brian goldstone @brian_goldstone Twitter profile | Pikagi

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brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

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journalist | author of There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America, out 3.25.25

Atlanta, GA

https://t.co/aDzoq8DG0T

Joined November 2015

Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

9 days

In the US today, more and more people with full-time jobs are being pushed into homelessness. Low-wage workers can't afford rent. My book explores the staggering rise of America's working homeless, told through the lives of five families in Atlanta. 1/

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

3 years

Went apartment hunting yesterday with a 27-year-old desperate to find a home for her and her kids, after being unhoused for the last year. Each landlord charged a fee to apply. One required a $60 app fee AND a $150 admin fee, up front, both nonrefundable. The extortion is unreal.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

11 months

UPDATE: After an enormous outcry, Cigna has reversed their unconscionable last-minute denial and will be covering Carole's transplant (!!). Carole is extremely relieved, and she's grateful to the many, many people who emailed Cigna over the past 24 hours. Having said that...

@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

11 months

A thread about our depraved healthcare system, and a plea. In 2021, my friend Carole was diagnosed with terminal stage four cancer. A single parent with two kids, she had just turned 43. In 2017, she had watched her brother Chris die of the same cancer. He too was in his 40s.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

11 months

A thread about our depraved healthcare system, and a plea. In 2021, my friend Carole was diagnosed with terminal stage four cancer. A single parent with two kids, she had just turned 43. In 2017, she had watched her brother Chris die of the same cancer. He too was in his 40s.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

8 months

In November, I posted about a friend whose lung transplant was canceled at the last minute because Cigna decided not to cover it. After an immense outcry, Cigna then reversed their denial. I'm thrilled to share that Carole has finally received her transplant and is cancer-free.

@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

11 months

A thread about our depraved healthcare system, and a plea. In 2021, my friend Carole was diagnosed with terminal stage four cancer. A single parent with two kids, she had just turned 43. In 2017, she had watched her brother Chris die of the same cancer. He too was in his 40s.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

11 months

Carole is still in shock. "Our healthcare system is not simply broken," she wrote earlier today, "it is corrupt and anti-life. It is evil.... We cannot forget that insurance companies are run by people who benefit from these policies and decisions."

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

11 months

Now for the plea. Carole's doctors at Vanderbilt are convinced that this transplant can save her life. But @Cigna will need to reverse their decision—and quickly. The company's CEO is David Cordani. He can be reached at David.cordani @cigna .com

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

2 years

An astonishing sentence: “Every $100 increase in median rent is associated with a 9 percent increase in the estimated homelessness rate, according to a 2020 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.”

@abhabhattarai

Abha Bhattarai

2 years

Rising housing costs, combined with persistent inflation for basic necessities, have left more Americans newly homeless and millions more fearing they’ll soon lose their homes. (with @rachsieg )

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

11 months

Carole is acutely aware that, without public pressure, Cigna might well have cut short her life—just as so many others have been harmed by this cruel, profit-driven system. It's shameful that an insurance company has the power to prevent anyone from receiving the care they need.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

11 months

If any reporters at @WKRN , @WSMV , @FOXNashville , @NC5 , or @Tennessean would like to speak to Carole about this awful, infuriating situation, please dm me for her contact info.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

9 months

Everything is just fine, they continue to insist.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

11 months

Update: Within an hour of posting this thread, a representative from @Cigna called Carole to say they were aware of her situation and would be "escalating" her case. So the public pressure seems to be having an effect. Let's keep it up.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

2 years

a Labor Day reminder that millions of Americans are working full-time jobs and still can’t afford a place to live

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

11 months

The doctors at Vanderbilt were outraged. A transplant for lung cancer, while rare, is by no means without precedent. Her doctors said they had never heard of an insurance company withdrawing approval literally minutes before a surgery was set to begin. Yet @Cigna was unyielding.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

11 months

At 3:45, as the transplant team was prepping the OR, a doctor came to Carole's room. She had terrible news. @Cigna , Carole's insurance company, had just denied her claim. They'd made a mistake, they said, in initially approving the procedure. They were now refusing to pay for it.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

11 months

Carole and her kids were sent home, and she was taken off the waitlist for a donor match. Her doctors have promised to appeal @Cigna 's decision next week. In the meantime, there is concern about the cancer spreading. If that happens, a transplant will no longer be an option.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

3 years

Many people are asking, “How is this happening?” Short answer: It’s happening because one of the most basic of human needs—the need for housing—has been left to the profoundly exploitative, discriminatory, supply-limiting, profit-maximizing whims of the private market.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

4 years

An Amazon worker in Missouri fell sick with Covid and had an eviction filed against her. When she went to the courthouse to fight it, security wouldn’t let her in...BECAUSE SHE HAD COVID. The judge allowed the case to proceed without her. She was evicted.

