Interview with Kristal Thompson
Kristal Thompson is an advocate, a person with lived experience, and a person with physical disabilities. Each of those identities shapes how she moves through the world, how she shows up in her community and in the movement for housing justice.
“I’m still learning to own that,” Thompson says, reflecting on living with “invisible” disabilities. “Not allowing those disabilities to define me, but also not allowing other people’s perspectives to define me either.” Thompson’s experiences with housing instability, combined with navigating life with disabilities, pushed her to better understand systems that often overlook or exclude people who are marginalized based on identity and ability. What began as personal survival became something broader.
In her advocacy, Kristal has used her voice as a powerful tool for connection, healing, and change. When Thompson reflects on the idea of “collective strength through adversity,” she does not think only of struggle. She thinks of community. She describes the relationships she has built with fellow tenant leaders, particularly through national organizing spaces, as a kind of chosen family. In those spaces, people show up strong but also carry unseen burdens. Through trust and care, they support one another in ways that make the work sustainable.
“Even when we don’t say what we’re going through, we’re strengthening each other,” she says. “It’s about checking in, making space, and reminding each other it’s okay if you don’t have it to give today.” For Thompson, that kind of community is essential to both liberation and healing. While she began her advocacy work at the statewide level, she made a conscious decision in recent years to become more engaged locally, in her own neighborhood. That shift changed her in unexpected ways.
“I realized I needed to know what was happening in my own community,” she says. Getting involved locally allowed Thompson to connect more deeply with her neighbors and, importantly, to share her full story. Like many who have experienced housing instability, she initially carried hesitation about being open. But once she began speaking her truth, something shifted. “It’s like I could finally exhale,” she says. “I could fully, authentically be myself.”
That authenticity became part of her healing. Each time she speaks, whether in community meetings or policy spaces, she feels the impact not only externally, but internally as well. “It’s a part of my healing process,” she says. “Even when there are tears, those tears are freeing.”
Still, Thompson is thoughtful about what healing means. For her, it is not about erasing the past. “I don’t think I ever want to be completely healed from it,” she says. “That experience is part of who I am.”
Instead, she sees healing as acceptance, as carrying those experiences forward in a way that fuels growth and purpose. That perspective allows her to remain grounded while continuing to step into new spaces. In her organizing work, Thompson has also learned hard lessons about power, representation, and authenticity. Being invited to the table, she says, is not always enough. “Just because you’re invited doesn’t mean they understand why they need you there,” she explains.
Early on in her advocacy work, she was simply grateful to be included. But over time, she began asking deeper questions. Do people want her full self, or just her story? Are they valuing her lived experience in a meaningful way, or treating it as a checkbox? “Do you want my story, or do you want Kristal?”
That distinction matters. Thompson emphasizes that people with lived experience are more than the hardest moments of their lives. She speaks openly about reclaiming the fullness of her identity, including her education, her professional background, and her personal passions. “I’m more than that one part of my story,” she says. That clarity has helped her set boundaries, including saying no to spaces that do not honor her truth. It is a lesson she now shares with others. “It’s okay to say no,” she says. “It’s okay to say not right now.”
For those organizing on the front lines, Thompson offers simple but powerful advice: Stay in your truth. Systems, structures, and expectations can pull people away from why they started this work in the first place. “Be true to yourself,” she says. “And take time to step back and ask, is this still honoring my truth?” That reflection is necessary for growth. Sometimes it means evolving within a space you are in. Other times, it means stepping away entirely. “If it’s not aligned anymore, it’s okay to move on,” she says.
At its core, Thompson’s message is about self-awareness, courage, and collective care. Advocacy is not just about policy change. It is about people, their stories, and their ability to show up fully as themselves. Like so many tenant leaders, her work is rooted in a belief that change begins within. “You have to be able to look at yourself at the end of the day and know you showed up in your truth,” she says.
In communities across the country, that truth is building power. It is creating space for healing, for connection, and for voices that have too often been ignored. And through leaders like Kristal Thompson, it is a reminder that collective strength comes from the courage to own your story and use it to make change.