Advocates nationwide are placing an emphasis on narrative as a means of advancing affordable housing solutions. This California-focused toolkit is one among a wide range of offerings intended to support housing advocates in creating effective narratives to advance housing reforms, including a number of ongoing, longitudinal, empirically-driven research efforts designed to advance housing narrative change.
National Efforts:
- Housing Narrative Lab is sparking conversation about how we can invest in proven solutions that solve our housing crisis and keep people from being forced into homelessness.
- Funders for Housing and Opportunity is supporting several narrative efforts including:
- Media Analysis from the Center for Media and Social Impact, which studied whether and how homelessness and housing security are portrayed in the landscape of U.S. entertainment and news, how the issues are framed, and who is telling the stories of homelessness and housing security.
- Housing Justice Narrative Initiative, a collaboration of Community Change, PolicyLink, and Race Forward, is a resource for organizers, advocates, and community leaders with tools and research to shift the current discussions and debates around housing to advance a vision of racial justice and homes for all.
- “You Don’t Have to Live Here,” from Frameworks Institute in partnership with Enterprise Community Partners, details why common housing messages backfire — and 10 practical things we can do about it.
Statewide Efforts:
- The “California Dream” narrative was identified through research conducted by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s (CZI) Public Opinion and Survey Science research team, in partnership with CZI’s Housing Affordability team. This collaborative effort identified a unifying narrative to shift attitudes and values in support of housing reforms across California. Designed as a resource for housing advocates, CZI’s Public Opinion and Survey Sciences research teams hope this work adds evidence-based depth and breadth to advance pro-housing policies and practices, build on existing expertise from the field, and help ensure every Californian has a safe, stable, and affordable place to call home. This is the research referenced throughout this site and related tools.
Regional/Local Efforts:
- Bay Area Shift the Narrative, a coalition initiative offering research-driven and field-practiced strategies, tactics, and messages to grow public support to change housing and racial justice in the San Francisco Bay Area.
- Everyone In, from United Way of Greater Los Angeles, is a community movement to end the homelessness and housing crisis by building public will for affordable and supportive housing in every part of L.A. County.
- Changing the Narrative of Affordable Housing, from the UC Davis Center for Regional Change in partnership with the California chapter of the AARP and the Sacramento Housing Alliance. This research explores the opposition to and need for affordable housing, with a specific emphasis on the Sacramento region.