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Judge grants eviction against St. Peters woman too sick from COVID-19 to be allowed in courthouse

Legal expert says the courts face an eviction "tsunami" even with a CDC order in place to keep people in their homes.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

11 months

@Cigna @VUMChealth Carole is acutely aware that, without public pressure, Cigna might well have cut short her life—just as so many others have been harmed by this cruel, profit-driven system. It's shameful that an insurance company has the power to prevent anyone from receiving the care they need.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

2 years

in this dystopian housing system, paying your rent consistently for years will have no positive impact on your credit score, but—get this—missing even a *single* rent payment can trigger an eviction filing and cause your credit score to plummet, forcing you into homelessness

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

11 months

Finally, yesterday morning, she texted her friends. "I just got the call to come in!!! We're heading to the hospital now!" A donor match had been found. Later, she sent us a photo of her and the children, taken just before she was admitted.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

11 months

@Cigna @VUMChealth UPDATE: After a tremendous outcry, Cigna has reversed their unconscionable last-minute denial and will be covering Carole's transplant (!!). Carole is extremely relieved, and she's grateful to the many, many people who emailed Cigna over the past 24 hours. Having said that...

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

3 years

This was in Atlanta, where the rental market is so tight that tenants have no choice but to pay these fees, even when they have little chance of being approved—as is the case with this woman, who has an eviction on her record from 2014. Landlords, meanwhile, are making a killing.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

11 months

Four weeks ago, she received word that the transplant team had approved the procedure. Her insurance company agreed to cover it, and she was put on the waitlist for a donor match. "This is a MIRACLE," she wrote to her friends. Her children were beside themselves with gratitude.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

11 months

Carole, a teacher in Nashville, tried to absorb this shattering news. The five-year survival rate for small cell lung cancer is 5%. She began chemo, but her oncologist warned that it was only a matter of time before this extremely aggressive form of cancer spread to other organs.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

3 years

Just found this brilliant article from 1993, which shows that linking homelessness to mental illness was not only politically engineered but was “used to divert attention from the socioeconomic roots of the crisis and to justify the removal of homeless people from public spaces."

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

11 months

Then, earlier this year, a ray of hope: doctors at @VUMChealth told her she might be a candidate for a double lung transplant, which would remove the cancer. But first they had to ensure that it was confined to her lungs. Six months of rigorous screening and evaluation ensued.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

2 years

the episode would depict shadowy “landlords” denying people a place to live because their credit score falls below a particular number

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

4 years

Just got a very excited text message from Cokethia Goodman, whose family I followed last year for an article about the working homeless. She voted today in GA for the first time in her life. “I cried when they announced me as a first time voter! They were cheering and clapping!”

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

3 years

Also: It’s important to note that even those lucky enough to get a Section 8 voucher are responsible for application fees. In rapidly gentrifying Atlanta, I’ve met low-income families who spent over $1200 on application fees and *still* weren’t approved for a single apartment.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

11 months

The donor lungs Carole was supposed to receive on Monday are no longer available; because of @Cigna , the transplant was canceled. Carole will now need to undergo additional tests to ensure the cancer has not spread. She will then (hopefully) be placed back on the waitlist.

@agnesshaw1924

Huge Fraudenberg

11 months

@brian_goldstone Amazing news!! Are the donor lungs still available, or does she have to go back on the wait list?

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

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3 years

In a number of states, including GA, there is *no limit* on what a landlord can charge in nonrefundable application fees. This means a landlord can encourage one prospective tenant after another to apply, reject them for any reason at all, and pocket the fee—in this case, $210.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

4 years

In junior high I had a teacher who said to our class: “Today there are millions of people all around us going hungry—and you don’t give a shit about it.” She added: “And right now you’re thinking more about me saying ‘shit’ than about people starving.” She was a great teacher.

