Who Are We?

The Homelessness Solidarity Network is composed of community organizers and organizations from across Washtenaw county that serve unhoused & housing insecure people. Our members include people who are currently and have previously been unhoused, people who are unstably housed, and people who are dedicated to being their friends and allies. 

We recognize that homelessness is a symptom of greater societal problems that define our time. There is no individual factor that causes homelessness. Homelessness is built into the social and economic fabric of our country since before it was founded. It is a result of the culture that instituted slavery and colonized this land. It is a result of the dehumanizing government and corporations that have inherited it, which prioritize profit over people and the planet. It is a result of the violence, oppression and isolation that they propagate. Homelessness is a natural consequence of the destruction of community.

We meet the 2nd Wednesday of every month at 11am in person and via Zoom to share information, resources and mobilize our collective power. (Check out our Member Events Calendar and our Community Events Calendar.)

Our Mission

We work to foster communication, support, and action between the unhoused community, individual advocates, and grassroots & emerging nonprofit service providers serving the unhoused and housing insecure communities.

Our Vision

We envision a system of flourishing, interdependent changemakers that facilitate access to dignified, self-determined housing and a sense of home for everyone.  

Our Values

• Collaboration – Working with those closest to us, with those most affected, and with those whose struggles resonate with ours – we are more effective when working together. 
• Service – When there is need, we seek to fulfill; where there is suffering, we seek to alleviate; where there is harm, we seek to repair; where there is injustice, we seek remedy. 
• Respect – We acknowledge the inherent and holistic dignity of all people, and seek to instill this regard in others.  
• Sustainability – Housing and homelessness are not short term problems, and our response must be designed for the long-term. 
• Creativity – Innovative thinking, inspiration from the unexpected, and the arts – creativity fuels the novel, impactful solutions that arise from the grassroots.
• Nonviolence – We seek solutions that uphold peace, particularly those that challenge formalized and accepted forms of violence.

Our Points Of Unity

Community First 

Our network commits to a community first orientation to the work of reducing the strain associated with homelessness. We offer this as an alternative to the popular conception of “housing first” that dominates the current conversation around homelessness. We know that for housing options to remain sustainable long-term for those who have experienced the trauma and loss associated with homelessness, regardless of cause or duration, are unlikely to be successful without lasting, meaningful, informed support. 

Housing Choice

Residents should be able to choose from a diversity of safe and legal housing options to meet their needs in well-resourced and inclusive communities. Temporary shelter, single-room occupancy, home ownership, cooperative housing, affordable rental housing, permanent supportive housing, recovery and transitional housing, vouchers with priv – people’s needs vary and change, and they should have options available to them at every step of the way. Housing choice includes respect for those who make the decision to live outdoors or in tents as a lifeway that best suits their particular needs.

Harm Reduction 

Homelessness Solidarity Network is devoted to widespread application of the concept of harm reduction. First in its original capacity – alleviating a measure of the negative impact of substance use on users through techniques including clean needles, NARCAN, safe injection sites, intentional urban design, and more. Rather than focusing on “stopping addiction” or “ending drug use”, harm reduction focuses on the people affected now. 

In its expanded form, we believe in applying harm reduction thinking to a multitude of domains. How can we reduce the harm associated with the homelessness currently happening in our communities? We can offer shelter, food, places to get warm and do laundry, comforting warm showers, friendship, and hope. None of these things end homelessness, for the individual or the world, but they do reduce the associated trauma and thereby decrease barriers to meaningful recovery. 

How can we apply harm reduction concepts elsewhere? The justice system, the food system, education?

• By elevating the voices of those with lived experience on their needs and issues
• By valuing people meaningfully, holistically, and visibly 
• By creating and engaging in deep and authentic community
• By promoting social justice in a diverse but unified struggle
• By removing barriers and refusing to engage in coercive practices
• By celebrating improvements as defined by those impacted

List adapted from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Harm Reduction Framework

Systems-Level Change

If we continue to simply address the needs of the moment, hoping that conditions will improve, we will find ourselves facing a never ending uphill climb. We exist in a system at large that does not prioritize the needs of the marginalized. So our work must balance harm reduction with taking action to alter the structures and forces that shape our experience. 

Our system consists of laws, elected officials, committees, businesses and their stakeholders, nonprofits and their boards. Our system is composed of values and culture. We believe in and work towards change in all of these aspects. Rather than focus on “ending homelessness”, we seek to replace the systems that create and uphold homelessness.  

Diversity of Methods

To alter those systems, we may engage in civic participation, political advocacy, social activism, community-building, creative expression, artistic interpretation, alternative lifeways, transformative enterprises, and more.  

We recognize that no individual or organization has a one-size-fits-all solution for society’s most pressing challenges. We stand united in values and cause. We can share and learn from each others’ perspectives to become the most informed, capable advocates and organizers we can be.

Our Service Areas

Shelter & hospitality	Food	Advocacy
Community safety & alternatives to policing	Substance use/abuse support, harm reduction	Peer support
Financial & employment support	Community-based education	Reentry support for incarcerated people