Saturday Night Live star Michael Che is turning his pain into power. After losing his grandmother to COVID-19 last week, Michael has pledged to cover one month’s rent for 160 New York public housing residents as a tribute. Michael addressed the current rent crisis in a heartfelt 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. 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,” Michael announced.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Michael Che (@chethinks) on Apr 15, 2020 at 4:26pm PDT

Michael went on to call the city into action, saying “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.” He also called the attention of the Mayor of New York along with influential figures to assist him, “ps De Blasio! Cuomo! Diddy! Let’s fix this! Page me!”

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Michael Che and his family, and everyone who’s been impacted by COVID-19.