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@brian_goldstone

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3 years

On several occasions I’ve witnessed someone explain to a leasing agent all the barriers they’ve faced in their search for housing: low credit score, a past eviction, etc. “You should be fine,” they were told. And then they were denied after paying a fee they couldn’t afford.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

10 months

Please don't say, over the coming days, that all these people "fell" into homelessness. They were brutally, callously pushed into it.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

4 years

The brutality of allowing evictions to occur during a pandemic is coming into clearer view: Stunning new research shows that as many as *433,700* excess cases of Covid and *10,700* additional deaths were caused by evictions between March and September.

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Evictions have led to hundreds of thousands of additional Covid-19 cases, research finds

Expiring state eviction bans have led to hundreds of thousands of additional coronavirus cases, new research finds.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

2 years

a cruel twist

@netzmo

Mo Netz

2 years

@brian_goldstone And while one mistake can absolutely tank your score, it is virtually impossible to rebuild it! You'll be told you can bring the score back up by using and paying off credit cards, but no one will approve you for a credit card with your low score.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

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4 years

Just talked to an out-of-work single mom facing eviction from her apartment in Atlanta. She’s been waiting in line since 6pm *last night* to receive groceries and a gift card from Tyler Perry. A flyer for the event said the line will “close at the 5000th family.”

@VeronicaHarrell

Veronica HarrellWSB🎙

@VeronicaHarrell

4 years

Folks have been in line for hours on SR-166 to get to @tylerperry Studios for a Free Food Giveaway. Please remember there are so many people in need @ACFB This #Thanksgiving remain #grateful & #Thankful #sundayvibes #SundayThoughts #TylerPerry 🦃🦋🦋🦋

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

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4 years

Remember when Steve Mnuchin suggested that the $1200 stimulus checks would be enough to last most people “about 10 weeks,” and was roundly criticized? I just realized that was 36 weeks ago.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

3 years

Truly insane that the two largest cities in this country have declared open war on unhoused people at precisely the moment when three million Americans are at risk of being forced out of their homes.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

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3 years

At each of the “affordable” complexes (ie, at least $1k for a one-bedroom) we visited, the office phones were ringing constantly. “Just go ahead and apply” was the typical response. One agent said there’s been a huge influx of people who have been evicted or are facing eviction.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

11 months

@Cigna A correction: Carole's transplant team at @VUMChealth spotted a typo in the second post in this thread. Carole has been diagnosed with *non* small cell lung cancer, or Multifocal Adenocarinoma — not "small cell lung cancer," as I wrote.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

3 years

Two weeks ago I got a frantic call from a 58-year-old woman in Atlanta. She and her husband, who had just been discharged from the hospital, were being forced out of the apartment where they’d lived since 2011. The couple had nowhere to go and were terrified of becoming homeless.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

3 years

⬇️⬇️

@thrasherxy

🍉 Dr. Thrasher still cares about Covid & Gaza🔻

3 years

I would gladly read—or maybe should charge students to write?—research on how poor people provide interest free loans to corporations (via car rental deposits, apartment applications, reimbursements workers front for their employers before getting reimbursed months later)

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

2 years

you all have some sick imaginations

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

2 years

critics would scoff at a subplot involving “risk management fees,” deeming it too over the top

@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

2 years

next level extortion among Atlanta’s corporate landlords: a requirement that prospective tenants with low credit scores, previous debt, or no prior rental history pay a nonrefundable “risk management fee” in order to rent an apartment

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

11 months

Utterly surreal to finish reading an interview on "The Trauma of Gaza's Doctors" and immediately see the news that Dr Medhat Hussein, the director of Al Wafa hospital, was murdered in an Israeli bombing.

