By Stephanie García
Stepping in to translate between landlords and tenants, Kendra Summers saw that her Latino neighbors needed an advocate. The teacher’s aide at Brooklyn’s Maree Garnett Farring Elementary School created Casa Amable — which translates to “Kind Home” — a program that teaches residents new to the U.S. about tenant rights and the housing process regardless of their legal status. In 2019, Summers was awarded an 18-month community fellowship with the Open Society Institute, which provides activists and social entrepreneurs with funding to address problems such as health equity, youth development and criminal justice in underserved Baltimore City communities.