"It's very, very expensive to be poor"
The nonprofit public interest publication BitterSweet Monthly profiled Tzedek DC in its June 2024 issue. The article includes stories from our clients, our fines and fees work, our medical debt project, our Spanish-language outreach program ¡Sin Deudas, Sin Dudas!, and our Young Adult Financial Empowerment Program.
One client, Evelyn, recounts how Tzedek DC “walked me through the paperwork and through the court systems and spoke on my behalf at the council member boards and everything,” and concludes, “I wouldn’t think of anybody else in the world I would want to be by my side.”
The article closes with a generous Editor’s Note from the team at BitterSweet, which is a collaborative counter-narrative published monthly to reject cynicism, defy apathy, and celebrate good: “It's sobering to learn the totality and speed in which a life can be dismantled, the mired weight of debt and the predatory practices and poor policies that allow for it. It's here, deep in the trenches, that we find Tzedek DC.... an outstretched hand in the dark.”
We hope you will read the full article and share it widely. It’s a rich portrait of our work, team members’ perspectives, and, most importantly, the community members we serve.