National Lived Experience Leadership Conference
Answering the Call: Bridging Communities, Systems, and Policy
Held in partnership with the National Coalition for the Homeless, this annual event brings together individuals with lived experience of homelessness, activists and leaders from across the country for three days of connection, learning and leadership development. Attendees will learn from fellow experts and transform lived experience into collective action to solve homelessness.
This year, the conference returns to the West Coast! Here’s what you can expect at #NLELC26:
- Networking events
- Engaging panel discussions and presentations
- Immersive action labs
- Skill-building workshops
- Storytelling opportunities
- Film screenings
- Wellness sessions, healing spaces, self-care activities, and more
Every aspect of this conference – from logistics planning to session themes – is informed and led by people most impacted by this issue.
Registration
Registration opens this June.
Call for Proposals
We are no longer accepting proposals.
Scholarships
Scholarships are available on a limited basis and may cover the conference registration fee, travel, lodging, and other supports needed to ensure full participation. Priority consideration may be given to applicants who:
- Demonstrate how attending the conference would support their leadership, learning, community engagement, or participation in lived experience leadership and advocacy
- Are currently experiencing or have previously experienced homelessness
- Have not previously attended a housing and/or homelessness conference
Submit an application at the link below by Monday, June 1st at 8 PM EST, to be considered for a scholarship.
Thank You to Our Inclusion Partners
We want the conference experience to be as accessible and inclusive as possible for everyone who attends. We’re grateful to the following organizations, whose partnership and support are helping attendees prepare for the event and ensure their meaningful participation throughout the conference.
All Business Class Travel is partnering with Destination: Home to coordinate air and ground travel for attendees of the 2026 National Lived Experience Leadership Conference, helping ensure participants can attend from across the country. With a focus on responsive, coordinated support and flexible billing, they help simplify travel logistics and reduce barriers to participation for lived experience leaders.
In partnership with Destination: Home, Hanna Interpreting Services provides language access support for the 2026 National Lived Experience Leadership Conference to help ensure equitable participation for individuals with Limited English Proficiency (LEP). Leveraging 15 years of expertise and cutting-edge technology, this woman- and minority-owned organization offers interpretation and translation services in 250+ languages.
Homebase partners with public, philanthropic, nonprofit, and other organizations to address barriers to ending homelessness and prioritize the engagement of people with lived experience in the systems that serve them. For the conference, they are supporting planning, facilitation, and speaker preparation to help ensure a strong and well-coordinated experience.
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About the Conference Hosts
National Coalition for the Homeless envisions a world where everyone has a safe decent, affordable and accessible home. Our mission is to prevent and end homelessness while ensuring the immediate needs of those experiencing homelessness are met and their civil rights protected. We believe that safe, decent, and affordable housing is a human right (as written in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article Twenty-Five, Section One).
Destination: Home is an organization
working to end and prevent homelessness
in Silicon Valley. Through a collective impact
model, we incubate new ideas, advocate for
policies, and fund impactful strategies that
address the root causes of homelessness and
ensure that our most vulnerable neighbors
have a stable home.