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Guilford for All 2024 Endorsements

E Henderson · September 11, 2024 ·

Who we elect to political office matters deeply to our ability to win tangible, transformative change for ourselves, our neighbors, and our communities.

Teams of members from Guilford for All and our partners at Carolina Federation’s county chapters have researched, interviewed, and scored dozens of candidates running for statewide and local offices in 2024. We deliberated, dialogued, and debated which candidates would give us the better chance of organizing toward our vision of a state where every North Carolinian – no matter our skin color, gender, or zip code – can access freedom, safety, dignity, and belonging.

We are excited to announce our 2024 endorsements for the general election this fall. Learn more about each candidate on our Endorsements Page.

Guilford for All Local Endorsements

David Coates

Board of Education
District 3

Deborah Napper

Board of Education
District 5

Bettye Jenkins

Board of Education
District 7

Carly Cooke

County Commissioner
District 5

Mary Beth Murphy

County Commissioner
District 4

Stephanie Reese

Guilford County Superior Court
District 24B

Jeff Thigpen

Statewide Endorsements

Carolina Federation Chapter members from across the state and elected Federation Council have voted to endorse the following state-level candidates in the Primaries:

Josh Stein

Governor

Justice Allison Riggs

Justice Allison Riggs
NC Supreme Court

Mo Green

NC Superintendent of Public Instruction

Jeff Jackson

Attorney General

Braxton Winston

NC Commissioner of Labor

Jessica Holmes

State Auditor

Wesley Harris

State Treasurer

State Legislative Endorsements

Tanneshia Dukes

NC House
District 59

Marjorie “Margie” Benbow

NC House
District 62

Presidential Endorsement

Kamala Harris

President of the United States

Organizing Works! Winning Nearly $2 Million for Renters in Greensboro

E Henderson · August 15, 2024 ·

During the Greensboro City Council meeting this June, there was an entire section of the seating area s filled with people wearing green, purple, and yellow shirts representing the Keep Gate City Housed campaign, clapping loudly.

We clapped because the city council of Greensboro decided to approve a budget that included $440,000 for the Tenant Education Advocacy and Mediation (TEAM) Program, resourcing it full time and an additional $1.47 million to be earmarked for cash rental assistance.

We clapped for the city council making the right decision, but we were also clapping in celebration of all of the people who made this effort happen through the work of organizing in a coalition led by our friends at the AFSC of the Carolinas. Simply put, organizing is the act of courageously coming together with people you do and don’t know, in solidarity, to build people power and make change towards a shared purpose.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever heard people clap for a city budget vote before,”
– Mayor Nancy Vaughan

How did Guilford for All get involved with the Keep Gate City Housed campaign?

First, we talked to our neighbors

In the summer of 2023, Guilford for All (G4A) and the Carolina Federation spoke with hundreds of our neighbors and invited them to join us to help us craft our People’s Platform. During this process, access to affordable housing was identified as the most pressing issue in Guilford County and across North Carolina. At this same time, our friends at the American Friends Service Committee of the Carolinas (AFSC) were deeply engaged in policy research on the issue of housing and beginning the formation of a campaign to address some of the issues of housing.

Next, we voted to join the Keep Gate City Housed Campaign

After their research, our partners at the AFSC asked us if some of our volunteers and members might be interested in supporting the Keep Gate City Housed campaign to demand that our city council use our city budget to fully fund the TEAM Program. We said yes to this in December, and then in February, G4A hosted a Teach-In for our members and volunteers. On March 3rd, after collaborative discussions with AFSC, our members voted overwhelmingly for G4A to formally join the Keep Gate City Housed campaign alongside the AFSC, faith community partners, and others.

Finally we canvassed, sent postcards to elected officials, and helped lead actions at city hall

After voting to approve the campaign, Guilford for All leaders joined coalition partners at City Council and County Commission budget town halls and one-on-one meetings where the coalition identified elected champions. We worked with AFSC to host an awesome campaign kick off.

