Candidate Iyamide House for Bowie City Council

Bowie residents, it’s Election Season!!  Do you know the candidates runners for Ciry Council?  Meet Iyamide House, candidate for Bowie City Council, District 3.

Transcript

Tamara Davis Brown: 0:06

And welcome back to another episode of All Politics is Local with me, your host, Tamara Davis Brown. I know you have been eagerly awaiting and wondering what's going on. We haven't heard a new podcast episode from Tamara in a while. Yes, we took a family vacation, had a great time in Greece, and then life happened, had a little bit of health challenges, but we're all doing well now, and uh we're back. It is election season in the city of Bowie. So I decided that when I come back, I wanted to talk to some of the candidates who are running for office for the City of Bowie, Maryland. And I'm so excited because, as you many of you may know, and if you follow the podcast and subscribe to the podcast, by the way, please do download and subscribe and share the podcast with your friends and neighbors. But the purpose is to really engage our millennials, our next generation of uh voters, of citizens, to get them more engaged, not in just the political process, but public service and government process and how the federal government, state, and local government affects you daily. So again, it is election season in the city of Bowie. I'm excited to uh let you know that elections are Tuesday, November 7th. I always remember that date because November 7th happens to be my father's birthday, and every once in a while the elections fall on my father's birthday. Um, but I'm excited to have with me today Yamade House. She is a candidate for District 3, council member for the city of Bowie. So, welcome, Miss House. Thank you for joining me. We're so excited to hear about you, your candidacy, what you plan to do, not only for the residents of District 3 in Bowie, but the city at large. And so thank you for joining us today. Good morning. Good morning. How are you? I am doing well. So we're gonna jump right in and let the people know. Tell us a little bit about yourself, who you are, where you were born and raised, tell us about your family, whole nine yards.

Iyamide House: 2:28

Awesome, awesome. Thank you so much for having me. Um, I am uh a native New Yorker, so I grew up in the Mid-Hudson Valley, Poughkeepsie, New York. Um, and that is where I attended public school, and that is where um my family was raised me. My mother is actually from Sierra Leone, West Africa, and she moved here when she was 13 and was educated. She started off actually at an HBCU at Bennett, and then she transferred to Wilkes University, where she met my father. And my father is um a native Norfolk, Virginia man, and his his father was worked on a shipyard like lots of people in Norfolk, Virginia, and he um actually went to Wilkes on a wrestling scholarship.

Tamara Davis Brown: 3:18

Oh, wow.

Iyamide House: 3:19

And uh they were two of five black folks at Wilkes University now university. Um, and they after graduation went back to New York and set up home. And so actually, really interestingly enough, they both ended up in education. My father started off as an art teacher. Uh my mother ended up working at the United Nations, but then ended up being an English teacher. She was my only black teacher growing up in middle school. She taught seventh grade English. Um, they subsequently were um became principals. Um, and so my home was a lot of learning, education, um, reading, and it was a great time. I have a younger sister who is also a mental health clinician. She is a social worker, I'm a counselor. Um, after um New York, I went to the school at Johns Hopkins University, and that's what actually brought me to Maryland and has kept me in Maryland. Um, I loved my experience at Johns Hopkins. I loved being um around more um black folks, African folks, so it's like home, um coming to Maryland. Um and at uh Johns Hopkins, um, I was actually the black student union president for a couple of years. Um, and I did everything under the sun of Johns Hopkins from bringing back Greek life. I'm a member of Sigma Gamma Row sorority um to actually, I think it's apropos, I um was a student leader for Project Interchange. Um and it actually had me go to Israel to learn about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And so I was in both Palestine and Israel for a week to learn about that conference in college. Um, and as I left school and graduated and um resided in Maryland, I decided to become a mental health clinician. Got my master's at Johns Hopkins, um, was a school counselor for a bit um in Washington, DC. Um and I also um recently opened my practice, not recently, 2015, I opened up my private practice where I um see professional women. And I also am the mom of three amazing children. I have uh twin five-year-old boys, uh Winston and Langston, and I have a nine-year-old daughter, uh Dillion. And another random thing about me, I love being a soccer mom. It's one of things that bring me great joy. Um, and I'm also learning how to love to be a cheer mom. Cheering is a little bit more intensive. I love I love the girls, um, but it's a little bit more intensive than being a soccer mom. So it's a little bit more about me.

