Nurturing Communities Through Wraparound Support and Care

At Bread for the City—a DC Bar Foundation grantee partner—their mission is to help DC residents living with low income to develop their power to determine the future of their own communities. By providing food, clothing, medical care, and legal and social services, they help reduce the burden of poverty. Part of their mission and vision is to “seek justice through community organizing and public advocacy”.

In this Q&A with Su Sie Ju, legal director at Bread for the City, she shares how their client-centered and holistic service approach benefits DC residents who need it most.

How does Bread for the City put its “client-centered” approach into practice?

Bread for the City embodies a “client-centered” approach as praxis through our shared vision of Washington, DC, as a nurturing community where all residents have access to the basic resources they need for survival and growth, and for the prosperity of their social, emotional, and spiritual lives. Our work is rooted in clients' needs, as voiced by them, and we are deeply committed to treating every person with the dignity and respect they deserve. To this end, client-centeredness is woven into every fabric of Bread for the City. We practice it in our building design, programming, social services, medical care, and legal representation.

Tell me about the work Bread for the City is doing with the DC Housing Authority to renovate properties throughout the District.

Bread for the City has long worked with public housing tenants. For example, for several years, we have supported the residents at Kenilworth Courts throughout its redevelopment by the DC Housing Authority (DCHA). We provided “Know Your Rights” training and materials to inform residents about relocation options and the legal implications of any redevelopment-related lawsuits. We supported residents in their advocacy for favorable right-to-return terms, ensuring they don’t face barriers when moving back into redeveloped units. Last fall, the first phase of the redevelopment of Kenilworth Courts was completed. Bread remains engaged with the resident council and looks forward to providing support to tenants until the entire property is renovated. 

Recently, DCHA received funding to renovate properties with severe housing code violations. We remain committed to working with public housing residents to advocate for them and ensure their needs remain at the forefront of these renovation discussions. Furthermore, we plan to continue participating in advocates’ meetings with DCHA to provide meaningful feedback to DCHA based on input from public housing tenants.  

How has Bread for the City helped DC tenants with housing subsidy recertifications?  

In 2025, nonprofit housing providers issued a warning that DC was at risk of losing most of its affordable housing due to high outstanding rental balances, which, in turn, would lead to a lapse of project-based subsidies attached to the units. At one large subsidized housing complex, Bread’s work with tenants uncovered what was really happening: while tenants did their part to complete recertification, problems within property management, issues with third-party recertification contractors, the property’s loss of tenant documents, and other issues prevented recertification.

Bread for the City, in partnership with another DC legal services group and a community-based organization, focused on this one apartment complex, hosting meetings with tenants, providing a “Know Your Rights and Obligations” recertification training, and holding regular meetings with property management to provide feedback and improve the recertification process for tenants. Bread also hosted and staffed a recertification assistance phone line.

Tenant leaders shared that our involvement was a tremendous help in getting management to change harmful behaviors that were creating unnecessary barriers to tenants recertifying. Through collaboration with tenants, organizers, and advocates, Bread helped to prevent the lapse of project-based subsidies at this large affordable housing complex and preserve the housing of dozens of tenants. 

Can you share an example of how Bread’s wraparound service model makes a difference for a household?

Mr. Taylor (name changed for confidentiality) was a Bread medical patient and received food monthly from Bread’s food pantry. When his primary care doctor learned of his housing and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), Mr. Taylor was connected to Bread’s legal clinic. The public benefits team helped him obtain his full monthly SSDI benefit. A housing attorney resolved his eviction case in court and reinstated his rent subsidy by completing outstanding recertifications. Due to his mental health needs, Mr. Taylor also received Bread’s Representative Payee services* to manage his SSDI benefit, ensuring his rent was paid and his yearly subsidy recertification was completed. Thanks to these services—all provided under one roof—Mr. Taylor is now thriving and no longer faces housing instability. 

Despite persisting challenges that nonprofits are known to face, what is something that Bread for the City is looking forward to in the year ahead? 

Bread for the City's legal clinic, along with its partner legal services organizations across DC, is taking this moment as a strategic opportunity to deepen our efforts so we can provide needed services to our client community. This is a time when we have to meet people where they are. A big concern, not only for those of us in this work but for our community, is the threat of residents being forced off vital government assistance programs, like Medicaid and SNAP, through work requirements and other historically oppressive approaches to restrict access. We've already seen success in our multiservice approach, working together across our legal, social, medical, and food programs, to ensure no one in our community falls through any widening cracks in the system.

*Bread for the City’s Representative Payee Program (RPP) provides payee services, under a contract with the DC Department of Behavioral Health (DBH), to consumers with chronic mental illness who are referred by a case manager of DBH or an affiliated Core Service Agency.