I wanted to show a glimps of what my advocacy work looks like sometimes between attending meeting and writing of testimonies.
Above is the last listening session the DC Revisioning Tax Commission had at MLK jr. Library. One of my biggest gripes with my advocacy is that there is a big case of dinial. Everytime I struggle with folks perseption that things aren't that bad or their approach to advocacy is just entirely to tamed for me. Maybe I just don't trust anyone. It is probably because I have been disappointeted and/or ignored by so many. Here is the link of the entire listening session. This is over 2 hours long, at the end of the blog I did a small clip of this longer video to share what it feels like to put folks in there place.
I want to show the difference between what I write before I testify, what I actually say and then what I actually submit. Because the rules are always so limiting. Below is my orginal written testimony. I was only given 2 minutes to talk. So obviously I didn't say everything I wrote.
On the outside we might seem a family doing fine for the most part. I have a son and a lovely trans daughter. They are loved, fed, working adults. However there is much more happening in our household. My oldest has failed his English class twice because of his ADHD. My youngest has autism and everyday is a struggle to support her in her classes. At the very first week when classes started my trans daughter was suicidal and begged me to take her to the hospital. She hated it there and didn’t find anyone she could relate to. Day after day I try so hard to put my adult children first in their happiness and wellbeing. I do this with nothing but my wits. I lie about our income so that our SNAP benefits aren't reduced and I don’t have to worry how we are going to eat. Everyday I am working miracles trying to survive off of nothing. This is not a life worth living at this rate. My family is fighting depression. I don’t know how my oldest will be able to pursue his college dreams since he is the only one that is helping to pay our rent. He is being screwed over time and time again. Having to pay for his college classes and my autistic one as well. Mind you they both attend community college, UDC and montgomery college. You might think 2k or 3k isn’t much but it is alot to us along with 1,800 in rent. Yes i am asking for a hand out. My kid’s deserve more. Poor people deserve more in this city. I don’t know how we can continue at this rate. Our rent is going to continue to steadily go up and I am honestly so tired of having to explain that DC isn’t progressive if DC has the highest rate of gentrification in the US. Talking about my struggles and my adult kids’ struggles should show that what our laws, taxes and law makers aren’t doing enough. There is nothing for my kids and kids like them. No supports. I have applied to the Future’s program and RSA and I got no help. The requirements are so much. So when we talk about taxing the rich we need to have the conversation of what poor people really need. We can’t turn a blind eye to the crime to the evictions to the food insecure. I am so tired of explaining that poor people don’t need to deserve a better quality of life. If you ever wondered why the opioid situation is so bad maybe it is because living in america is so bad. I need action to be done now, not 5 years, not 10 years. I need housing that is free. I need college that is free. I need food that is free. With no stipulations.
When we talk about credibility. I know most think college degrees hold more cred. Also ones skin color or ones job title. I know most are thinking is she really from DC, what does she know about DC? Does she really know how bad the housing issues are? Well I know a lot. I graduated from DC Public schools and grew up in a row house in DC. I was raised from a single black mother living with untreated paranoid schizophrenia. Because of this I ran away from home at 17. Got pregnant at 19 and 20. I went to UDC and lived in mod-rehab housing in ward 7 for 10 years. I have lost everything from my rights as a daughter to know anything about my mother til her death. I lost an inheritance because I am too poor to afford a lawyer for foreign estate. I lost a chance to get a cooperative at my current location because of a capitalist society depending on banks and interest rates. So I missed out on a chance to exercise my TOPA rights. I have been screwed over time and time again by America's society. It doesn’t matter if you get your 40 areas and a mule or reparations when the laws themselves are established to screw over poor black, brown, indigenous folks from day one of this country’s inception.
And finally my life supporting my adult kids with no support is having a toll on my health. I am pre-diabetic. I have to change my eating habits and lose several pounds. I hardly have the time or energy to do so. I am so stressed out about my living situation and my kid’s future and my future. How to get gas money for all the trips back and forth to school and the tenants I worry about in 12 buildings about 102 households, that I have to keep informed. And this advocacy work I do not just for my family but for others like mine. Because human rights should be upheld.