Tamara Davis Brown: 6:11

Excellent, excellent, very good. So, when did you uh move actually move to the city of Bowie?

Iyamide House: 6:18

Yeah, Bowie is a destination in um Prince George's County. I moved to Bowie seven years ago in 2016 and bought my first home. Um, and so I knew I wanted to move to Bowie. I had a friend who lived here and I loved it. I thought it was the cutest little community, and it's like right smack in the middle of Washington, DC and Annapolis. Um, and so 2016 is when I bought my home.

Tamara Davis Brown: 6:46

Okay, very good, very good. And um, is your practice in Bowie as well? You said that you were a you are a mental health clinician, and so tell us a little bit about your practice and and exactly what you do and and is it located, and if you know, we can talk a little bit. I know we're gonna get to the campaign, but talk a little bit about your profession and and and your career and what where where you're located.

Iyamide House: 7:13

Thank you. That's um it's actually um due to the pandemic, my practice is now virtual. Um it's so I can see anybody in Washington, D.C. and mail in because I'm licensed. Um, and you know, because of the pandemic, my office was located in Washington, DC. Um, once the pandemic hit, and we had to go home, and I provided telehealth therapy 100% of the time. Um, that is what I've continued to do, and it actually works for a lot of people. So I see people throughout the region. Again, most of my clients are professional women. Um, so a lot of um women who actually work on the hill, CEOs, lawyers, um, doctors, and even graduate students, college students as well, and I do see men too. Um, but focusing on really a lot of anxiety and depression, um, life transitions. Um, I do see some folks who have personality disorders because I've been highly trained to treat folks with um BPD or borderline personality disorder. Um, and so we also have a clinician who is trained in EMDR. That's a trauma trauma treatment for folks who have um unfortunately experienced lots of trauma that too is evidence-based. Um so a lot of my work is around making sure that everyone is well. I started off as a school counselor working with children, working with adolescents, and I just realized how moms were not focusing on themselves and pouring so much into their children and missing the piece that when we as parents are well, our children are well.

Tamara Davis Brown: 9:02

Right, right, right. Very good, very good. Well, that's very important. And and I think the pandemic only emphasized the need to focus on mental health, not only for students, but caregivers such as parents and so forth. So I applaud you in um in choosing that profession. I know it has to be very difficult. I always said when I started practicing law, I didn't want to do anything that was personal. Because I just couldn't it seems like I I kind of brought that home. I I did clerk for um um an attorney that did personal injury and it those stories kind of just stuck with me, and I was like, I just can't, I can't do this. So I applaud you, hats off to you for uh for being being in that that licensed uh clinical profession and and dealing with uh mental health because now again, like I said, the pandemic has really emphasized that folks are really struggling and and and suffering. And so thank you for your thank you for your service. So let's pivot now a little bit to the campaign. Um what made you decide to run for um District 3? Um council member for the city of Bowie. Uh tell us a little bit about your platform, what you hope to accomplish, and um all the good things of why people in the particularly uh district three residents in the city of Bowie should vote for Yama Day House.