We knocked doors and invited people to community conversations in which we identified neighbors who were impacted by housing and were willing to speak out in front of City Hall. Some of them did, bravely sharing their stories in front of our elected leaders. Other members participated in eviction court watch, participated in a mock eviction court, attended delegation meetings with city council members and engaged in many other efforts led by our coalition partners. We talked with over 300 neighbors who signed pledge cards supporting the campaign, and sent over 150 postcards to elected officials supporting the demands.

Lauren Cunningham shares her personal experience with housing insecurity and why we’re fighting for more support for our neighbors facing eviction.

This collective work of all the Keep Gate City Housed coalition partners led to nearly $2 million dollars in our city’s budget to go to supporting renters and prevent evictions that wouldn’t have been included otherwise!

While we celebrate this win, Guilford for All and the Carolina Federation knows there’s more work ahead of us to win the Guilford County and North Carolina we dream of.

Keep Gate City Housed

E Henderson · May 15, 2024 ·

Join us in organizing to change Guilford County’s eviction practices

Let’s transform how evictions work in Guilford County

We are organizing in partnership with AFSC North Carolina to fully fund local programs to prevent homelessness and stop evictions. Together, we’ve been consulting with city staff, county officials, service providers, and recruiting community volunteers to have conversations with hundreds of Greensboro residents over the last three months. We are urging city council to expand access to legal resources and rental assistance.

Last year, about 16,000 Guilford County residents had eviction notices filed against them. Only 10% of those tenants had legal counsel, whereas 90% of the landlords in housing court were represented by attorneys.

In most cases, renters without attorneys—who often owe as little as $200, or are behind on their rent by only a few days—do not know they can appeal their evictions, keeping them housed long enough to repay back rent. They don’t have the basic information that would help them avoid eviction.

By ensuring renters have equal legal representation as landlords, we can significantly decrease eviction rates. For example, UNCG’s TEAM Tenant program provides free legal representation that helps around 30% of tenants avoid eviction in court.

Other cities around the nation realize that eviction prevention is a worthwhile investment. Louisville’s $400,000 investment is motivated by anticipated cost savings. Cleveland invests $3.1 million to collaborate with organizations in offering legal counsel and rental aid.

It’s time for Greensboro and Guilford County to work together to Keep Gate City Housed—we have the opportunity to set an example for the rest of the state, for using our resources to make our neighborhoods safer, more stable and keeping kids in their homes.

We can Keep Gate City Housed by getting City Council to

Contribute $440,000 funding to the TEAM Program
Contribute $1.5 million to rental assistance for families fighting evictions
Support the county in having tenants receive information about the TEAM Program with their court summons

How to Get Involved

Come to the Keep Gate City Housed: City Council Budget Action
Tuesday, June 4
5 – 7:30pm EDT
Sign Up to Attend

Attend a Community Conversation
May 25 or Jun 11
Let us know you’re coming

Let’s transform how evictions work in Guilford county

admin · March 27, 2024 ·

Join TEAM Tenant to Keep Gate City Housed

Guilford County has a housing affordability crisis.

We see the headlines, the tents, the heartbreaking choices our neighbors have to make when they can’t afford or find shelter. Greensboro, High Point and Guilford County together spend well over $12 million on our housing crisis each year – largely to provide support to people who have become homeless. And that doesn’t count the indirect costs measured in local budget line items for school social workers, police officers and others tasked with responding to homelessness.

Someone’s benefiting from the evictions that leave our neighbors unhoused, and it’s not you or me.

The headlines don’t mention how it is that many of our neighbors become homeless due to corporations and landlords treating housing like their own personal piggy bank, and renters like disposable tokens on a game board. In 2022, 16,000 county residents had eviction notices filed against them. 90% did not have legal counsel, whereas 90% of the landlords in eviction court were represented by attorneys. Evictions lead to a number of significant harms to our communities.

1) Evictions destabilize every neighborhood.

Already, every day, children who are homeless attend Guilford County Schools, and staff have shared heartbreaking stories about attempting to help them keep up with other students academically.

2) Evictions make all of us less safe.

They can increase financial instability in the home and increase intimate partner violence, intensify police violence, and exacerbate other forms of gun violence.

