LISTENING SERIES

Home is a Human Right was an online conversation series featuring leaders from the movement for homeless rights in New York City. Between January and March of 2021, we produced three live zoom episodes, each one featuring a conversation between an activist or advocate who has experienced homelessness and another guest with perspective on how structural racism and economic inequity has resulted in widespread homelessness in our city. Nearly one hundred thousand New Yorkers are currently homeless, and 86% of people in the NYC shelter system self-identify as Black or brown— homelessness is an engineered crisis, and homelessness is racist. By creating a platform for the voices of individuals with direct experience of being homeless and fighting for the right to housing, the series aimed to amplify the leadership of those who know the most about what is broken within our society and to generate a citywide conversation about how we might collectively work together to repair it. Donations made to this project primarily fund stipends to compensate interviewees for sharing their wisdom and perspectives, with a very small amount going to additional production costs and website fees.

MOVING SUPPORT

The Moving Support Project helps formerly unhoused people secure furniture to make their new space into a real home. We work with people who have finally secured housing to determine what they want from their new home, and then acquire furnishings to fulfill their wishlist. We pay special attention to the desired style of furniture, and reach out to people selling things online and convince them to donate their items. On move days, a group of volunteers mobilizes to drive a 14-ft truck around the city, pick up furniture, bring it to the new home, and help organize the space. The project has developed an inventory system to provide our movees with a Freestore Cataloge, from which they can choose furniture and household items according to their taste. The inventory from our Freestore is hosted in a storage unit in South Williamsburg, which was generously donated to us by StorageMart.

We receive more requests for furniture than we can fulfill, the main limit being people power. We welcome volunteers in all capacities, from joining on a moving day to help transport furniture to taking part in the behind the scenes organizing that makes a move happen. To volunteer, fill out this form. Spending the day moving furniture and transforming someone’s home is both satisfying and incredibly fun.

With more storage capacity we could expand our ability to store donations— any leads on donated storage space can be sent to movingsupport@homeisahumanright.com. And we always accept donations to our fund for moving truck rentals, which can be sent directly to the Open Collective for the team.

HOUSING SEARCH SUPPORT

Confront housing discrimination by helping a fellow New Yorker secure a safe and affordable apartment!

The Housing Search Support Project is a mutual aid endeavor helping New Yorkers who have experienced homelessness or housing insecurity to secure safe and affordable apartments. Finding an apartment is hard, and managing this with a rental assistance voucher is even harder, as landlords and brokers commonly discriminate against people with vouchers, based on prejudices and assumptions about people who have experienced housing instability. Working to fight this bigotry and exclusion, the project pairs volunteers 1-on-1 with housing seekers to work in solidarity on the housing search.Each partnership is unique, but volunteer activities can include searching apartment listings on sites like Zillow and StreetEasy, calling brokers to set up appointments, reporting discrimination by landlords or brokers, and providing moral support in the challenge of finding affordable housing in New York City. Housing Search Support is a project done in coalition with Neighbors Together and The Safety Net Project of the Urban Justice Center, and Unlock.nyc. If you are interested in helping someone secure an apartment, you can get in touch right HERE.