@IChotiner

Isaac Chotiner

11 months

New Interview: I talked to Anne Taylor, who oversees the work of Doctors Without Borders in Gaza, about what her staff is experiencing right now, and her interactions with the Israeli government.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

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9 months

In Georgia, a mom facing eviction reached out to DFCS for help. They offered her nothing. Soon the agency took her kids away because of "inadequate housing." The state then spent $6,200/month to house her kids in foster care. A must-read by @stephannnnie

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When Families Need Housing, Georgia Will Pay for Foster Care Rather Than Provide Assistance

In more than 700 cases over five years, Georgia reported inadequate housing as the sole reason for taking a child into foster care, a WABE and ProPublica analysis found. Advocates say it would be...

www.propublica.org

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

4 years

Please can we stop calling the direct monthly cash payments that are so utterly, desperately needed right now “stimulus checks.” They’re *survival* checks, modicum-of-subsistence checks.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

3 years

“Well maybe that child tax credit will pay for a couple nights at a hotel when me and my kids are homeless soon.” - a single mother in Atlanta facing eviction when the moratorium expires tomorrow

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

4 years

This is so unbelievably vile.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

4 years

Take a moment to read every word of @CoriBush ’s incredible victory speech.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

2 years

next level extortion among Atlanta’s corporate landlords: a requirement that prospective tenants with low credit scores, previous debt, or no prior rental history pay a nonrefundable “risk management fee” in order to rent an apartment

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

10 months

Rent hikes aren't just forcing people into homelessness. They can also be a death sentence.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

2 years

yes, I heard that too. even dystopian fiction needs to keep things at least somewhat realistic

@MarthaKelly3

Martha Kelly

2 years

@brian_goldstone Heard that one of the writers for this preposterous show suggested adding a city council that criminalizes homelessness and was immediately fired.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

4 years

Update: Sleep-deprived, hungry, and very achy from being in her car all night, she finally made it to the front of the line. The box contained some non-perishable items and a $25 gift card. She sounded tired and disappointed. “I mean, I guess I’m grateful. It is what it is.”

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

4 years

This kind of brutality is happening in courtrooms & virtual hearings every day, in every corner of the country. If the Biden administration wanted to protect tenants, they could strengthen and enforce the federal eviction moratorium. But so far, nothing.

@stephannnnie

Stephannie Stokes

4 years

Judges in at least two Georgia counties have decided that the CDC eviction moratorium does not apply to their courts. For one family, that meant moving into an extended stay while they were still recovering from COVID-19.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

5 years

For @newrepublic , I wrote about the changing face of homelessness in America’s boom cities: low-wage workers whose paychecks are not enough to keep a roof over their heads

The New American Homeless

Housing insecurity in the nation’s richest cities is far worse than government statistics claim. Just ask the Goodmans.

newrepublic.com

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

11 months

@agnesshaw1924 Yes, she will need to go back on the waitlist, assuming the cancer hasn't spread outside her lungs

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

3 years

@thrasherxy I asked the property manager this question. She just laughed and shook her head, and asked if there was anything else she could help us with.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

3 years

Yesteday I finally heard from her again. Ulysses had died. In the days before his death, he'd been having panic attacks. "Where we gonna stay?" he said again and again. Instead of focusing on his health, they'd been forced to find a new place to live. But there was nowhere to go.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

4 years

Staring at this line of cars and the magnitude of suffering it represents and thinking what a cruel, almost sadistic joke to suggest that a single $600 check could come anywhere close to ameliorating this calamity.

@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

4 years

Today at Donavan’s Dream food pantry in Barnesville, GA, the line of cars stretched at least a mile down the road.

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brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

4 years

Let’s be clear: What we’re witnessing here in Georgia is the result not of “demographic shifts” but of a massive grassroots organizing effort, led by @fairfightaction and others, to overcome some of the most vicious, unapologetic voter suppression tactics in the country.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

10 months

While reporting on homelessness here in Atlanta, I've met a number of Uber and Lyft drivers who can't afford housing and have resorted to sleeping in their cars at night, often with their kids. The suffering is real.

@Phil_Lewis_

philip lewis

10 months

Uber and Lyft drivers have shut down their apps at Atlanta’s airport during one of the busiest holiday travel periods, stating they're fed up with unfair wages from the companies they work for

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

10 months

America is a place where your ability to secure housing, one of the most basic human needs, is dependent on a three-digit “credit score”

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

4 years

A lot of people responding to the first tweet in this thread are rightly asking: Why was the judge who ordered this cruel and unjust eviction not named in the story? Why allow the judge to remain anonymous? @ksdknews , @PJKSDK , @ErinCRichey : Any explanation for this omission?