Jeff Bezos, Barack Obama, presidents of colleges and many elected officials that work at the capital can pay more in taxes. This is no different than Robin Hood take from the rich, give to the poor. Don’t give elected official’s pay raises and developers tax breaks. I am tired of hearing about the working class. What about to no-income class?
Next is video of what I actual said to the DC Tax Revisioning Commission.
Here is what I actually submitted.
On the outside we might seem like a family doing fine for the most part. I have a son and a lovely trans daughter. They are loved, fed, working adults. However there is much more happening in our household. My oldest has failed his English class twice because of his ADHD. My youngest has autism and everyday I struggle to support her in her classes. At the very first week when classes started my trans daughter was suicidal and begged me to take her to the hospital. She hated it there and didn’t find anyone she could relate to. Day after day I try so hard to put my adult children first in their happiness and wellbeing. I do this with nothing but my wits. I lie about our income so that our SNAP benefits aren't reduced and I don’t have to worry how we are going to eat. Everyday I am working miracles trying to survive off of nothing. This is not a life worth living at this rate. My family is fighting depression. I don’t know how my oldest will be able to pursue his college dreams since he is the only one that is helping to pay our rent. He is being screwed over time and time again. Having to pay for his college classes and my autistic one as well. Mind you they both attend community college, UDC and Montgomery college. You might think 2k or 3k isn’t much but it is alot to us along with 1,800 in rent. My kid’s deserve more. Poor people deserve more in this city. I don’t know how we can continue at this rate. Our rent is going to continue to steadily go up and I am honestly so tired of having to explain that DC isn’t progressive if DC has the highest rate of gentrification in the US. Talking about my struggles and my adult kids’ struggles proves our laws, taxes and law makers aren’t doing enough. There is nothing for my kids and kids like them. No supports. I have applied to the DC Future’s program and RSA and I got no help. The requirements are so much (like you have to be a full time student). So when we talk about taxing the rich we need to have the conversation of what poor people really need. We can’t turn a blind eye to the crime to the evictions to the food insecure. I am so tired of explaining that poor people don’t need to deserve a better quality of life. If you ever wondered why the opioid situation is so bad maybe it is because living in America is so bad. I need action to be done now, not 5 years, not 10 years. I need housing that is free. I need college that is free. I need food that is free. With no stipulations.
When we talk about credibility. I know most think college degrees hold more cred. Also ones skin color or ones job title. I know most are thinking is she really from DC, what does she know about DC? Does she really know how bad the housing issues are? Well I know a lot. I graduated from DC Public schools and grew up in a row house in DC. I was raised from a single black mother living with untreated paranoid schizophrenia. Because of this I ran away from home at 17. Got pregnant at 19 and 20. I went to UDC and lived in mod-rehab housing in ward 7 for 10 years. I have lost everything from my rights as a daughter to know anything about my mother til her death. I lost an inheritance because I am too poor to afford a lawyer for foreign estate. I lost a chance to get a cooperative at my current location because of a capitalist society depending on banks and interest rates. So I missed out on a chance to exercise my TOPA rights. I have been screwed over time and time again by America's society. It doesn’t matter if you get your 40 areas and a mule or reparations when the laws themselves are established to screw over poor black, brown, indigenous folks from day one of this country’s inception.
And finally my life supporting my adult kids with no support is having a toll on my health. I am pre-diabetic. I have to change my eating habits and lose several pounds. I hardly have the time or energy to do so. I am so stressed out about my living situation and my kid’s future and my future. How to get gas money for all the trips back and forth to school and the tenants I worry about in 12 buildings about 102 households, that I have to keep informed. And this advocacy work I do not just for my family but for others like mine. Because human rights should be upheld.
Jeff Bezos, Barack Obama, presidents of colleges and many elected officials that work at the capital (senators & representatives) and live in DC can pay more in taxes. This is no different than Robin Hood, take from the rich, give to the poor. Don’t give elected official’s pay increases and developers tax breaks. I am tired of hearing about the working class and affordable housing. What about the no-income folks? Relisha Rudd? The unhoused families and mentally challenged that are unhoused. Housing needs to be available to whoever wants it without conditions (medicated or not).
