Stay put. If you can’t pay the rent or the mortgage, don’t let anybody make you move out. Stay connected. There are free internet services available now; find one. Stay safe. Make yourself a mask and wear it whenever you leave your home.

American society has been run by money. What do we do when we run out of money? Since the Reagan era, we have been told poverty is the fault of poor people. We felt ashamed to need help. Government has provided less and less help to poor people over the last four decades, and most of us were too busy or too selfish to care. Now millions of us are becoming poor for the first time. It’s quite clear that this new poverty is not our fault. We’re just trying to survive, which in many cases means staying home from non-essential jobs.

As long as middle class people felt relatively secure, many of us assumed that non-profit organizations like food banks would take care of the needs not being met by government programs. These days, we’re learning that the non-profit sector is far too small and poorly funded to meet those needs. Food banks help. There are just not enough of them to feed every hungry family.

We have to stand our ground. Housing, food, health care, basic utilities including internet connections — these are human rights. Now is the time to claim those rights. We know money isn’t everything. Let’s prove it.