Iyamide House: 10:34

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Well, I um actually, as I just said, I was black student union president many, many, many moons ago. Um and so that always kind of put government in my mind, not necessarily a focus. And so um I actually um the district three last elected person was elected into another role, so it became an opening. Um, and I interviewed for that position back in January because it became an appointed seat. That's that was my tipping tipping my toe. I didn't I didn't get it. It's okay, it was fine, and I moved on with life. Um, and I thought it would have been an interesting job, but that's okay. Um, but then last year um on June 7th, many Bowie residents know that we were shaken because there was an active shooter incident at Bowie High School. Um, and it was one of the most terrifying experiences I've had as a parent getting a text message that your school's locked down, there's an active shooter, um, you know, and that was really it. So, like many of the parents, we ran to the school, our kids were safe, the person was outside, but it knocked knocked on our door, right? As parents, we've seen school shootings around um the country, and it's terrifying and it's upsetting and it's destroyed, it's it makes us distraught. Um, and as a mental health clinician, I was in the parking lot talking to parents, helping parents figure out how they were gonna talk to their kids. Um, you know, really utilizing my profession in that moment when everybody's terrified to figure out like how we're gonna talk to the kids. I'm sure they were scared. There were, you know, armed police officers around our school, thank goodness. Um, but kids came out and they saw that. Um, and so that really ignited in me like, hey, I'm a part of this community. I love my my neighbors, I love my children and their friends and their parents. How can I make sure that we keep our community safe? How can I like participate? And so because I dipped my toe in back in January, I said, you know what? Um I think God is pushing me to really just step up and participate in a way that I know I can really give back and help shape the community moving forward. Um, you know, my tagline is a voice for families because we are so busy with kids and, you know, we're in the sandwich generation where we're taking care of our parents as well, that we are not able to focus on um, you know, politics in the way that we're actively involved. Um, and so that's what really propelled me to say, you know what? Get into the race, get involved because there's a huge swath of the community that isn't able to actively participate. I am the only candidate with school-age children. Um, and I'm also the only woman in this race. Um, so I'm bringing absolutely a different voice. Um, and I'm not sure if you know Tamara, but there's also only one woman on the city council. Um, and so, you know, that's 54% of buoy that is not being um, that doesn't have a voice, right? Like it's not equitable, there's not equitable representation on the council. So that's really what's propelled me to run. Um, and then as I've been talking to folks and um getting more information about what everybody, what's really on everybody's mind, it's really like these big things, right? That's crime, there's an increase in crime in our community, um, and it's hit most of the country, but it's one of the things that makes Bowie feel different because we are a tight-knit, safe community. Um, I've been knocking on doors, and in one community, um, you know, there were four um cars car stolen, uh, people waking up and their cars are gone, right? Um, and which is so different from what people have experienced. So really working with uh the police uh department, but we has their own police department. And one, they are incentivizing people joining the police department, but two, really making sure that we have some more and strengthening community policing, more patrols, um, even deterrents where we can maybe even incentivize uh police officers living in our communities. My community has a police officer who's right in the front of our community, so that's really a great deterrent, but I know lots of communities don't have that. Um, so public safety is one of the things that's really important um to strengthen embowie. The next piece, again, because I'm the only um candidate with school-aged kids, education is highly uh combined. Exactly, exactly. And though city council does not um really have control over the schools, that is the school board. Uh, there's a couple of things that we have to keep in mind. One, Bowie has um some of the best schools in Prince George's County. Um, and one of those schools, well, most of those schools actually haven't been renovated, but one of those schools in particular um has at this point five, uh five or six um trailers because they're so full. Um, and we are we're seeing increased development in Bowie, and that's wonderful. Um, people come to Bowie because of the schools, but our we do not need our classes to be um overpopulated. I was talking to another um resident of District 3, and she said her child has 40 kids in their middle school class, right? And so it we have to really lobby and make sure that our schools uh can handle the breadth of and the increased population of children coming, right? It means newer buildings and how we can lobby to make sure that we get newer buildings, um, how we can make sure that we have affordable aftercare programs. So really incentivizing, um, maybe creating some tax breaks for aftercare programs and daycare programs to come to Buoy and support. Um, that's a big need here. Um, you know, talking to teachers and some of the things that ruffle their feathers a bit is like, you know, people always put their buoy residents always put their kids in private school. And I absolutely understand that because we have some great schools. But at the same time, if all the buoy residents did not put their kids in private school, we wouldn't, we would be very overcrowded, right? Um, and so there's that piece too that I really want to help the the city council understand that we have to take people care of people holistically, right? If we're attracting young families to come, they're coming here because of the schools, that's wonderful because we can then support our seniors and create a bigger tax break to um excuse me, tax base to support our aging population and their needs. Um, but we also have to keep people here. And then that's the other piece. People are moving out of buoy because they can't afford it, right? Um, they need their families are growing, they want to buy bigger homes, and there's they're just being priced out of the community. Um, and so that's another issue that I don't think everybody fully gets the full circle, how everything works together in talking to some folks. So that's one piece. Um, and then the last piece um is hand goes hand in hand. So we've had we've talked a little bit about the development and the housing development, but also economic development. Um, district three, particularly, is where the town center of Bowie is located. Um, and we've seen a lot of businesses leave to go to other places or close their doors. And we know that nationally retail um brick and mortar stores are really struggling. Um, but all the other pieces, people are also not necessarily shopping in Bowie because other cities have bigger box stores. Um, and uh that's really another issue is creating um a strong retail base um for district three. And so one of the other things that I'm going to um really appeal and advocate for is for Bowie to have a streamlined permitting process to help increase um or decrease, excuse me, the time period it takes to open a brick and mortar store, especially in um in District Three. So help uh the city create a liaison between us and the council to really increase uh one, the amount of stores that come in, but to decrease the time they they have uh to open.