The housing crisis was bad before covid.
The only issue I see with tax credits is that this continues to only help head of households filing taxes. I haven’t worked since 2020.
The single family home I grew up in was fully paid off by my grandparents and my mother did a reverse mortgage and then the house was sold to pay for her assisted living. Many things went wrong and obviously out of my hands for my mother. The way the probate court treated my mother and I was as if I was back in slave times. I was denied knowing the status of her health and I had no say about where she should go and how her items would be treated because the court already decided to sell or trash her items. If she was white and wealthy this wouldn’t be the norm of how mentally ill and poor black women continue to be treated along with their families. Let me be clear since Britney Spears was also a victim of the guardianship and conservatorship system. This system is predatory. To only have two individuals have full control over one individual and most of them are lawyers and judges is a guaranteed way of exploiting this vulnerable population. Criminal courts say you are innocent until proven guilty and Family Social Services are supposed to have the goal in keeping families together. But in probate court I was made the bad guy no matter what because it was at the courts discretion to tell me anything or not. So there is no line of accountability. Families like the McCains, Roberta McCain lived a long life because her family was well off. So when we talk about the difference between black wealth and white wealth this needs to be addressed to its core because this is clearly another example of systematic racism.
Because of these experiences and many other conversations I have had with longtime homeowners. Property taxes for the elderly should expand to poor households so the elderly can put their family members on the house deed. A guaranteed inheritance should be insured for poor families and more effort to help upkeep these older homes. Preserving homes for longtime DC residents and their families is racial equity.
TOPA rights should be guaranteed for DC renters/residents. To have spent over a year on this and have my time and energy for basically getting nothing for it. I am not working so I wouldn’t qualify to take the buy out and buy a house and the bank interest rates are too high for any of the developers and non-profits willing to help finance a cooperative. The success of the https://baldwin-house.org makes me wonder if funding like that was available for the tenants I serve; it would be done more often for other future TOPA cases.
Here is the website to learn more about the DC Tax Revision Commission. https://www.dctaxrevisioncommission.org/proposals
I also want to highlight that Ms. Simpson had a fabulous testimony about how her Brookland neighborhood is changing and she doesn't like it. I told her after the event that those new buildings look like middle fingures stick right back at us. She starts talking at 1:36:34. I bring her up because my next frustration about housing advocacy is most folks can't be on the same page about how to house folks. Either building more or elimating the height act and I hate all those ideas. Maybe it is because I hate change and new people. But from someone that grew up here, I don't like how DC had changed for the privliged. And yes poor people do deserve nice things. I have had these conversations. Why do we live in a world that those things can't go hand in hand? Just shows once again how fucked up america is.
If I haven't said it already. I really hate how the goverment dictates how to interact with the public. It is so limited and ingenuine. If they choose to ask questions to folks testifying. The hours and the requirements to make it only written testiony. I now too many situations where laws where created and it isn't implemented as it should because of various situations. Law makers needs to interact with the public and the folks that are suppose to implemente the laws. I guess what infuriates me the most is that folks don't realize how much laws impact us and don't demand more. We just celebrated Thanksgiving and all I can think of is that we all are thankful that the worst hasn't happened to us. Thanksgiving is just how we teach history. Convienently pretending/forgetting how horrible this country was founded on. How white people stab you in the back every damn time. The video below is a very short clip showing how I always find myself trying to beat reality with a stick for folks that contantly want to believe "everything is alright", when it clearly isn't.
If I look annoyed. It's because I am. My youngest always thinks I am mad at her but I am just mad at everything else in the world. I also want to point out I am talking about tax relief in these advocacy spaces and I haven't filed taxes since I got fired. So still no relief for me and my family.
Interesting fact, I just found out working class and middle class are two different classes. So it still shows prejudice for folks living on goverment assistance (not social security). The only time we mention folks similar to this, are seniors. So as per usual I am the only voice for the "welfare moms". Yea I said it. You know you were thinking it. Dammit we deserve so much more. You can't in the same breath cry out that Relisha Rudd should still be alive and not consider her family shouldn't have been homeless to begin with. It is so easy to blame the mother. As a society we are failing poor families time and time again. Face that truth.
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