We can't go back

By Kevin Lindamood, President & CEO

I don’t want to return to the world that we knew before COVID-19.

I can’t turn away from what this pandemic has revealed about us: White Americans benefit at the cost of everyone else. It is plain to see in the number of Black lives lost to poverty and homelessness.

Will you join me in solving this societal disgrace?

While some people wish we could “return to normal,” the truth is: It wasn’t working. It hasn’t worked for generations.

Every day we meet the needs of individuals who are suffering, but we also lead changes to the systems that treat people like Britney and her family unfairly.

Britney* is a determined mother who completed a training program, found a job and moved from a shelter into an apartment. Like nearly 16 million Black Americans, she had employer-sponsored insurance, but could not afford to use it.

So we provided her with medical care and therapy, and the laugh of her son James became a familiar sound at our pediatric clinic.

And then COVID-19 came and Britney’s job vanished.

Britney is one of thousands of people who have turned to us during the pandemic, the majority of whom are Black. She and James continue to see us today.

Our doors will remain open as long as we are needed. But changing government policies is the only way we can end the racist injustices that cause homelessness.

Your donation today helps meet basic human needs now and in the future by:

• Assisting Britney and hundreds of others to access benefits, food and shelter;
• Advocating with Britney for James’s remote learning needs and providing him with high quality pediatric care; and
• Being a force to prevent evictions through advocacy partnerships, lobbying and education with government leaders.

Dr. Michael Eric Dyson once said, “We must never ignore the injustices that make charity necessary, or the inequalities that make it possible.”

We need to acknowledge the harm we have done to African Americans and other communities of color. And we must create a new normal that includes health and safety for all of us.

Your donation is an investment in on-the-ground health care and urgent advocacy.

Donate here