Cheri Honkala, a single mom who has experienced homelessness first hand, is running for sheriff of Philadelphia on a no-evictions platform, Sarah van Gelder writes in Yes! Magazine:
There’s a new sheriff in town — or there could be soon. Cheri Honkala, a single mom, sometimes homeless, who launched one of the country’s biggest multi-racial movements led by the poor and homeless, is running for sheriff of Philadelphia.
Her platform? No evictions. No throwing people out on the street because of a financial crisis that they didn’t create. Her slogan: “Keeping families in their homes and protecting the ‘hood.”
If elected, Honkala pledges to selectively enforce eviction laws. Instead of beating down families’ doors, the Sheriff’s Office will work with people to figure out how they can pay their mortgages.
Honkala also pledges to create community land trusts to give residents control over the fate of abandoned buildings in their neighborhoods. Hopefully, this will prevent predatory developers and big box stores from swooping into neighborhoods and reshaping them against the wishes of the residents.
Honkala’s pragmatic and humane approach to the housing crisis is an idea whose time has come.
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