Regina Howard lives in the Bronx, New York City. She works for Dress for Success, an organization that helps low-income women with professional clothing, career services, and one-on-one support. Howard is the kind of person many women looking for jobs would want to meet—compassionate and no-nonsense. She sees her work as a ministry. Although Dress for Success is not a religious organization, “I get to give women real tangible things that they need right now,” Howard says. “Jesus didn’t say sit in a pew… He said you have to work in your community.”
Howard never forgets that she might very well havecome to Dress for Success as a client rather than asan employee. She, her husband James, and their fourchildren have benefited from the EITC for severa lyears now. For Regina Howard, the organization’smission helps balance her relatively low salary.She brings to her work an insistence on treating allclients with dignity and respect. “I have four children,”she says, “so sometimes people see me and think, ‘Oh,there goes another one.’ They don’t know that I have amaster’s degree and have been to culinary school andtaught children and have been a social worker.”
Howard makes a compelling case for the EITC as acash refund: “You can’t pay your phone bill with foodstamps or WIC—you need cash. And if you’re a familythat’s working really hard, and you’re doing the bestyou can, and for whatever reason the jobs that youhave aren’t getting you to the bigger salary, at leastyou have the EITC as a resource. You are workingconsistently, and you are valuable to your communitybecause you contribute every day.”
She adds that since eligibility for the EITC is basedon salary, hopefully at some point people will nolonger need it, because they will earn enough moneyto take care of their needs.
Howard uses her own experiences to help herclients as they become employed. She explains how important it is to savemoney—to be in charge of one’s own paycheck and finances. A credit cardcompany should not be the actual owner of your money, she tells the womenwho come in.
Her family’s EITC refund goes directly into savings. After a couple ofmonths, they decide what they really need to do with the money. One year,Howard was downsized from her job as a social worker, so the EITC refundwas especially needed. The money paid overdue rent as well as utility bills.?
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