East Bay Homebridge Connect is a grassroots group of people both housed and unhoused who support and advocate for people experiencing homelessness.
History
The root of the homelessness problem in California is that there is a sizeable housing shortage, rendering those who are most financially vulnerable homeless. To address this, a small group had formed in early 2020 to create a course to be offered through local parishes, guiding people in affordable housing advocacy. The group was committed to using restorative justice models in the course, and including people who experienced homelessness as both students and organizers. People from three parishes, one local encampment, and one local university law professor coordinated together for the course. A date was set to begin in spring of 2020.
Registrations were being taken in March, when covid shelter-in-place orders were given. A bewildered, frightened population retreated into their homes. Food distribution programs, often relying on senior volunteers, closed. Libraries and cafes, places where unhoused people can charge their phones and use the bathroom, closed. No one was sure at the time what would happen if someone was seen on the street. Would they be arrested? Some unhoused people went in hiding, without food or water or access to information or support. The housing advocacy course was put on hold, and those who had gathered to organize it were receiving frantic updates from an unhoused member of the team, who was using her bicycle to locate vulnerable friends, and connecting with other team members to help with basic needs and advocacy. This was the beginning of a crash course for all housed people involved in what people facing homelessness experience, what steps community members can take to help, and what parts of our social and government systems are harmful, even deadly, and perpetuate rather than alleviate homelessness.
Lived Experience
People with lived experience of homelessness are critically important in our group and work. Without the input and sharing of life stories from such members, the housed people in the group, who may be better resourced, do not have the wisdom or knowledge to apply their resources or talents and skills in ways that are helpful and treat people with dignity. We firmly believe that in order to offer any effective program addressing homelessness, people who have that life experience need to be among the decision makers. Their knowledge and care for others sharing the experience is indispensable.
Imagine for a moment a program ostensibly seeking to address racism that not only does not seek input from anyone who has experienced it, but that it actually degrades those who have. Or a program to support the LGBTQ community that doesn’t have anyone running it who is actually from that community. That sounds so strange doesn’t it? Even like it’s more about hate than about support? And yet many, many programs set up to address homelessness are run by housed people who have always been housed. Unhoused people are often not listened to when they say what is not working and why, because they are instead criminalized, infantilized, and dehumanized, even within the programs supposedly designed for them.
Our society “sweeps” people away like garbage, or “abates” people like rats or mosquitoes. Unhoused people do not have a legal place to go, do not have similar legal protections from harm as housed people do, and very few housed people care about the safety of someone who is unhoused. If our government entities, city and state, regularly engage in this behavior, it’s because of voters who expect and demand it. However, it should not be looked at any differently than other forms of hate against other marginalized groups. Decisions about the well-being of individuals of a marginalized group should never be made without centering the voices of those living that experience.
Direct Support
Some members of our team are providing direct support, such as bringing food, water, and supplies to encampments and other places where unhoused people are living. Importantly, the people who show up regularly to offer help with basic needs, also offer a positive human connection, someone who cares enough to come, and to keep coming. Someone who is listening, witnessing, and trying to relay the needs they witness to those who are afraid to come and make that direct connection themselves.
Some critics say that this enables people to remain unhoused. However, people seeking housing in our area wait years and go through a system that is horrifically complex and crushing to navigate and little help is actually given in navigating it. Some are not considered high risk enough to receive a housing match at all. A minimum wage job does not afford market rate housing, nor do disability payments, even if one is disabled and lucky enough to have successfully undergone the difficult process to receive them. People over fifty are the fastest expanding demographic to be unhoused, which is unsurprising as again, the high cost of housing is the driver of homelessness and as people age out of the labor force their income goes down. To deny basic needs such as food and water, and at the same time to deny shelter and housing by not allowing it to be built in sufficient quantity, is a cruel torture, even a death sentence.
Advocacy
Advocacy is one of the most important components of our group. Different members of our group have different advocacy strengths, and all are valuable. Some are able to be very vocal about their lived experiences, and our group gives added support for their brave outreach. This has resulted in public recognition, career opportunities, and invitations to speak, be on committees, and serve on boards.
Some are good at letter writing. At times, we are writing to local officials, whether elected or administrative, to bring the perspective to the table that some of our members personally live and other members witness. We are usually not doing letter writing in the form of petitions, or in scenarios where there are staff screening and categorizing incoming messages and shielding the intended recipient from the statements. Rather, we try to reach people who are reachable as people.
Some have strong networks of relationships and help members of our group to build relationships in new places. Through such efforts, we’ve been able to meet with government administrators and organizers of nonprofits with whom unhoused people are struggling because of policy or staff or structural shortcomings.
Some are artists who use their studio practice to bear witness and connect with the public. Sometimes we’ve also recorded people’s experiences and connected people with legal council. Some members have made a point of being present when sweeps or evictions of unhoused people are taking place, to assist people and press back on law enforcement violations of protocol.
Restorative Justice
We alternate our planning meetings with group restorative justice circles. These circles help us in processing the difficulties we experience in this living and witnessing homelessness, and in difficulties we may be experiencing in other parts of our lives. Everything is connected. The circles bring us closer together in an environment that reinforces dignity and care.
We also aim to bring restorative principles to our Homebridge Connect work. We are not looking to make judgments on people but to make healing and restoring broken connections possible. We make space for trauma and the difficult expressions that presents. We try to be present to listen, and to be with others in their own life experiences.
Locations
Presently, Homebridge Connect is operating in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area in California, with most members present in the Hayward, Castro Valley, and San Leandro areas. We also have presence in West Oakland in contact with the Wood Street Commons community, and some presence in Alameda.
Participate & Contribute
Wherever you are, we invite you to join us in this work. Here are ways you can:
In the East Bay, In Person: Contact us to join in on our weekly planning meetings that alternate with restorative justice circles. Planning meetings help us share information, experiences, support, and coordinate responses.
Out of the East Bay, In Person: Connect with us to begin exploring ways that you can reach out in your own area, perhaps form a similar grassroots group that draws from people with lived experiences with allies. Or perhaps connect with a group in your area that is already using these principals. You may want to attend some of our meetings, and you’re welcome to walk with us as your efforts grow and deepen.
Financial Support: Check back here soon for a donation link.