‘Listen Louder’ is a call-to-action for everyone in Santa Cruz County and beyond to put aside their preconceived opinions about homelessness and to actively listen to the voices of people with lived experience.
Community Engagement is the natural extension of the ‘wrap-around services’ that are offered to the program participants at Housing Matters. The same proven framework that embraces, nurtures, and uplifts our participants experiencing homelessness is applied in our public outreach efforts. The Housing Matters Programs team approaches each individual participant from the standpoint of ‘moving at the speed of trust’, which acknowledges that mutual respect and understanding must be built at the rate that is comfortable to facilitate healing.
In our public outreach, we are consistently challenged to face and dismantle social stigmas and misconceptions regarding homelessness. The reality is we’re facing a systemic crisis of lack of empathy and compassion for our unhoused neighbors. Housing Matters’ goal is to provide opportunities for the community to explore the issues surrounding homelessness and its solutions in order to foster trust and compassion and ultimately build a network of allies united in the common goal of working toward collective action.
Last year, the Housing Matters Community Engagement team saw the launch of several new programs including the Neighbors for Neighbors library meetups in partnership with Santa Cruz Public Libraries, and the launch of Community Conversations including a Speakers Bureau, lived experience Story Archive, and feedback loops. These new programs reflect our ongoing efforts to inform and educate by bringing people together, especially people with lived experience of homelessness, so we can better understand the impacts of the issue on everyone in our community. This widening of perspectives is an important part of the shift needed to resolve homelessness..
“Walking into my new place was exhilarating. This made up for the years I tried to escape an abusive relationship. Transitioning was a bit harder. I suffered nightmares for months and anxiety attacks…Now I meditate and am in counseling and energy therapy. I feel stronger. I am defying the odds.” Read Mary’s story here and more stories in Housing Matters’ Story Archive.
The first-ever ‘March to End Homelessness’ earlier this year was a milestone for Housing Matters and the Coalition to End Homelessness, a network of service provider partners. The event highlighted the immense capacity for care and support that our community is able to provide. The outpouring of support from people, service provider partners, and local businesses willing to come together to acknowledge the need to end homelessness was historic and humbling. However, we still have a long road ahead.
Community engagement should include everyone, it is a growing circle of people who believe that housing is a right and rejects the systemic inequity that has abandoned and laid bare our most vulnerable unhoused neighbors. All impacted, interested, and implicated parties need a seat at the table. The people who have historically been excluded from important conversations, the most marginalized, are part of the solution, alongside the voices of the people that we traditionally hear from.
This act of advocacy is not power neutral, yet if we slow down and listen, create the space for everyone to be seen and heard, and acknowledge the power dynamics in the room there is a good chance that we will create lasting change.
We’re applying the ‘wrap-around services’ framework to engage and inform on homelessness issues in the community. This is a holistic approach to resolving homelessness and it is critical to building our network of allies.
We need the whole community to be involved, at every level, to make headway in resolving this crisis. We encourage everyone to engage in our community programs and share that knowledge with your children, friends, co-workers and neighbors to expand our circle. We must rally together to engage and share knowledge in order to address the misunderstandings of the condition of homelessness, expanding our circle of compassionate action to create the shift in perspective that housing is not only a right, but is essential for a whole and healthy community.
For more information on our Listen Louder campaign and to make a donation to Housing Matters, please visit: housingmatterssc.org/listenlouder.
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