Staff Column | Keep the Faith

In community development, faith is not a luxury—it’s a necessity.

For more than 25 years, The Coalition has worked to preserve and expand access to affordable housing, support and resource small businesses, build strong career pathways, and move residents toward economic mobility here in DC, but the road has never been smooth. For decades, our field has weathered countless storms: waves of doubt about whether our work makes a measurable impact, ever-shifting funding priorities, programs built on shaky foundations, and political climates that often treat our efforts with indifference—or even hostility.

And yet, we’re still here. Not just standing, but building.

Why? Because those of us doing the work are the ones closest to the realities on the ground. We don’t just see the need—we feel it intimately in partnership with the communities we serve. We know the potential of our neighbors in Wards 7 & 8 who are ready for living-wage careers but facing limited options east of the river. We know the struggles of the entrepreneurs in Columbia Heights with bold visions of business ownership, but massive barriers to accessing capital and navigating regulations. We know the heartache of the families in Brentwood and Congress Heights who simply need housing they can afford and a shot at stability to become economically independent. We know the highs and lows of this city, the promise and hope it holds, and more importantly, we know who needs our work and faith the most.

Our knowledge, connectedness, and experience give us a responsibility. In times like these—when the path forward feels uncertain, when resources are scarce when rhetoric overshadows results—we must be the torchbearers. We must not only carry forward the programs, the ideas, the interventions that we know work because we’ve seen them change lives; but also prove they work. We must remind our stakeholders, our policymakers, and our own partners that this work is not a passing phase. It is a long game. It’s generational. And it’s worth every bit of effort.

More than anything, we must keep the faith.

Faith in what’s possible. Faith in the people we serve. Faith in each other.

Our resolve is what sustains the work. It’s what holds the line when systems threaten to backslide. And it’s what protects communities that too often are directly in the line of fire and don’t have the luxury to “wait it out” while the rest of the world catches up to what society really needs to be vibrant, thriving, and economically stable.

Let’s be clear: the communities we serve cannot afford us to be marginal. Under-resourced District residents deserve better—not someday, but now. And we, the ones doing the work, are best positioned to walk with them, fight with them, and build with them to achieve it.

So, no matter the obstacles, we will stay rooted in purpose. We will stay bold and innovative in our strategies. And we will stay faithful to the mission.

Because we know what’s at stake. And we know who we do this for.

Let’s keep going.