Advocates in the Spotlight: Sakara Remmu

Many people, from staff and board members to conference attendees and members, work with the Coalition to help us achieve our mission. “Advocates in the Spotlight” celebrates different types of advocates, from people in the field to those behind-the-scenes working in our office every day. We continue this series by interviewing Sakara Remmu of the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance, an NLIHC state coalition partner. With a long history of advocacy work and independent reporting and blogging, Sakara Remmu now leads the Voter Engagement Plan for the Housing Alliance as their Outreach and Mobilization Manager.

You have worked on a wide range of social issues such as race and youth gun and gang violence. How has your advocacy work shaped your life, or vice versa? And as an advocate, why is housing an important issue for you?

Professionally I have worked at many different levels of advocacy.  Personally, I have focused on issues impacting communities of color in the greater Seattle area, to shed light primarily on education and public safety disparities, particularly youth, gun and gang violence.

I love working for and with nonprofits, and I enjoy all that comes with working for a state-wide advocacy organization. When the opportunity to join the Housing Alliance came up, I didn’t hesitate. I’ve had my own experiences with homelessness and housing insecurity, and have seen the impact of policy decisions and budget cuts in my communities.  Washington state is recovering from the economic crisis at a rate slower than that of the majority of the country, and working families are being squeezed from every direction. Stable, healthy housing in a safe community should be a given for everyone. Being able to put my passion, expertise and energy behind such a critical issue, and for such a highly respected organization- that’s a dream job. Having said all of that, I think for me, ultimately, it isn’t necessarily advocacy work that has shaped my life, but my life that has shaped my advocacy work.

Blogs have emerged as a powerful platform for advocates to voice their opinions and to educate and empower others, and your popular blog Sable Verity did just that. What tips do you have for successful advocacy both for blogging and with other social media platforms?

Blogging is a surprisingly controversial aspect of community journalism. Just the term “blogging” makes some people sigh and roll their eyes. There are a lot of questions about ethics and journalistic integrity; is what is written opinion, or is it fact? If you want to be a respected voice, you have to know the issue- not just what your opinion of it is. You need to know how to message the issue in a way that is impactful.  I started the blog during the 2008 presidential campaign. I was frustrated about the superficial examination of the impact of race in the election, and in the country. I wanted to lend a more pointed perspective. So I was writing about the same things others were, but I was saying things that weren’t otherwise being said.  After the election I started taking on more community-based issues. Blogging morphed into a locally syndicated column in print, and then social commentary and featured stories for a local radio station.  I only had those opportunities because I made sure I knew the issues I was talking and writing about. And I had great mentors. So, know the issue, learn from others, and study your [social media] platform.  And also, know your limits. I put an incredible amount of time into writing and radio, and am very proud of what I was able to accomplish, but prior to joining the Housing Alliance a few months ago, I chose to stop that work. It was a hard decision but I don’t regret it.

You lead the voter engagement project at the Housing Alliance. Why is Voterization especially important for housing advocates?

As an organization, we work tirelessly for policy that supports affordable housing and an end to homelessness. But as I said earlier, Washington is slow to recover from the economic downturn. $10.5 billion has been cut from the budget. Those aren’t just arbitrary line items in a budget. Those dollars represent the quality of our communities, and whether or not people have enough to eat, whether working parents can afford to take their kids to the doctor, and whether those kids are getting a comprehensive education. Those dollars also represent cuts to the homelessness and affordable housing services. Bottom line, with our state’s current tax structure, there aren’t enough dollars to go around. Some lawmakers pay less attention to communities that do not have active voters, and historically, that includes people living in affordable housing, or who are experiencing homelessness.  We have to turn that tide. Empowering and engaging people who otherwise aren’t encouraged to participate in voting, strengthens our collective voice.

With so many projects, your advocacy work must keep you very busy so thank you for taking the time to talk with us! One last question: would you share with us what a day in the life of Sakara is like?

