Justice is Everyone’s Responsibility

This week, the Trump Administration moved forward with undoing protections for trans* people seeking shelter and announced that it will be terminating the entirety of the Affirmatively Further Fair Housing (AFFH) Rule. 

This is simply the latest in bigoted and racist policymaking in action and we have to name it as such. These cynical and desperate actions are part of the Administration’s latest election cycle attempt to appeal to the darkest aspects of our nation while explicitly arguing for a return to segregation and stoking transphobia in communities.

Some of you have heard me say this before but I want to be clear once again: justice is everyone’s responsibility. We cannot rely on the federal government to shine the light ahead for us. In fact, the federal government has never played that role. It was always the people of this nation, in community, working tirelessly to advance the causes of justice that the federal government eventually responded to. Abolitionists laid the groundwork for freeing the slaves, suffragettes for expanding the right to vote. Again and again the true ideals of this nation, the hopes that it represents, have been upheld not by the government but by the people. 

So I’m asking you to do the work anyway. If the federal government won’t enforce anti-discrimination regulations for people of color and trans* people then we will. The NIS Center for Housing Justice and the rest of our team stand ready to assist you in creating your own local regulatory and legislative frameworks to drive fair housing and protect the rights of marginalized communities. We’re ready to help you design and implement plans to counter bigotry and to prove that the people of this nation are ready to step towards justice and anti-racism.

Please reach out to us directly if you need help with this vital work in community. 

But we also need you to speak up federally. We must clearly put into the record that we, as a nation, do not support this administration. Our partners at True Colors United, the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the National Alliance to End Homelessness, and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities are leading the charge in D.C. and need your support.  Please engage with their advocacy initiatives underway and visit https://housingsaveslives.org/ to submit a public comment in support of the Equal Access Rule and circulate widely to your partners over the next 60 days.

Marc Dones