On April 22, Funders Together staff joined advocates from across the country at the U.S. Capitol for the Housing NOW! Rally in Washington, D.C. Held one year after the Housing Not Handcuffs Rally on Johnson v. Grants Pass at the Supreme Court of the United States, featured speakers representing national partners, organizers, people with lived experience, and local advocates, including our CEO, Amanda Andere. Below are Amanda’s full remarks, which challenge us to lean into hope, stand in solidarity, and believe deeply in our power to win. 

Last year I stood at the Supreme Court as our government decided whether it was legal and okay to ticket, arrest, and fine people who are homeless in our communities.  I told you the ancestors who marched on Washington were whispering to me to keep going, until freedom. Because we know our freedom, the promise of America cannot be fulfilled until everyone in our community has a safe and affordable place to call home.  

I know some of you may feel a little hopeless right now as leaders in our government make cuts to programs and services that help those in our communities with the most basic of needs. Housing for folks at all income levels, food, and healthcare.  

I am here today to tell you I am more hopeful than ever.  

I have hope because our Black and Native American ancestors survived genocide and slavery, Jim Crow, and being unjustly taken away from their families to boarding schools. They did not obey in advance of unjust laws and policy. They fought for their freedom through obstacles many of us can’t even imagine. Their blood and sweat are running through us and demands that we have hope. And we turn that hope into action  

As my good friend Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson reminds us “Hopelessness is the enemy of justice” and “If we don’t have the audacity to believe we can win and have hope, we are doing the opposition's work for them.”  

We know that America was not built on equality or equity and still is suffering from the pains of racism and oppression. I have hope because so many of us are not backing down on diversity, equity, and inclusion and dare I say justice.  We are not backing down because we know those are not bad words just because someone says they are.  

They are the very words that with action behind them will make America live up to its promises—Communities where folks from every background can thrive, policies that ensure equal and equitable access to everyone regardless of their race or background. And homes that allow everyone to be included from our aging parents to our friends with disabilities, and our immigrant neighbors.  

I have hope folks because the attacks housing for everyone, the attacks on our unhoused neighbors are only happening because they know we are winning. We are winning the fight to make home possible for everyone and that threatens some people who have long had the power to decide who gets a safe and affordable place to live.  

We are winning because more people want to see equity, inclusion and diversity in their communities and our work to make home possible for everyone is a path to that beloved community.   

Until freedom does not mean we just fight with our words. It means we build the beloved community that Dr. King envisioned. We will not fight from a place of despair. We will fight and win by building solidarity and organizing for abundant housing with all people for all people.   

We are closer than we’ve ever been and that’s why the opposition fights so fiercely. But I believe there are more folks on the side of freedom and justice. They just need an inclusive space to belong that is free of the burdens that come from fighting for basic needs. In this space lies the possibility to actualize the joyful, liberated world we want for everyone.  

It is dark right now. But my faith tells me joy comes in the morning. Get ready, we have hard work to do. But hard work is joyful work. It is the work of a hopeful people that keeping fighting until freedom.