Oh boy. Tough question. My morning routine is…routine.  I enjoy going to work every day, but I am not a morning person.  I’m guilty of hitting the snooze button a couple times, but even then I wake up early because I like to have some time to catch up on the news, and it’s almost the only time the house is silent. After that, the focus is on getting kids up and out the door with everything they need.

I manage the Housing Alliance’s Outreach and Mobilization team, which means I’m responsible for my own work load, and also for guiding, managing and supporting the work of others. Meeting with members, connecting with community partners, developing program materials or meeting with funders- it’s a never-ending process and every day is a deadline. Working for the Housing Alliance is like the extreme sport of advocacy and epitomizes the term “multitasking.”

Whenever possible, I leave work at work at the end of the day.  That can be a mental challenge because there’s always “just one more” thing I could do.  I’m sure everyone can relate to that! But part of what is important to me, and something the Housing Alliance values as well, is work-life balance. So every day I practice not thinking about work, and hanging out with family.  Easier said than done, but so rewarding!

This interview has been condensed and edited.

Advocates in the Spotlight: Angela Lariviere and the Youth Empowerment Program

Many people, from staff and board members to conference attendees and members, work with the Coalition to help us achieve our mission. “Advocates in the Spotlight” celebrates different types of advocates, from people in the field to those behind-the-scenes working in our office every day. See the rest of the series here. 

Imagine studying for the SATs in a homeless shelter. Or finding yourself traveling the country alone at 18 because the law says you’re too old for foster care. Or relying on distant relatives for temporary housing while your parents try to transition from homelessness to stability. You’re imagining what it’s like to be a homeless child.

Angela Lariviere, once homeless herself growing up, saw just how many Ohio children were growing up homeless as an AmeriCorps volunteer working at COHHIO, an NLIHC state coalition partner in Columbus. She realized she hadn’t been as alone as she thought, and that she was in a position to help.

Ethan, Ben, Angela, Shane and Lashonda

Angela joined with homeless youth she met in Ohio homeless shelters to form the Youth Empowerment Program, a grassroots network of young people experiencing homelessness that addresses the needs of homeless, transitioning and unaccompanied youth age 11-24. A youth-directed organization, YEP’s goal is to prevent and end youth homelessness through state, local and federal advocacy.

We caught up with Angela and four YEP youth- Ben, Lashonda, Ethan and Shane- during their recent visit to Washington, D.C. to meet with Representative Steve Stivers (R-OH) and tour the nation’s capital.

The five advocates looked tired from a long morning of travel, but their passion for advocacy and helping homeless youth shined through during our interview.

It was clear that for Ben, who became homeless through aging out of foster care, the opportunity to advocate for his own and other YEP members’ needs was empowering and validating. He spoke eloquently about the need not to manage the crisis of youth homelessness, but to prevent it. He explained that the five focus issues of YEP- housing, education, foster care, physical and mental health, and juvenile justice- must all be addressed in order to end youth homelessness. “It’s all interconnected,” Ben said. “It’s not just one thing [homeless] youth face.”

Lashonda has been involved with YEP since meeting Angela in her AmeriCorps days 11 years ago. She saw the power of advocacy first-hand when shelter regulations meant her 13 year old brother would not be able to stay in the women and children’s shelter with Lashonda and their mother, because of his age. Her brother spoke to lawmakers and paved the way for this rule to be changed, making it easier for homeless families to stay together. Lashonda credits her involvement with YEP for her extensive knowledge of housing and homelessness issues, and for helping her become more comfortable offering her own experiences in order to help others.

Angela emphasized that a key focus of YEP is advocating for policy that accounts for the true circumstances of homeless youth. YEP is governed by homeless youth, and YEP used focus groups and surveys of homeless youth to develop its advocacy agenda and identify necessary policy changes. YEP youth are empowered not just to tell the stories of their lives, but to become leaders in advocacy and social change.

