What if homelessness was a rare occurrence rather than a widespread issue? By addressing homelessness via the Advance to Zero approach, communities and agencies around Australia are working together to reach “functional zero” – where housing and services are available for everyone who needs them.

Australia’s 'Advance to Zero' approach to ending homelessness

In this deeply personal piece for INSP’s ‘Housing for the People’ column, the writer tells a story of displacement and homelessness that spans continents in an attempt to escape the horror of domestic violence and to give her child the chance of a better life, even if it meant experiencing a period of transition living outside first.

Housing for the People: “I was homeless on the road raising a child”

For Vicky Batcher, a regular face with and in Nashville street paper The Contributor, simply liking a Facebook page set her on a road toward a roof of her own over her head. For the latest in INSP’s ‘Housing for the People’ column, she writes about the rush of emotions that experiencing safety and security for the first time in years brought her.

Housing for the People: How an affordable apartment changed my life

Mandee Seeley spent three of her five years in Oregon without a home, living in the national forest with her husband and two children. For the latest instalment of INSP’s ‘Housing for the People’ column, she writes from her personal perspective about the basic requirement of all humans to have a home, and how the system should reflect that.

Housing for the People: “Like the air we breathe, housing is a basic human need”

Gary Barker, who sells Portland street paper Street Roots, writes for the latest in INSP’s Housing for the People – a column that allows those with lived experience of poverty, homelessness and insecure housing tell their story – writes about being “in a hell of my own doing”, but how with the pandemic making the world seem like world was falling apart, circumstances in Gary’s life suddenly made things start to come together. He writes about his work as an ambassador for Street Roots and leading on its MoJo scheme to get vendors into journalism, and how being in housing allows him to “find a way to get problems off my mind”.

Housing for the People: “I came back to life in a time of trouble”

Photo by Alastair Boone. Courtesy of Street Spirit.

The notion that individuals experiencing homelessness are at fault for their own experience and are inherently bad people is a common thread in many cultures, one which crosses over political ideologies. INSP’s North America director Israel Bayer outlines some ways to reframe the conversation over a busy period for those without a place to call home.

Ways to engage your peers, friends and family on the homeless and housing conversation this holiday season

Janiah Miller – an advocate experienced in providing support to political campaigns and offices, assisting in legislative and constituent support, and building intersectional coalitions within the community – writes for INSP’s latest ‘Housing for the People’ column about how the culminating moment of the American Dream – owning a home – is not equitably accessible to all.

Housing for the People: Addressing housing instability with equity in mind

What happens after homelessness? The Big Issue Australia talks with Danni about her 20-year journey from sleeping rough to being housed. 

Danni's long road from homelessness to a place of her own

Brian Augustine, who sells Colorado street paper the Denver VOICE, writes for the latest in INSP’s Housing for the People series about how happenstance, and events outside his control, led to him losing the place he called home. Now, he counts the street paper as his home, and the people who come by his place of work as his family.

Housing for the People: “Until I can make my dream happen…”

In the latest instalment of INSP’s Housing for the People column, Darin Thomas, a participant in The Stewpot’s weekly Writers’ Workshop at Dallas, Texas street paper STREETZine, talks about coming to terms with the fact that he was not to blame for the trauma and violence he experienced as a young boy.

Housing for the People: “Forgiveness was a big eye-opener for me”

For the latest instalment of INSP’s ‘Housing for the People’ column, Denver VOICE contributor Larmarques ‘Misha’ Smith writes about their journey from temporary to stable housing, their experience of shlters throughout the pandemic, and how ensuring housing is a right enjoyed by all should be done intersectionally with multiple goals in mind.

Housing for the People: “We have to go beyond people just attaining housing”

Street Roots vendor Bronwyn Jones Carver has been homeless since a landlord tried to raise her rent by nearly 100 per cent in 2015. Approaching seven years on the streets, she's learned to adapt and reach for new heights.

Housing for the People: “The landlord greed machine”

Mindy Woods and her son were forced to leave their dilapidated and mold infested home when it began to affect their health. Their experience thereafter is a story of lows – navigating the Kafkaesque public housing and benefits rigmarole, facing up to the “embarrassment” of having to tell her son’s teachers they were homeless – but also the high of finally getting a place to call home. A tireless housing and social justice advocate, Mindy shares her story here – as part of INSP’s new ‘Housing for the People’ column – to affect public perception and create policy change.

Housing for the People: “We got into our new apartment right before Christmas – it was the best gift!”

Interweaving her own personal story with evidence of the current homelessness issue in Oregon, columnist Mandee Seeley drafts a heartfelt epistle to the US President about how to properly address the housing crisis. The letter is the latest instalment in INSP’s Housing for the People series.

Housing for the People: “Dear President Biden…”

Tennessee is Vicky Batcher’s home, and it is a place she is witnessing turn against people who don’t have shelter and must make their home on the street, a position she knows all too well from past experience. In the latest in INSP’s Housing for the People column, she writes about the jarring experience of seeing the place you live criminalize homeless people – people Vicky has a kinship with – as Tennessee will do with the passing of a new law.

Housing for the People: “Tennessee’s anti-homelessness law feels like someone ripping our collective hearts out”

Janiah Miller – an advocate experienced in providing support to political campaigns and offices, assisting in legislative and constituent support, and building intersectional coalitions within the community – writes for INSP’s ‘Housing for the People’ column about how the affordable housing crisis remains at a historic nadir and how local organizations must continuously elevate affordable housing and homeownership as top priorities in their communities and bringing them to the attention of those with the power to affect change.

Housing for the People: Housing justice as a central voting issue

The latest column in INSP’s Housing for the People series comes from Vicky Batcher – a writer and vendor for Nashville street paper The Contributor – who has penned a retelling of the story of A Christmas Carol, showing how the holidays have changed for her as her life has changed too.

A Housing for the People Christmas Carol: A roof over my head for the holidays

(left) Mayor and Housing Director of NYC in 1936, artwork funded by WPA Federal Public Housing Administration created 1937; (right) Art Hazelwood and WRAP 2022

Forty years ago, the US federal government slashed affordable housing budgets marking the beginning of the contemporary crisis of homelessness. Paul Boden, executive director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project, writing from the perspective of having experienced homelessness at a young age, outlines the history of social disinvestment in the country since the 80s.

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