Stigma, You Say

Via the comments, and from the land of unfinished thoughts:

Housing is a human right and evictions are an act of policy violence.

My HELP Act would give a lifeline to families facing eviction and vital resources during this time of crisis. pic.twitter.com/RyU1dkBe05

— Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) April 3, 2026

Ms Ayanna Pressley, a congresswoman with gratuitous pronouns, and mouther of the words above, acknowledges that the most common cause of eviction, by far, is the repeated and habitual non-payment of rent. Efforts at eviction generally being a last resort, a desperate and costly attempt to limit further loss or damage. To limit further theft and trespass.

Ms Pressley then complains that this behaviour – behaviour warranting eviction – has “stigma” attached to it. Which, of course, it should.

As Egino adds in the comments,

Adding further costs and complications to the process of evicting problem tenants seems likely to result in higher rents and a contraction of supply. And then there’s the claim – baldly asserted and seemingly unchallenged – that “housing is a human right.” A claim that, if enacted, would entail the compelled labour of others. For which, I believe we have a word.

When claims of this kind are made, there’s a recurring reluctance to complete the train of thought, to acknowledge certain, fairly basic, practical and moral details. Instead, we often get something not unlike a child’s shopping list, in which little thought is given to what costs might be involved.

Inevitably, in the subsequent replies, we learn that Ms Pressley has an extensive property portfolio of her own, including several residential rental properties, from which she earns around a quarter of a million dollars a year. Readers may wonder how Ms Pressley might feel if her tenants decided that “housing is a human right” and that “eviction is violence” and therefore abusive and illegitimate, and so, hey, screw paying the rent, despite our promises.

And that $250,000 a year is only outstanding rent and so, by Ms Pressley’s moral calculus, of no importance.

Via Pst314.

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