The camaraderie among Angela and the YEP youth was evident, and they all made clear that YEP functioned as a support network for its members as well as being an engine of advocacy. YEP youth use Facebook to keep in touch with each other and make sure to reach out to those experiencing hardship. They learn to rely on each other, and to be relied on. Angela explained how vital this support is to homeless youth, as it is “constantly a conflict to pull out of” the circumstances that cause homelessness.

Affordable housing, of course, is a key issue and at the top of YEP’s advocacy priorities. “Housing is a sense of stability,” Lashonda said. “Instability in your life leads to other [negative] things.”

Are you as inspired by Angela and YEP as we are? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Advocates in the Spotlight: Michael Dahl

Many people, from staff and board members to conference attendees and members, work with the Coalition to help us achieve our mission. “Advocates in the Spotlight” celebrates different types of advocates, from people in the field to those behind-the-scenes working in our office every day. We continue this series by interviewing an advocate who has been doing a lot of spotlighting of his own, Michael Dahl of St. Paul, Minnesota.

As part of his “Talk About Home” project, Michael has been interviewing a wide range of pedestrians walking around the Twin Cities about the meaning of home and their response to the extreme levels of homelessness in their state. Videos of the interviews are posted on his website, which he hopes help make affordable housing and ending homelessness major issues during the 2012 election.

Our Communications Project Manager Sarah Brundage recently got Michael to take some time off from interviewing people on the streets of Minnesota, and got him on the other end of the camera to ask him a few questions of her own about his hands-on advocacy work.

The man behind the camera

SB: “Talk about Home” is a really exciting and engaging project. What does advocacy mean to you and how did your personal experience of advocacy inspire this idea?

MD: Advocacy has always been my thing and my drive has been to work on affordable housing issues. My advocacy has also been very drawn to being participatory…. We’re not going to get major change on issues unless we involve the public in a way we’re not doing right now. The reason we’re not doing that is because [we think] housing is so confusing and people won’t understand what we’re talking about. I wanted to put that to test and so I started thinking about what would happen if I went out and interviewed people.

When I started interviewing individuals it was beautiful in some ways; in other ways it was heart wrenching. I just decided to keep that up, and hopefully learn some lessons that I could teach advocates about how to communicate with people about housing in a way that they can understand it.

And while people do talk about housing differently, when they talk about affordable housing and homelessness they have a really good sense of it. People might not use the same words that we use but they know how to make sense of the problem.

SB: We were excited to see that you had used data from NLIHC’s annual Out of Reach report to help introduce this project on your website. You referenced Minnesota’s Housing Wage of $15.50 to show how low-wage workers cannot afford to live in that state. As a long-time affordable housing advocate, what role has Out of Reach has played in your advocacy work?

MD: Ever since I’ve been aware of Out of Reach I’ve been using it, and I’ve been using it a lot. It’s a really simple way to talk to anybody – whether it’s people on the streets, people living in housing or politicians – they understand that someone has to work to afford housing in most cases, and that full-time work often doesn’t pay for what we would consider quality housing.

SB: Unfortunately the state of affordable housing as described by Out of Reach has not improved much over the years. Do the report and the Housing Wage still surprise you?

MD: In some respects it’s what I’ve grown to expect since the numbers haven’t changed dramatically over the past few years. Even though they’re not headed in a good direction, I want to know that we’re not moving the ball forward enough right now, and that we need policies to do that. The Out of Reach report is a really good indicator of, “Are our policies being effective or not?”

The reason we’re not being effective enough isn’t because we don’t know how to do policy or because we don’t have answers or because we haven’t gotten politicians to pay enough attention to what the solutions are so far…. They key to getting politicians to pay attention is to not have just me talking about affordable housing, homelessness and Out of Reach data, it’s to have the public talking about it.

Two or three times a week, Michael “panhandles” for videotaped interviews about the meaning of “home”. While most of those interviewed are from Minnesota, he’s also talked to people from at least a dozen other states as well as visitors from Britain, Venezuela, and Costa Rica.

