Too often systems are designed for people, rather than with people, and to solve homelessness this needs to change. We cannot continue to develop strategies to address homelessness without the conscious inclusion of people with lived experience.
Encouragingly, there’s a growing national effort to center lived experience in the work to end and prevent homelessness – and to invest in organizing, access, and leadership development as the basis of building power for individuals and groups to influence systems.
San Jose served as a hub for this movement earlier this month when we co-hosted the National Lived Experience Leadership Conference. The conference was held on the West Coast for the first time, developed in partnership with the National Coalition for the Homeless, who have hosted similar convenings over the years.
Nearly 400 attendees representing 40 states (and Canada!) – more than 75% of whom have lived through homelessness – gathered to build their collective power and learn from each other in solving homelessness in their communities. It was an important and joyful gathering, designed by and for people most impacted by homelessness – those who’ve directly experienced it. The conference also demonstrated a meaningful shift in the value our systems place on firsthand knowledge of homelessness.
I wish I had been able to talk about these things 20 years ago when I was a youth experiencing homelessness,” attendee Nicole said when reflecting on sharing her lived experience in her work in the homeless services field. “We’ve been quiet about our experiences because we have had to be. It has not always been, you know, a welcoming space. It’s only now that we can come out and say, I’ve got lived experience of homelessness, like there wasn’t even a term for that, you know, ten years ago. So it’s beautiful to see and I’m glad that this space exists.”
Conference programming elevated successful tools and strategies from across the country and armed attendees with actionable ways they can drive solutions to homelessness in their communities. Illuminating, for example, how to advocate for policy change at the state and national levels, practical guidance incorporating lived experience into the homeless services workforce and governance boards, and replicable models for co-designing solutions and including residents in the operation, maintenance and management of their living environments.
An art show offered another avenue for expression at this year’s conference, showcasing the work of artists with lived experience of homelessness and/or incarceration. Check out the work and purchase a few of the remaining pieces for yourself.
How Our Local Systems Are Being Improved By Lived Experience
In Santa Clara County over the last decade, our response to homelessness has markedly improved as a result of intentionally sharing power with those who’ve experienced homelessness.
For example, Destination: Home made a $1M investment in the Guadalupe Emergency Interim Housing community, in part so the Lived Experience Advisory Board (LEABsv) had a decision-making role in the site. The group had influence from the beginning and throughout the development process, and is now currently driving policy change. They shaped key elements of the shelter based on their unique perspective of housing insecurity, affecting the design, the ongoing operations and very importantly – the human-centered services that are offered on site.
LEABsv and Destination: Home’s Director of Lived Experience, Claudine Sipili, have since been working with leaders across the country to document these lessons learned and improve interim housing programs, with a specific focus on the inclusion of lived experience. The operator of the Guadalupe Emergency Interim Housing site, LifeMoves, is also deepening its efforts to hire people with firsthand homelessness experience, reducing barriers to their hiring for example.
The Santa Clara County Continuum of Care has also included people with lived experience on its Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) review panel for several years. Meaningful changes have been implemented since their inclusion, including:
- The scoring criteria used to evaluate responses has been changed to focus on outcomes, with greater emphasis on organizations that contribute to higher program utilization and increased housing stability.
- A question related to an organization’s plans to engage people with lived experience of homelessness is also now weighted higher, spurring respondents to think critically about how they include lived experience in their programs and services.
In another example, the system used to connect resources to those most in need – known as the Coordinated Entry System – is undergoing a redesign informed by firsthand homelessness experience. We’ve learned over time that the current system is not assessing needs as equitably as it should and is potentially reinforcing known racial disparities in who experiences homelessness.
For instance, the way questions are currently asked on intake assessments were found to lack cultural awareness and keep some respondents from being honest, in turn diminishing their needs and preventing access to resources that could help them.
Let’s remember that at its core, homelessness is a housing problem, and systemic racism has played a key role in fueling housing instability for large segments of our community. In our community and across the nation, people of color are dramatically more likely than their white counterparts to become homeless.
By centering the lived experience of people of color in policy and program design decisions, we can move to dismantle systemic forces putting people of color at greater risk of homelessness.
Let’s All Acknowledge the Power We Can Share
This is just the tip of the iceberg in the work happening locally and the tremendous potential centering lived experience holds. At Destination: Home we’re committed to building on the ways we share power with those most impacted, strengthening the growing movement of leaders who hold lived experience, and helping others build the practice into their work.
For those not directly involved in the work to end homelessness, there’s a role for you too. Pervasive myths and harmful narratives are standing in the way of real progress on solutions, and dehumanize those pushed into homelessness. Keeping ourselves informed and challenging falsehoods when we hear them is important work toward our shared goal of solving homelessness.
