To the wealthy, we are things to exploit, not people who deserve respect. Nothing could make this more clear than the sick fact that landlords are using the current economic crisis to demand sexual favors. According to Renee Williams of the National Housing Law Project, “Landlords have all the leverage in the landlord-tenant relationship and in these types of situations, they especially prey on women who are vulnerable, who are housing-insecure, have bad credit or who don’t have anywhere to go.” According to Khara Jabola-Carolus, executive director of the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, they have received more complaints in the last two weeks than in the last two years. She says, “Landlord coercion has always been a reality but we’ve never seen anything like this.” As long as the wealthy own and control the workplaces where we work and the homes where we live, we will be vulnerable.
Featured image credit: Wikimedia Commons
