The Collection

       Monica Kamen is the Advocacy Coordinator of the Fair Budget Coalition (FBC) and has worked with FBC for a year. FBC was founded 21 years ago in response to the deployable financial conditions that existed in the DMV during the 1990s. Mismanagement of the budget by the DC City Council led to DC falling into debt, and eventually, Congress taking control of the budget. During these years, there was a lack of attention paid towards the needs of DC’s impoverished and marginalized. When individual organizations attempted to acquire funding to address these problems, they were repeatedly told “there simply is not enough money in the budget,” or worse, that they would have to pick which issues would receive funding despite the dire need of all their causes. To combat these unjust claim, the various organizations in the DMV decided to unite and together work out a set of budget recommendations that fairly allocates fund between the various needs of the city.  FBC is now comprised of 70 different organizations which advocate for a wide range of issues. 

       One of the guiding principles FBC is self-advocacy. This principle can be seen in the dynamic process FBC follows to create its budget recommendations. First, FBC holds a meeting to speak directly with those impacted by poverty, homelessness, and other circumstance to find out what they believe their needs are. Next, the different organizations of FBC break into “issue groups” based on shared priorities, such a health, food and nutrient, homelessness, jobs, etc. to assess the suggestions of the community and to vote on what they believe are the top 15 priorities. After this, the community is asked to vote on what they believe the top 15 priorities should be. Finally, the top priorities of both the issue groups and the community are sent to the “Steering Committee” which sets the official FBC budget recommendations which are sent to the DC City Council.

      According to Kamen, there are two main categories of challenges FBC faces, internal and external. Internal challenges arise as a consequence of being a nonprofit organization. Often, advocacy organizations inherently propitiate racism. “There is always the dynamic of the ‘old white man’ helping the ‘poor Africa Americans’ rather than empowering them to solve their own problems.” Another internal issue is that many organizations offer temperate remedies to problems instead of providing long term solutions. For example, overnight housing instead of seeking out the means to create affordable housing. This occurrence can be due to a lack of funding, support, or even a lack of vision.

      External challenges arise from the public’s failure to acknowledge that poverty and homelessness are symptoms of the systematic racism at is deeply engrained in the policies and power structure in DC. People often subscribe to the stereotypes that “people in poverty are lazy, are expecting a government handout, or are there because of their own individual failures.” Overwhelmingly, this is not true. “No one in poverty like being poor and no one that is homeless prefers being on the streets. It’s often that they fall victim to a system which they are told would help them but instead only perpetuates their problem. They simply can’t catch a break to get back on their feet.” Kamen used the example of an individual who is unemployed and homeless. In many cases, they are offered job training, but frequently the training is for jobs that are outdated. Other times, the jobs are low paying and individuals are unable to find affordable housing despite being employed.

        FBC has many shared interest with the Black Lives Matter movement. FBC advocated for the importance of “Black jobs, Black housing, Black families, etc.” FBC challenges races policies which are being considered by the DC City Council including a recent victory in which FBC rallied against a policy which would have put more police on the streets of DC. In keeping with its belief of “self-advocacy,” FBC also pushes for the mattering of “Black Leaders.” FBC fights the races structure that exist in the non-profit industry by creating spaces in which Blacks can be the leaders who not only stand up for themselves, but also others who are in need in their community.

     It was different for me to writein an interview style, but I truly enjoyed the experience. It helped me to have pre-written question, but ther interviewee was so good, she took care of answering most of them before I asked them. It was difficult to keep notes and listen at the same time because I became so interested in what she was saying. It was also difficult to write this essay afterward because I did not have the source to refer too, only my notes.