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Homelessness Awareness Month Community Forum - Changing the Narrative: Creating Positive Discourse on Family Homelessness

The third session of the Homelessness Awareness Month Community Forum focused on the narrative surrounding families experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity today. The negative discourse and rising racism we see today fosters government inaction and is not based on the factual realities of housing and serving those experiencing homelessness and housing loss. It has fostered a political crisis in the United States and ignores the possibility for effective, collective policy solutions. In support of enabling a new, fact-based, positive public discourse, panelists demonstrated the need to tailor messaging to different types of local and regional audiences. Rather than thinking of the issues with reference to a uniform public, a more nuanced and multivalent approach toward engagement will be required, one which accounts for the different perspectives held by those supportive of individuals and families experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity and affordable housing, those in opposition, and those who are more ambivalent. While accounting for these differences in perceptions, panelists agree that it is important to frame the narrative in a positive manner that focuses on the benefits of affordable housing for individuals and families experiencing homelessness. The discussion emphasized the work and benefits of a better organization among those trying to create a more positive narrative. 

Questions considered in this session were: What is the broader public narrative and depictions surrounding people experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity? What cases are there of political figures attempting to portray homelessness and affordable housing in a positive or negative discourse? What optimal narrative examples exist which portray people, particularly families, experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity in a positive discourse? How can these examples be scaled and replicated to advance housing and racial justice in the Bay Area? How can we permanently change the narrative of those experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity through a racial equity lens?

Agenda 

12:00-12:05 Opening 

12:05-12:20 Session 1 

  • Sheryl Davis, Executive Director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission

12:20-12:35 Session 2 

  • Alina Harway, Communications Director of the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California (NPH)

12:35-12:50 Session 3 

12:50-13:00 Closing Q&A 

Meet the Speakers

Resources for Attendees