My name is Magnus Mateo, and I’m the statewide communications fellow here at Pennsylvania Stands Up this summer! I’m inviting you to join our Statewide Housing Justice team at the State Capitol in Harrisburg on Monday, June 29th! Starting at 9 AM, we’ll demand our Senators, especially the Senate Urban Affairs and Housing Committee, listen to constituents and pass legislation sitting in committee that would prioritize safe, affordable, and accessible housing for all Pennsylvanians.
We are in a housing crisis, I know you see it all around you. Rent increasing, along with utilities, groceries, gas, faster than we can feasibly imagine. Luxury apartments cropping up, pricing out us locals, overshadowing the encampment sweeps happening in our backyards. Our Senators who fail to fight for affordable housing solutions see all of this, too. It’s up to us to hold them accountable and demand that they act now!
I’m so incredibly grateful for my fellowship, and the opportunity to connect with my community through grassroots organizing. I wouldn’t be able to take on such opportunities without the support of my fiancee, Ragna, and my household. But I often worry about what would happen if even one of us lost our jobs today. I haven’t had a stable income in almost three years. Savings went to bills ages ago, and living in poverty for this long changed my perspective in so many ways. Like so many of us, I often think about not having anywhere to go if we couldn’t collectively afford to pay our rent that our landlord raises every year.
Housing insecurity isn’t a new concept to me. At 20 years old, I made it very clear to my mom that I was not going to continue living with her. At 21, I packed what belongings I could find into garbage bags and dragged my life onto a bus to live with someone who I thought wanted to build a future with me. Once I was out, moving back in with my mom was not an option. Anything else had to be better.
Fast forward a year and three months, at the height of the pandemic, May 2020. I gathered up my belongings to get away from someone who did not care about building a future with me. I attempted to go at it alone, renting a shabby room in the basement of a home daycare service through a verbal lease. I had no kitchen access, the ceiling in my room leaked, but at least I had dimmable sconces. The rent was $500 a month, it was right in front of the bus stops I needed for work, and best of all, I was free.
Or so I thought. Turns out a long term relationship ending at the height of the pandemic and then living alone for the first time ever comes with a lot of trauma. And let’s be real, I was 22 and not at all willing to unpack all of that. Oh, but the punches don’t stop rolling out yet. Just 3 months later, conveniently after I complained about the ceiling leak destroying my laptop, my landlady terminated my lease, and only allowed me 2 weeks to gather my belongings and move out. In the August heat, I was homeless.
Panic attacks became the norm for a while there, even after my best friend said I can sleep in her room. I thanked her effusively, even as her family’s disdain for my presence filled the air. She kept telling me that it was okay for me to be there, but I didn’t feel safe in a home where I knew I was not welcomed, not wanted. My gut instinct proved to be right, because in three weeks’ time, her family was asking me to leave by the weekend. In three weeks’ time, her family gathered my belongings and set them out to be picked up on garbage night.
Just three weeks after getting kicked out of my basement abode, five months after moving out of my ex’s place, I discovered that my best friend wasn’t a friend to me at all. In my lowest moment, she and her family stole from me and left me to fend for myself. I truly didn’t know how to continue, what next steps could possibly exist? Even in the absolute oblivion that I was experiencing, I held onto a small spark of hope. I made a late night phone call to a friend, and said yes to an opportunity that still saves my life today.
Ragna, with me through all of this muck, asked me to move in with them. I was hesitant, I was desperate, and I was scared. I said yes, never intending to take up their space for too long, clinging to naming myself unhoused. Ragna, holding me with so much tender care, affirmed and reaffirmed every day that I can stop telling people that I’m homeless, because she wanted me there. Ragna made a promise to build a home with me, and she hasn’t gone back on her word.
Again, I’m grateful for the support that I have in my life today that keeps a roof over my head. But this current situation is not secure enough. I should be able to, we should all be able to quell the mind loop of housing insecurity, and that begins with bold legislative solutions that bring housing affordability to Pennsylvania’s working class. None of us should be afraid that we’re one missed paycheck or one greedy rent increase away from losing access to housing. Housing is a right, not a luxury. We all need and deserve safe and affordable housing, and to make that a reality, we need ALL hands on deck! We have people power, and that cannot be ignored.
I’m inviting you to join our Statewide Housing Justice team at the State Capitol in Harrisburg on Monday, June 29th to tell our Senators that housing is a human right, and get them to commit to legislative solutions to our housing affordability crisis. Can you join us?
Click here to join us in Harrisburg!
In solidarity,
Magnus