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Three of my low-end renters received Covid rent support. The Department of Children and Families, DCF, paid their entire rent and power bill for anywhere from eight to eleven months. The black, middle-aged woman changed nothing, and it didn’t seem to affect her or her lifestyle. The two white women, a single mother around 38 and a 74-year-old living alone both apparently got into drugs. I had to evict the younger one as she stopped paying when the DCF payments stopped. The other woman simply disappeared one night and returned to the Tennessee mountains. She texted me that she was now gone.

I’ve been land lording long enough to recognize drug issues. (Cronic lying, bizarre behavior, changed appearance, etc.) As I’ve seen before, the sudden appearance of helicopter cash can be devastating. Money, in general, in contrast to the government’s belief, is almost never the answer. But real answers are personal and beyond the ability of any government to deliver.

So, government, want to help people? Then stop demonizing the one thing that has proven to help people get ahold of their lives and prosper...religion. And, by religion, I mean Christianity...not Islam, or Hindu, or devil worship. (Incidentally, I’m agnostic. But I clearly see the positive influence Christianity has on people and their lives.)