Tamara Davis Brown: 20:04

I can see why um your tagline uh is a voice for buoy families, because um quite frankly, uh although I'm not a buoy resident, I have not heard someone really take on that holistic look at families. And like you said, you're um being a mom of of young school-aged children as well, um, you kind of understand that holistic need. And I think the fact that you are a licensed um mental health clinician, you hear about some of the issues that that um working mothers, uh working women are are dealing with, and so you I think you will bring a breath of fresh air to the uh Bowie City Council in that regard. I love your platform, I love your platform. Um with that, um, as I mentioned uh earlier and at the at the top of um in in the introduction that we're really trying to reach um the younger generation and really trying to encourage them. What do you say to buoy residents who say, you know, I don't want to vote, it doesn't matter, you know, look what's going on on on the hill. Uh, you know, just you know, folks, you know, it's so um bitter and partisan, um, it just seems like my voice is not being heard. What do you say to encourage them, not only one, to to exercise their right to vote and to vote for you specifically, obviously, but really what could they do as a younger generation to ensure their feet f future politically or just even if it's not politically, just being actively engaged and understanding what's going on in their local government. I hope you uh hope that wasn't too much of a mouthful.

Iyamide House: 22:00

Uh absolutely. I I think one of the things that I said earlier and when I started was people get busy, right? Life is really difficult. Um, one thing I love about this younger generation um is that they are informed, they are smart, um, and they are really kind of bucking the system and systematic norms, right? Even this whole like work from home piece that they are making sure that they understand that businesses understand I'm going to work from home, I will come in three days a week, not five, and really standing on that. Um, so they, the younger generation, I guess myself included, I feel a little bit like a zenial, um, are really great advocates for themselves. I think one thing that we have to understand is that government, especially local government, is about the people. And so that's another piece that I want to make sure is that I am bringing folks with me. Um, you know, sometimes government feels like this othered um experience and it feels like it's not inclusive, it feels like it's not about you, it feels like something that somebody else should do. And I think it's been it's been created that way on purpose, where in previous generations people were more actively engaged. But as a younger person, it really has felt like that's something my parents do. Or even we've seen like kind of like the partisan news networks and the kind of the collapse of just um objective and informed communication. Um, we're seeing that like it doesn't feel inclusive. So one thing that I think politicians in general need to do, and I'm I love seeing the younger politicians in Prince George's County, is to make it feel inclusive and making all these different groups of people feel like they're apart. Um I am less educated on um how politics is taught nowadays. I know things have revamped, it's been it's been a little bit, and my kids haven't learned politics in school. But one of the things that I know I learned in one semester in high school was politics and government. But I don't know why it was just one semester. This is uh this is our right as citizens to be informed and to learn about how to make laws possible. And so um you what would be really exciting to you to know is that I've actually been invited by Bowie High School to come and speak it with their young Democrats. Isn't that amazing?

Tamara Davis Brown: 25:02

Oh awesome. Yes, yes, yes.

