I was lucky to be invited by Congressman Dwight Evans to attend this year’s State of the Union, the first one since 2020 where members of congress could invite a guest. Before we went to the receptions, I spent a half hour with the Congressman, a tireless champion of affordable housing, updating him and his staff about the home preservation and housing justice work of Rebuilding Together Philadelphia, the nonprofit I lead.

“If you noticed I have on a red apron. This whole event got to our community, got to the Dunlap neighborhood because of the Red Apron Ladies. They’re a group of ladies around the corner right now giving out food to our community. That food was given out all winter long even though we did not have a building…”