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

3 years

A lot of people have asked how they can help this family with application fees, security deposit, and other costs. Feel free to DM me and I’d be happy to share their CashApp info.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

5 years

Today at an extended-stay hotel, I met a 47-year-old mother of four who’d just been laid off from her job at McDonald’s in the Atl airport. She worked there for 18 YEARS. She’ll be getting no sick pay, no severance, nothing. She’s scared that her family will soon be on the street

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

1 year

Atlanta math is spending $67 million on Cop City when more than 2,000 k-12 students in the city's school system are homeless

@IamKingWilliams

Your Next Best Friend

@IamKingWilliams

1 year

Has anyone done Atlanta math yet?

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

2 years

If you’re appalled at the avoidable scarcity, hoarding, and price gouging of baby formula, wait until you hear what they’ve done with housing

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

3 years

As @taraghuveer pointed out, eviction can take many forms—in this case, a rent hike & lease non-renewal. That this mode of displacement occurs outside the courts and remains invisible to media & policymakers doesn't make it any less harmful, even deadly.

@taraghuveer

Tara Raghuveer

3 years

The courts are just one venue for eviction. Landlords use all sorts of means to displace tenants and these are evictions, too: rent hikes, lease non-renewal, sale of property, refusal to accept assistance/vouchers, harassment, threats, utility shut offs, uninhabitable conditions.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

2 years

Can’t stop thinking about this link between rising rent & homelessness and the increasingly brutal efforts to remove unhoused people from public space. Two days ago Tennessee made it a class E felony to camp on public land. In Nashville, median rent is up *21.5%* since May 2021.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

3 years

Now Veronica is alone for the first time in 25 years. She has two children who live outside Atlanta, and they're helping as much as they can. But she still needs a place to live; there's also the cost to bury Ulysses. If anyone would like to help, her daughter's cashapp is $JDSCL

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

11 months

@Pbrown421 @wtime90 thank you so much

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

10 months

America is a place where unemployment can be at a record low while homelessness surges to a record high. Millions of people are working full-time jobs and still can’t afford a place to live.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

3 years

Also: I've reached out to the management at Brookfield Apartments as well as Pacific West Land, the Washington-based real estate firm that owns the property. I'll update this thread if and when I hear back from them.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

7 years

For @Harpers , I wrote about the collateral damage of America’s war on opioids: chronic pain sufferers who are being cut off from their medication. It’s a story of bad drug policy, medical abandonment, and the nightmare of living with undertreated pain

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

2 years

If this projected takeover of rental units comes to pass, here’s what we can expect on an exponentially larger scale:

@taraghuveer

Tara Raghuveer

2 years

Corporate landlords aggressively evicted tenants during the pandemic, subverting the eviction moratorium. These are some of the same LLs hiking rents to maximize profits now. How much public money (financing, rent assistance) has supported this behavior?

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

2 years

It’s a good time to revisit this excellent deep dive by @francescamari , which documents the pernicious effects of private-equity landlords’ burning desire to deliver higher and higher returns for their shareholders.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

8 months

Carole is overwhelmed with gratitude to the many, many people who emailed Cigna and spoke out on her behalf. This support—and outrage—literally saved her life. She wrote a brief note about her experience and asked me to share it:

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

3 years

When Veronica and Ulysses first moved into their apartment, the rent was $550/month and had gone up slowly over the years. But a new mgt company, TriShip Partners LLC, had just taken over, and the first thing they did was raise the rent. That same unit would now cost $1100/month.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

3 years

Veronica said that in the ten years they'd been living at Brookfield, there hadn't been a single renovation. Far from it: there were problems with mold and roaches and repairs went undone. How, she asked, could they justify raising the rent? "We just are," the manager replied.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

4 years

Another day, another illegal mass eviction of more than a dozen families from an extended stay hotel in Atlanta, carried out at gunpoint by a squad of heavily armed private security guards.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

4 years

Evictions really are the ultimate, most violent manifestation—codified in law, authorized by the courts, carried out by the police—of sanctifying ownership rights & property at the expense of human lives.

@SaraQDavid

sara david

4 years

nypd brutalized people in brooklyn for trying to stop evictions today. violently fighting to make already vulnerable populations houseless during a pandemic, in a city designed in architecture and policy to be hostile to homeless ppl. this can’t be reformed. defund the NYPD NOW!

