[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1585261212220{margin-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1585765101437{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]On Tuesday, March 31st, 2020, Representative Shevrin Jones led a virtual press conference along with several state and local leaders, including Senator Oscar Braynon, Representative Anna Eskamani, Hallandale Beach Vice Mayor Sabrina Javellana, and Coral Springs Commissioner Joshua Simmons.
During the press conference, leaders urged Governor Ron DeSantis to issue a statewide moratorium on evictions throughout Florida during the COVID-19 crisis and to use his office to provide immediate relief for Florida’s families who are now out of work and experiencing a loss of income.
Opening the press conference, Representative Jones stated that Floridians “need to know that they’re going to be protected because we’ve put the rules in place to do so. This eviction moratorium would ensure that we don’t have thousands or tens of thousands of people kicked out of their homes with nowhere to go.”
Asking the Governor to put in place an eviction moratorium until the end of the crisis, Senator Braynon stated: “Our solutions that we come up with should not have a timetable on it because this crisis does not have a time table… If you’re closing businesses and schools are closed so people can’t go to work because they have nowhere for their children to go, then how can they go to earn rent.”
Representative Eskamani opened with: “Floridians across the state and Americans across the country are nervous about how they’re going to pay rent this week because of the lack of support and guidance when it comes to their financial security. I think the reality is: if the stimulus/relief package was coming faster into peoples’ pockets, maybe we wouldn’t have to worry about this because we would have unemployment insurance, folks would see a check in the mail, and they could be able to make financial decisions that would cover their costs.”
From Commissioner Simmons: “We are the third most populous state in the union. National unemployment rates are skyrocketing. How can you tell these people that they still have to pay their rent when they can’t — they physically can’t. Where are they going to get the money from? We knew before this crisis that a third of Americans were living paycheck to paycheck. We already had an out of control affordable housing crisis going, which we still will have to deal with. We’re not asking to absolve people of their obligations, what we’re asking is for our elected officials and those that represent all Floridians to do their job and to help them out.”
From Vice Mayor Javellana: “We need Governor DeSantis to implement a moratorium on evictions… This county by county strategy isn’t working. We need a unified response and we need it at the statewide level and its already too late because today, rent was due. A lot of families, mine included, we’re trying to figure out how we’re going to pay our rent for the next couple of months and it’s really worrying.”
Watch the video of the press conference below.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/U06arHoBydQ”][vc_empty_space height=”30px”][/vc_column][/vc_row]