SB: You have interviewed over 100 individuals already. What would you say is the greatest take-away?

MD: I have people identify what they think about home and do they have particular memories, and it doesn’t matter if the person is well off, has an intact family or is homeless, I’d say 98% of them identify home as something they really love. We have this common good feeling about home, and when I ask people about those memories and I get them to think about the bigger issue they start to think, “What would it be like if I didn’t have this security, that place to go to, if I never cooked with mom, what happened if I lived in a car?” I’ve seen people grappling with the fact that what they have if they’re doing okay right now is not something that a lot of people have and it’s getting worse. And if they’re homeless, they still realize how important stability is, and how they’re not able to get out of their homeless situation because of the lack of stability.

So my advice, my punch line, the thing I want to get to for advocates and politicians that care about housing issues is… we’re still going to have to use the acronyms and the legislative speech in certain circles, but if we want to get the public behind us on a major policy initiative, we need to talk about how people can’t rely on home as a place of safety, as a place to go back to. Those are important things to people and a lot of folks don’t have it.

I hope that we find a way to talk about this in ways that really resonate with the public because as the interviews show, they’re ready to talk about this. They understand it.

Click on the image to watch one of Michael’s favorite interviews featuring Timothy, a man experiencing homelessness who gave an “extremely thoughtful and empathetic interview.”

Watch more interviews at www.speakforwe.com/talk-about-home and stay tuned for tips from Michael on how you can start your own “Talk About Home” project locally, coming soon!

New Series: Advocates in the Spotlight

Many people, from staff and board members to conference attendees and members, work with the Coalition to help us achieve our mission. Today’s post is the first in an ongoing series spotlighting different types of advocates on our blog, from people in the field to those behind-the-scenes working in our office every day. 

To kick off this new  series, we turned to a long-time staff member who recently took on a new role at the Coalition.

Name: La’Teashia Sykes

Relation: NLIHC State Coalition Project Director

As the new State Coalition Project Director, how would you describe the project in your own words?
The project is essential to the work we do here at NLIHC. It allows us to work closely with premier state-wide organizations that are dedicated to making sure those with the greatest need have affordable and decent homes. Our state coalition partners inform our work with knowledge of what’s happening on the ground and we provide support for them to do their work at the state and federal levels. When I think about how NLIHC and our partners work together, it really is a true partnership!

You have been with NLIHC for 4 1/2 years now, starting as a Policy Intern and then moving to work on the Outreach Team. What are you most excited for with your new position?
As a policy intern, I had the opportunity to immerse myself in specific policies and pieces of legislation we work on. As an Outreach Associate, I primarily worked to engage our members in our work and mobilize our field base. As the Director of the State Coalition Project I get to combine my previous experiences with NLIHC into one, hone these skills and develop new ones.  Also, our partners have a wealth of knowledge and experience. I’m excited to learn from these folks and work with them toward our mission.

Are there any specific goals you might have for state partners or for the project as a whole?
My constant goal is to discover unique opportunities to support the work of partners with the resources we have. I also want to collaborate with our networks in SD, TN, MS, NV, MT, WV, MD, OK, ID, IA – all states in which we do not have a partner – to cultivate statewide organizations for partnership. I invite any advocates in those states to reach out to me with suggestions of housing advocacy organizations that share the same mission as NLIHC!

My favorite NLIHC resource is… Out of Reach. I like how this annual report breaks down housing information by state and by county. It’s a great tool to place in the hands of local advocates, and our state partners are the ones who both use the resource to its full potential and get the word out so others can too.

I am a housing advocate because… housing is essential to life and one’s ability to succeed in this life. Something so important should be financially attainable, healthy, and safe for everyone, especially those with the lowest incomes.

To learn more about NLIHC’s State Coalition project, visit www.nlihc.org/whatwedo/outreach/state.