Dear Advocate
As we close out 2022, we catch up on our rest; look back at the year of accomplishments and we look forward to justice in 2023. We are exhausted because we are working to reverse the tide of criminalization sweeping the country. The negative stereotypes, the linking people who stay outside with crime and the denial of the trauma associated with homelessness are on the rise while we try every day to push federal officials to Bring America Home Now! As our country emerges from one of the most devastating pandemics in our history, I wanted you to know that we never stopped calling for urgency in ending this national nightmare of homelessness. In 2022 we delivered coats from Progressive Insurance and blankets from Direct Auto while calling for a national affordable housing emergency. We lobbied Congress on a couple of housing related issues and we held a number of demonstrations to stop the criminalization of homelessness. We will continue to push legislation in 2023 and please know that your support bolsters our campaign to make housing-for-all a priority in Washington.
Your support for our mission has helped NCH achieve unprecedented success in the involving those who experienced homelessness to be at the table when developing policies to create a social safety net and eliminate barriers to housing. NCH with your help participated in National Hunger and Homeless week with a series of presentations some of which can be found on our YouTube channel. We partnered with a number of national and local organizations on a National Homeless Memorial Day to remember those lost their lives as a result of their time living without housing.
I did want to let you know about a few exciting new initiative that we go showcase in 2023 including the Lived Experience Training Academy which will build a leadership corps for the push to end homelessness. This curriculum that we developed can be used across the country to teach those coming out of a period of homelessness to sit on boards, evaluate programs and join the local Continuum of Care boards. We hope to have a demonstration guaranteed income program in 2023 under the banner of the Steve Thomas Guaranteed Income Fund. The program will give a direct subsidy to a group of people previously living on the streets of D.C. to show that this type of initiative can be successful as one tool for ending homelessness. In addition, we hope to hire staff and interns when we grow the Michael Stoops Fellowship Fund. Michael was a national leader on civil rights and one of the best community organizers in the country. We intend to set up a separate fund to honor his legacy that will support a fellowship and paid internship that will be primarily responsible for studying solutions to homelessness while changing the narrative in the United States to re-focus on ending homelessness and not criminalizing those who find themselves without housing.
So, I am asking you if you will you partner with us today by investing in the future national advocacy around homelessness? Please consider making a gift to support the National Coalition for the Homeless with a general donation or a gift to one of two new funds to honor some of our past champions. Join NCH as a member here. This will give you the opportunity to provide input into policy and programming decisions to bring an end to homelessness. You can make an individual donation to support our Bring America Home Now Campaign, the Lived Experience Training Academy, the Speakers Bureau, and the hundreds of other things NCH oversees. Finally, we ask that if you are part of an organization and want to see an end to homelessness in the United States please encourage them to become a partner of the Bring America Home Now campaign. We understand rents and evictions have increased dramatically over the last year, but it does not cost any money to be a partner of the BAHN campaign?
PLEASE GIVE TODAY!
Sincerely,
Donald Whitehead
