Saturday Night Live cast member Michael Che announced he would pay rent for all 160 apartments in a New York City public housing building where his grandmother once lived, as reported by Insider.
“It’s crazy to me that residents of public housing are still expected to pay their rent when so many new yorkers cant even work,” he wrote on Instagram. Outside of the rent announcement, Che has also deleted all of his other Instagram posts.
Che’s grandmother, who passed away from coronavirus on April 6th, had not lived in the public housing unit since 1990, but the building was “very significant” to the family history, according to Che. As well, the “Weekend Update” co-host (who had hosted public housing fundraisers before) noted he grew up in public housing.
“You go without heat. You go without food. You go without doorknobs. You go without everything. Elevators don’t work. There was grease and oil inside the elevators to keep off graffiti, but then you couldn’t touch the wall,” he told the New York Times. “My whole family’s from public housing, so you think all elevators smell like pee. You just think that’s the way it is.”
Besides earning praise from his SNL castmates, Che received a shoutout from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who called Che an “extraordinary New Yorker who grew up in [New York City public housing], and never forgot where he came from.” Che had name-checked de Blasio, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and hip-hop star Diddy in his IG post.
New York currently has a 90-day moratorium on evictions, but up to 40 percent of NY tenants were reportedly unable to pay rent in April.
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