Housing Narrative Lab

? GOOD NEWS OF THE WEEK! ? With so much going on in the world right now, it's important to celebrate the wins! In 2024, San Diego County launched the Homelessness Diversion Program, which was designed to help prevent people from becoming homelessness -- a key step to reducing the number of people who don't have a stable home. The program provides one-time financial assistance toward expenses such as security deposits, short-term rental support or car repairs. Since its launch in January 2024, the program has helped nearly 600 San Diegans, with an average cost of just $1,660 per person. Read more about the program: https://lnkd.in/gS3jn8PV

This opinion by Ann Oliva reminds us that we are living with the results of the massive cuts to HUD in the 70s and 80s. "As HUD's programs and staff were cut to the bone, critically important housing protections disappeared from thousands of households in need. It is not a coincidence that the modern homelessness phenomenon exploded precisely during this era." https://lnkd.in/efCg9bq6

Welcome to Kriselle Gabriel, our new social media consultant! Kriselle brings great experience from different industries and we are looking forward to the fresh perspectives she will bring to the Lab. We are so excited to have Kriselle on the team.

Yes! Connect with people by focusing on values (safety, love, belonging, fairness) and then show how the systems we need to change aren't supporting people's values. Then offer a clear solution. Thanks Rick Dean. #HousingCA

The nurse who draws your blood, the delivery driver bringing you toiletries, the retail worker ringing you up - these are all people being pushed into homelessness. But we don't talk about why they don't make enough and never will to get stable housing, and there's a reason. "Framing homelessness as a result of personal failings didn’t just make it easier to dismiss; it was also less politically threatening. It obscured the socioeconomic roots of the crisis and shifted blame onto its victims." This is the narrative we need to shift. It's time to shift our focus to the root causes and create a country where everyone has a safe and affordable place to live. https://lnkd.in/e6Zj49GB https://lnkd.in/e6Zj49GB

?? LIVE FROM THE BIG APPLE, SAY HELLO TO OUR STORYTELLERS! We are so excited to partner with the NYC Fund to End Youth & Family Homelessness on the I ?? Home: NYC Story Exchange. Through this program, six storytellers will create and share stories about housing issues impacting the city and highlight solutions so every New Yorker has the dignity and safety of a stable home. These diverse storytellers use a range of mediums, from social media, video, and photography to podcasting and spoken word. We can’t wait to share their stories with you. Learn more https://lnkd.in/gE-n9HGN #NewYorkCity #NYC #homelessness #housinginstability

Marisol Bello explains that making $7 an hour with $3,000 a month rent, leaving foster care with no support, fleeing violence at home are root causes that folks don't always mention when they share their stories about becoming homeless and the choices they made. Thanks to Invisible People for this important conversation.

The Lab ?? NYC Fund to End Youth & Family Homelessness and its amazing partners who are doing the deep work to tell the NY story we want and need - so that every New Yorker has the dignity and safety of a home. Great job Grover Wehman-Brown and Marisol Bello.

My friend Jesse Rabinowitz is the inspiration for this piece - we can be good ancestors with our words when we tell the story of us. As the lovely children’s book Be A Good Ancestor tells us, words become expressions, expressions stories, stories narratives and narratives truth. Now is the time for each of us to tell the narratives that are truth.

Check out the latest from Marisol Bello, who explains that this hard moment requires us to being good ancestors and tell the story of “us,” the story of what we want and how we get there. https://lnkd.in/dCDmAA5z