A friend of mine posted something last night that made me think and made me a little mad.
I totally agree with this sentiment. Sometimes it feels like society expects us to "make do" with what we've got when what we've got is not enough to meet our challenge. KEJC's small team has performed amazingly during this pandemic and with our partners and allies have helped achieve good outcomes for individuals and systems during a crisis.
But, at every turn, we are rationing our services. Personally, I have felt like I needed to focus almost entirely on evictions to the detriment of my ability to work on the shortcomings of our unemployment insurance program.
That's frustrating because I know people are being hurt every day by unfair, unthinking systems that we could fix if we had the chance.
Today is the last day of the Good Giving Challenge here at KEJC. I'm asking for money because we need money to fight the power and build the power in Kentucky.
I want to tell you a little about what I've been up to with evictions during this pandemic. Multiply this by the 15 other hard-working, full-hearted people at KEJC and spread it across health care, public benefits, workers' rights, immigration, debt collection abuse, housing, and more and that should give you a sense of the incredible scope of work the team at KEJC does every day.
When the Kentucky Supreme Court convened a task force on evictions early in the pandemic, KEJC was invited to participate. I researched and drafted these recommendations. (We still have a lot of work to do to make eviction court processes uniform, safe, and fair for Kentuckians.)
When landlords in northern Kentucky sued in federal court to challenge the Governor's Eviction Moratorium, KEJC wrote and filed an amicus brief. We explained to the Court the flimsiness of the landlords' claims and highlighting all the cases around the nation in which other judges found eviction moratoria like Governor Beshear's to be a reasonable, necessary response to an unprecedented pandemic.
We have sued landlords, built apps, written columns, testified in Frankfort, convened countless training and strategy sessions, represented Kentuckians facing eviction (as written about in the Washington Post), advised partner organizations.
Most recently, we've written a letter to Louisville's Mayor, Greg Fischer, demanding that he order an eviction moratorium in Jefferson County through (at least) March 31st.
We have not done it all: we've done a lot and our best. But, we've been rationing our services. I'm not doing anyone any favors pretending otherwise.
I'm asking for money to fight the power and build the power. We can do both in Kentucky, but not for free.
Please donate today. The Good Giving Challenge ends tonight at midnight.
Thank you so much for supporting KEJC. I really appreciate it.