The affordability crisis hits renters harder than owners. Philadelphia Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) estimates the city needs about 70,000 affordable rental units to meet demand.

In this guest column, the three coauthors of the recent report "How the Pandemic Response Has Failed Young People" write letters to themselves from their descendants, imagining a future transformed by youth-empowering policies.

"It doesn’t make sense that securing a home takes this much suffering," says Deja Morgan, a member the Youth Action Board of Community Legal Services, and a coauthor of its recently released report.

"How the Pandemic Response Has Failed Young People and What We Need to Thrive" was co-written and researched by three members of the Youth Action Board of Community Legal Services.

Still, more than 300 renting households are scheduled for lockouts in the coming weeks despite their pending rent assistance applications.

It is only when people feel they have a stake in a future that is non deterministic, not associated with economic gain, and rooted in community, can possibilities for hope, creative control, and meaningful access spring forward.