Iyamide House: 25:04

Um so I think one, you know, really keeping the lines of communication open with the youth on all levels, not just during election season, but bringing them on. I've I've had my children come out and knock doors with me. I've had teenagers come out and knock doors with me to let them know that they are a part of the process. And it is about conversation and communication with your neighbors, right? Um, one thing that Bowie has that I love is just a strong community, and that's what I really want to make sure that we maintain as we get bigger and bigger and bigger. Exactly, exactly.

Tamara Davis Brown: 25:47

Well, that's awesome. That is so um refreshing to hear. I remember I started the um Democratic Club at Gwyn Park High School years ago, and um so excited to see those students. A lot of them went on to college. I wrote letters of recommendations for them, and they were involved in student government. So um hats off to you to uh for engaging with the young Dems at Bowie High School. I know that's um that's that's quite an honor. Um so we're about to to to close out. I do want um voters and residents of uh the city of Bowie, particularly District Three, to find out a little bit more how they can learn about your campaign, um learn about you know your social media handles, all of those things. And one thing I forgot to ask on the top, but I know that it's on your website. Can you describe you did um mention that the town center is in district three, but describe the actual little um communities that comprise of district three as well, and then um help close us out with some maybe upcoming campaign events. And um I do want to give a shout out because I I did peep your website a little bit and I saw you had some great endorsements from our state's attorney, your fellow Soror, um Sigma Gamma Row, Aisha Brave Boy. I saw that one of the at-large school board members is also um endorsing you. Um, and I I you know I think that's great. And I think it was one other person, I can't remember. Um, but feel free to uh talk about your endorsements and who's supporting you as well. So um first let's start out, let's start out by um um mentioning some of the communities that district three covers in in the city of Bowie.

Iyamide House: 27:40

So there are a bunch of communities, but I will go through the list. So District Three that polls at Bowie Gym would be Allen Pond Townhomes, Bowie Commons, uh Brookdale, uh Woodward Estates, Dixon's Crossing, Enfield Chase, Evergreen Estates, Northview, Princeton Square, Oak Pond, Old Stage, Spring Meadows, Westview, Woodmore Estates, and Woodmore Highlands. And then at the City Hall, where you would vote if that's your polling place. Um, that would be the Bowie Town Center Condos, Covington, Enfield Chase, Enslay, Esington, Evergreen Apartments, Governor Green Apartments, Heather Hills, Heather Ridge Apartments, Long Leaf Palisades, Spatuxton Overlook, Penn Oak Village Senior Apartments, Vistas at Bowie, the Willows, and Woodland Lake Condos.

Tamara Davis Brown: 28:32

Oh, wow, that is a um that is a lot of communities. I did see there was a kind of a quote unquote laundry list list of them. All right, so tell us um before we end with where they can get your social media handles, if you've got some um upcoming um political dates of um campaign activities that you'd like to share, uh please do so now. Thanks. Okay.

Iyamide House: 28:54

Um, so also again, I have been endorsed by Progressive Maryland, by the state's attorney, um, Aisha Brave Boy, by um state delegate Tiffany Alston, by at-large Prince George's County School Board member Jocelyn Route. So those are some of the political endorsements that I have received. Thank you so much. You can find out more about me at houseforbui.com, and that's the handles for everything. So House for Buoy on Facebook, House for Bowie on Instagram. Um, and then I do have a fundraiser, a family photo shoot fundraiser this Thursday, um, October 19th from 6 to 8 at M Lounge Studios in Bowie. Uh that same night I will actually be at a Covington um community event at the Covington Recreation Center. They're having a panel to meet all of the candidates. So I will be there. And then um that's just this week. So there's more things coming up, but it will be on my website.

Tamara Davis Brown: 29:51

Absolutely excellent, excellent, excellent. So I want to thank our guest today, Ms. Yamade House. She is a candidate for District 3. You heard all those communities. I don't remember any of them, but I just know it's near the Bowie Town Center area. So if you live near the uh Bowie Town Center area, this is a candidate that you should definitely investigate and look into. Again, her all her handles are a house for buoy. Thank you everyone for listening. Again, please do subscribe, like, and share this podcast. All politics is local with me, your host, Cameron Davis Brown.