The Opportunity Starts at Home (OSAH) campaign, OSAH steering committee member Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and OSAH state partner Prosperity Indiana joined a panel in a session at the Urban Institute’s Housing Justice Summit on June 7 to discuss the impact of multisector partnerships on advancing housing justice. The session, “Impact toward Housing Justice through Multisector Bridge Building,” was the opening plenary event at the second and final day of the summit, which was held in Washington, D.C.
The panel was moderated by Mary Cunningham, senior vice president for research management and program development at the Urban Institute, and included national, state, and local perspectives on building a multi-sector housing justice movement.
Chantelle Wilkinson, OSAH campaign director, shared the history of the OSAH campaign and its expansion over the past six years. Dr. Sabrina Johnson, senior housing policy advocate at NRDC, discussed why housing justice is an environmental justice issue and detailed NRDC’s commitment to advancing green affordable housing solutions. Hale Crumley, policy manager at Prosperity Indiana, explained the benefits of multi-sector coalition building at the state level and highlighted effective engagement strategies to sustain long-term partnerships. Cynthia Nagendra, who led a team participating in the Urban Institute Just Home Project as the deputy director of strategy and planning on the executive leadership team at the City and County of San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, shared best practices learned from her team’s work to advance community-driven efforts to break the links between housing instability and jail incarceration.
All panelists discussed how housing justice is a vehicle for ending systemic racism, how their partners contribute to this aim, and what the role of research and evidence are in authentic relationship building.
A key takeaway from the panel was the importance of empathy in multi-sector partnerships. In discussing relationship building and the need to be considerate of partner capacity, Chantelle explained that “considering each other outside and inside the work leads to our vision of thriving communities.”
The panel was streamed live for virtual attendees. Watch a recording of the event here.