2025 Executive Director Reflection
Hello, Friend!
Every year around this time, I find myself looking out at our city with a kind of winter clarity. The leaves are thinner, the air is sharper—everything feels a little more exposed. It’s in these moments that I’m reminded how much strength and vulnerability can exist side by side—how a city dotted with cranes and new developments, surrounded by thriving neighborhoods with soaring home prices, can also be a place where far too many of our neighbors are struggling just to stay warm.
And while Washington, DC doesn’t have the towering skyscrapers many cities do, we still have long shadows—cast not by buildings, but by inequities that deepen when the safety nets meant to hold people up begin to fray.
This year, those shadows deepened.
Throughout 2025, we have watched decades of progress in housing and human services threatened—not only by deep and painful funding cuts, but by rhetoric and policy shifts that have left many in our community feeling anxious, unsafe, and devalued. Programs that kept families stably housed have been scaled back. The programs that help people move off the streets and into permanent housing are under-resourced, and the social safety net we’ve spent years strengthening is unraveling—thread by thread—leaving those living outside or in shelters with limited options and perpetual uncertainty.
And this year, our supporters and donors have not been spared. Many of you have lost vocations you spent a lifetime pouring yourselves into—roles that weren’t just jobs, but sources of purpose, service, and identity—along with a sense of financial security and stability. You’ve also witnessed deeply unsettling scenes in our city—from armed troops on sidewalks and Metro platforms to neighbors taken away without warning—that have left many feeling fearful and uncertain about what may come next. And because you are people of deep conscience, the suffering of those around you has been impossible to hold at a distance.
At Everyone Home DC, we’ve felt our share of pain this year, too. We’ve had to make difficult choices, stretch every dollar, and carry the weight of knowing that the people who will bear the consequences of program cuts and regressive policy choices most acutely are those who already have the least. And yet—through it all—we have been buoyed by you, our community, that has met this moment with courage, creativity, and compassion.
This year, despite facing significant challenges and anxieties of your own, you have:
- increased your financial contributions, helping to sustain critical programs and meet urgent needs,
- organized supply drives throughout the year that delivered thousands of bottles of water, snacks, and hygiene kits to our unhoused neighbors,
- turned birthdays, community gatherings, and other events into fundraisers for our programs in record numbers, and
- And when key decisions threatened housing access and support for people at risk of or experiencing homelessness, you spoke up—sending letters, making calls, and advocating for the care, dignity, and resources our neighbors deserve.
In the face of adversity, our community leans powerfully into its values of compassion, equity, and shared responsibility for our collective well-being. This year has been hard. However, I take heart in knowing that when public systems fail to protect people, our community steps forward.
When systems fail, neighbors step in to help. When safety nets fray, we become the net.
As we settle into the final weeks of 2025, I hope you find moments to connect with traditions that bring you comfort, joy, and ease. May this time of rest and reflection give us the energy and tenacity to continue the fight ahead in the new year. I hope you know how much your partnership means to me, our staff, and our Board—and to every person whose life has been touched by your generosity and care. Together, we’ll continue to demonstrate what’s possible when a city decides that everyone deserves a home.
With love and gratitude,
Karen Cunningham
Everyone Home DC
Executive Director