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

4 years

This is horrific and inhumane and is happening because we live in a society that treats low-income tenants as expendable, even in the middle of a deadly pandemic.

@taraghuveer

Tara Raghuveer

4 years

Policy loopholes kill: Alice and Gary will be evicted December 21. The couple applied for and received over $11k in rental assistance... but their landlord rejected it and refused to renew their lease. Gary has Stage 4 COPD, making him extremely vulnerable to COVID.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

2 years

Just heard from a woman with four kids who's been trying desperately to get into a homeless shelter. They've been sleeping in her car. She works at McDonald's. She was trying to get into @ATLmission 's shelter for women and children but you can't stay there if you... *have a job*

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

2 years

Skyrocketing rents would be less devastating if wages were keeping pace. But as @JordanUhl points out, there’s an immense (and growing) chasm between them: national median rent increased by 149% between 1985 and 2020, while median income rose by just 35%.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

3 years

The timing couldn't have been worse: Veronica cried as she explained that Ulysses, who had diabetes, was suffering from an infection after having his leg amputated—his fifth amputation in total. In their twenty-five years together, Veronica had never seen him like this.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

3 years

The criminalization of homelessness as racialized labor exploitation is an abiding tradition in the U.S. Dorothea Lange, Georgia 1938

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

3 years

On the phone, Veronica said they were desperate and asked if I could help draw attention to what they were going through. But in the background, I could hear Ulysses. "No, that will make it worse," he said. "They'll put us out immediately." Veronica said she would call me back.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

4 years

@two__evils “Incarceration for the crime of being unable to afford rent” is a pretty apt description of America’s shelter system.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

2 years

A multibillion dollar company that installed surveillance cameras in its trucks but won’t pay for AC to prevent employees from suffering heat stroke or even dying. Unreal.

@MorePerfectUS

More Perfect Union

2 years

NEW: UPS drivers are collapsing in the street, suffering heat stroke & dying because the company refuses to put air conditioning in their trucks. @UPS made $13 billion in PROFIT last year yet won't pay for A/C like FedEx & Amazon already do. This should be a national scandal.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

3 years

More relevant than ever: "Although politicans and the press linked homelessness with mental illness, most homeless people were not mentally ill and had become homeless due to decreased low-income housing, declining real wages & cuts in government benefits"

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

3 years

As Ulysses's sole caretaker, Veronica had been unable to work, and they subsisted on the SSI check he received each month. She told the management company that they were already spending nearly all of their fixed income on rent. There was no way they could afford $1100 a month.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

4 years

Literally nothing says USA circa 2020 like pushing poor and working-class tenants into homelessness in order to fund a diversity workshop

@lexhousejustice

Lexington Housing Justice Collective

@lexhousejustice

4 years

Monday, @MayorGorton proposed funding implicit bias training for city employees. Sounds great, right? BUT: the money to fund the trainings is being taken from emergency rental assistance—during the worst eviction crisis in at least a decade.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

4 years

With the link between evictions and Covid deaths now firmly established, direct actions like these have arguably moved from the realm of “protest” to lifesaving intervention

@KCTenants

KC Tenants

4 years

BREAKING: We just shut down teleconference eviction court in Eastern Jackson County (Independence, MO) in under 15 mins. All 21 cases are delayed at least 1-2 weeks. Eviction disruptors joined from around the country. Power to the people! 💥

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

3 years

The couple's lease had recently expired, and they were told that if they wanted to stay in their home they'd need to reapply, like any other prospective tenant. Veronica pleaded with the manager, but it was no use. If they weren't going to reapply, they'd have to vacate the unit.

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

9 months

@itsafronomics It's not the only endgame, to be sure, but in thinking about the link between housing precarity and low-wage work, I often return to this passage by @adamjohnsonCHI

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

3 years

An Atlanta tenant behind on rent was threatened with eviction today, so she immediately filled out the CDC Eviction Protection Declaration and sent it to her landlord. She just got this reply:

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@brian_goldstone

brian goldstone

@brian_goldstone

4 years

Or, put otherwise: If expecting people to survive on $17 a day seemed almost murderously callous, how does $4.76 a day sound?

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