The Berea College GSA and the Madison County Tenants Union are spearheading a local rally to end the shelter crisis and oppose HB 5. According to a press release sent to WBON-TV, The rally is slated for next Wednesday, February 21, 2024, at noon. The rally will be held at Union Church, 200 Prospect Street in Berea.
Organizers say residents in Madison County are facing an unspoken housing and shelter crisis currently.
Lawmakers in Frankfort have proposed a bill that, they claim, would criminalize homelessness, ban “street camping”, expand Kentucky’s stand your ground laws, and much more. They say the bill does little to offer solutions to the shelter crisis we face and will make the crisis worse.
2023 set a record for the number of evictions filed against tenants in Madison County courts with 667 total.
Many of those impacted are involved in this rally. They say “we have had to sleep in our cars, and pay for hotel rooms that we could not afford in order to have a place to stay. In January of 2023, immediately following the MLK Day march to end homelessness, those of us who had to live in a make-shift emergency shelter off of exit 90 saw our encampment bulldozed. The bulldozers destroyed our personal belongings.”
Organizers say the rally is part of the effort to to turn things around for tenants and working families.
You can read more on this by visiting the Madison County Tenants Union Facebook page.