3) Evictions lead to homelessness, poor health, job loss.

Preventing them isn’t the only way to keep our neighbors from becoming homeless, but it’s an approach that’s working in other cities, saving them millions of dollars on programs only needed after someone loses their home.

But there’s good news. Have you heard about TEAM?

Currently UNCG is helping to run a program called TEAM to help renters access legal aid, mediation, and for a time, rental assistance. Programs like this have been proven to help more renters stay in their homes and pay less in an eviction crisis.

Local organizers with American Friends Service Committee have been leading a campaign to raise awareness of this program and to identify money from local cities’ budgets to help to fully fund them, prevent homelessness and stop evictions by expanding access to legal resources and rental assistance – and Guilford for All is partnering with them on this campaign. We’ve been consulting with city staff, county officials, service providers, and recruiting community volunteers to have conversations with hundreds of Greensboro residents over the last three months, and we’re ready to fight for our community.

Let’s fight and win strengthened renter protections!

Join Team Tenant

This work cannot be done without you! Whether you’re interested in canvassing to get petition signatures, attending eviction court to observe the issues faced by tenants, or taking part in public actions to lift up the impact of evictions—the success of this campaign depends on the people.

Join Guilford for All Community Conversation

Working people have power in our numbers. Join your neighbors to share a meal, connect about what matters to you, and commit to taking action together.

RSVP

Congratulations Ty and Welcome Carolyn!

Ingrid Chen McCarthy · December 20, 2023 ·

“How do you invest in developing leadership but not in creating dependency of that leadership upon you?”

This quote about leadership from the Civil Rights organizer Marshall Ganz speaks to the importance of having organizations that are leader-full. At Guilford for All and Carolina Federation, we are committed to developing a membership of leaders. The highest decision making body of leaders in our chapter is the steering committee.

In November, one of Guilford For All’s steering committee members, Ty Hall, graduated from the Carolina Federation’s Organizer in Training program and accepted the invitation to serve as a full-time staff chapter organizer with the Guilford for All chapter. We celebrate this accomplishment with her. During Ty’s time on the Guilford steering committee she served as the treasurer and the liaison to the steering committee on the basebuilding and canvassing team. Her achievements include recruiting the most members to the chapter over the last year and helping with drafting the chapter’s first budget and the process to have the chapter vote to adopt that budget. We will miss Ty on the steering committee and we are super excited for her transition to live out her passion for organizing as one of our beloved chapter organizers!

The steering committee can never replace Ty. However, they decided that it is critical to have someone who joined our organization from the powerful basebuilding we did in the Ole Asheboro and Arlington Park neighborhoods to be represented on the steering committee. The committee made the decision to appoint Ty’s successor after a nomination process where Ty and other steering committee members along with chapter organizers recommended members from Ole Asheboro and Arlington Park for the position. Two members were recommended. These members were required to submit a written statement about why they are the right person to serve on the Guilford for All steering committee to fulfill the remainder of Ty’s term through early 2025.

At the December 10 steering committee meeting, Carolyn McNeil gave a riveting speech and was unanimously voted onto the steering committee. Ty and Cecile Crawford nominated Carolyn for the position. Carolyn served on the Safe Streets issue campaign team last fall and recruited the most people from that team to the peak action where we were victorious in getting the City to pick up dozens of bulk trash piles that had been sitting in the community for months and months. She has attended two Federation Leadership Trainings and currently serves on the People Agenda Action Team responsible for our recent town hall event and now our endorsements. Carolyn also won the prestigious leadership award last year at our Federation Convention.

Carolyn had this to say about why she is the right person for the job: “Peace is one of my purposes for a better future for our children, young, and old folks. Recruitment conversations where I got to walk my neighborhood to discuss issues and concerns with my neighbors was one of the most exciting things that I’ve enjoyed over the past two years. Working with this organization gave me a sense of pride.”

Join us at the upcoming January 1 Holiday Party from 3pm – 5pm at 1000 Gorrell Street where you can extend a heartfelt welcome to Carolyn and wish Ty well on their new roles with our organization!