Shira helps manage and advance the organization’s economic policy research and advocacy agenda, focusing on building an inclusive economy. Before joining DCFPI, Shira worked as a Senior Policy Fellow for Prosperity Now, where she led strategies to advance policies that build wealth and financial stability and address the racial wealth divide. Previously, she ran programs that helped New Yorkers access public benefits and provided free tax preparation with Seedco. Shira also served two years as an AmeriCorps*VISTA and is a long-time volunteer with Jews United for Justice. Shira holds a bachelor’s in history from Rutgers University and a Master of Public Policy degree from American University.
Labor Day is a day to celebrate workers, but high costs coupled with low wages, federal interference, and chronic racial inequities are hurting many District workers.
The gap between the wealthiest and poorest DC residents has continued unabated, more Black residents have been displaced, and the District has made no progress on chronic racial economic disparities.
To shepherd DC through these tough economic times and drive inclusive growth, the mayor and DMPED should focus on growing DC’s economy from the bottom up and middle out and shoring up the financial wellbeing of the workers who power DC’s economy. Instead, DMPED directs much of the resources in its proposed budget to the corporate elite using disproven trickle-down strategies.
The Council should incorporate lessons from the youth jobs guarantee research and ensure that the proposed programs incorporate robust wraparound supports that mitigate the structural barriers to employment young people face.
By broad measures, the District of Columbia’s economy has often looked strong, but those gauges miss massive differences in wellbeing by race and ethnicity that are chronic. While some residents have high-paying, high-powered jobs and extreme wealth, many other residents struggle to find employment or earn enough to afford DC’s high cost of living. And, in a jurisdiction that is majority people of color, Black and Latino residents have worse economic outcomes than white residents by every measure.
At a time when many DC residents—particularly Black and brown residents and those with low incomes—are in crisis, Mayor Bowser continues to push forward disproven, ineffective trickle-down economic strategies that would further benefit the corporate elite, reduce already tight revenue, and exacerbate racial disparities
El Distrito se robustece cuando abrazamos la diversidad de nuestros orígenes y experiencias y nos unimos con políticas inclusivas que promueven la fortaleza de nuestras comunidades e incrementan el empleo y los salarios para todos.
The Council needs to push for a deal in the interest of residents, rather than giving in to pressure from the mayor, the Commanders, and federal officials to rush the process and spend DC taxpayer money unwisely.
Lawmakers often require a mountain of evidence to be persuaded to invest in programs supporting residents with low incomes—and even then, they often cut them first in tight budgets. And on the other hand, they often swiftly enact business subsidies without solid research evidence they will benefit the District and renew them each year with little oversight.
Just as DC is set to enter a local recession and Congress is advancing historic cuts to health coverage and food assistance, Mayor Bowser is proposing a budget that abandons residents with the fewest resources to fend for themselves in the coming economic downturn.
DC’s unemployment numbers are beginning to reflect the harm of the cuts to the federal government. The District’s unemployment rate rose to 5.8 percent in April 2025 from 5.3 percent just a few months ago in December 2024, according to BLS data.
