Highlights from the Housing Justice Team
About this blog
This is a part of an ongoing series to highlight members of the Housing Justice Team, a group of people with lived experience of housing instability or houselessness who want to change our collective housing future.
The group started without a predetermined outcome, and what emerged organically was a space where advocates across the country chose to rely on each other for support and shared-learning while dreaming up our own and our collective impact on our world. Too often, the experience of being someone with lived experience in this work can be isolating and difficult, and we sought to carve out a space where we could dream about a future where we each could grow, make change, and thrive.
Grace Lee Boggs reminds us, “We never know how our small activities will affect others through the invisible fabric of our connectedness. In this exquisitely connected world, it's never a question of 'critical mass.' It's always about critical connections.”
We’ve had the opportunity to experience it together– it’s through these critical connections that we get to live into a part of justice in our time.
About Wendell Williams:
I have 25 years of involvement in the street newspaper movement first as a vendor at Cinninati's Street Vibes and later as a writer winning several awards locally, nationally and internationally with the Washington DC paper Streetsense. I've had my work published in other street papers around the world, twice being nominated for INSP vendor story of the year. In 2019 I received a Dateline Award from the DC Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists for commentary or criticism in a local paper. I was asked to write a DC visitors guide for European papers. Currently hold Virgina Certifcations Board CPRS emeritus status and formally held ACAC certification.
Hear about Wendell’s reflections on being a part of the Housing Justice Team:
I want my project to bring to the forefront the issue of evictions and how they are preventing many from overcoming their homelessness even if they have housing vouchers. It took me years to overcome the damage of multiple evictions before regaining housing. Being on this team has been challenging but also rewarding. It's giving me the opportunity to listen to other’s approaches to solving the growing problem of homelessness whether I totally agree with them or not. Looking back, being a part of this team has helped me grow in ways I never anticipated. And for that I am grateful for the opportunity to serve.
