Several celebrities have come out in support of a variety of different causes amid the coronavirus outbreak, and SNL’s Michael Che is no exception.
The comedian announced he will be paying one month of rent for 160 public housing tenants in an Instagram post.
“It’s crazy to me that residents of public housing are still expected to pay their rent when so many new yorkers can’t even work,” Che writes. “Obviously I can’t offer much help by myself. But in the spirit and memory of my late grandmother, I’m paying one months rent for all 160 apartments in the NYCHA building she lived in.”
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New York has become the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. As of Thursday afternoon, there are reportedly at least 213,779 coronavirus cases and up to 11,586 deaths.
President Donald Trump recently suggested the death toll statistics may have been inflated, as IJR previously reported.
“I know that’s just a drop in the bucket. So I really hope the city has a better plan for debt forgiveness for all the people in public housing, at the very least,” Che writes.
He calls on New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D), and rapper “Diddy” to help him find solutions to the problem.
Cuomo extended New York’s stay-at-home order another two weeks to May 15 despite a decrease in hospitalizations. He is working with six neighboring states to reopen the economy on a regional basis.
Other celebrities have joined forces to help those in need including Singer Rihanna and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, as IJR previously reported.
Rihanna and Dorsey are working to assist domestic abuse victims as stay-at-home orders have been issued.
As of Thursday afternoon, the United States is reporting at least 641,166 coronavirus cases and up to 31,590 deaths.