves this, okay? So who wants to start with the demands? You wanna provide new leases to all tenants with reduced rent and reinstating the acceptance of Section A and other subsidized housing vouchers? Do not raise any, oh, that's a lot. Do not raise any rents until all necessary are renovation and maintenance for health and safety have been addressed. Cap and the amount of future rents increased by a maximum of 10% per year. Remove the surcharge for online payments and allow other payment options, including cash and check payments, provide necessary maintenance and access to all amenities, including trash. Okay. Provide relocation assistance to anyone who wants to move, such as money for deposit time, time to find desired housing, return to security deposits. Now I know that. Affordable rent. What do we want? Now. What do we want? Affordable rent. What do we want? Now.