Inclusive Houser Network
We are thrilled to share the creation of a new collaborative that The Kelsey is convening. It is called the Inclusive Houser Network, an impressive group of organizations developing or operating disability-forward, inclusive housing across the country. Our first quarterly Zoom meeting was on September 15th. Everyone is engaged, excited and ready to get to work. We can’t wait to see where this new path takes us.
About
The nation faces a historic housing crisis that disproportionately impacts people with disabilities. The need for housing options that are affordable, accessible and truly inclusive for people with and without disabilities cannot be overstated. The Inclusive Houser Network is an industry group of organizations actively building or operating disability-forward inclusive housing in order to align efforts, increase field capacity, and partner on shared program and policy initiatives that can improve housing outcomes for people with disabilities.
Goals
- Build an industry group of organizations developing or operating inclusive housing for individuals with and without disabilities across the United States
- Create and advance a shared policy agenda centered around disability housing development that is affordable, accessible, and inclusive
- Growing the field of advocates focused on disability-forward housing and policy
- A network that shares resources, best practices and new initiatives
Values
Our work together will be solution-oriented, actionable, and inclusion-focused, specifically through the following values:
- Inclusion: Our collective work strives to create truly integrated housing within communities, where a wide diversity of people can feel included, valued, and seen. Our approaches recognize the dark history and current realities of forced segregation and institutionalization of people with disabilities.
- Transparency: Our work involves collaborative open sourcing, resource sharing and collective learning from each other’s triumphs and lessons learned. We seek to create an atmosphere of honesty about the barriers and challenges within our efforts.
- Allyship and Co-Leadership: Our work must be co-led and supported by those with and without disabilities. We believe in allyship and co-leadership and hold ourselves accountable to rejecting paternalism, uplifting the voices of the historically marginalized and committing to increase lived experience and disabled representation in our work.
- Cross-Disability: Our work brings together housing opportunities that serve the broad and diverse access needs of people with disabilities. Rather than identifying with a single diagnosis or type of disability, we provide solutions that link to access needs that different design or program choices can support.
- Collaboration: We do this work with a commitment to partner and collaborate. We reject the scarcity mindset where we are fighting for the same resources, but rather recognizing that working together to lift our collective needs makes us a stronger network.
- Intersectionality: Our work is reflective of intersectional identities of race, income and class, documentation-status, language, gender and other key factors that impact the housing needs of people with and without disabilities. We support solutions in housing that are affordable, affirming, and diverse.
Stay tuned for news, advocacy opportunities and other initiatives as the network grows and develops.