What has been on my mind most.
Sounds Like Impact and planning the year ahead.
Welcome to Sounds Like Impact, and a special hello to all of the new subscribers that have joined us; thank you for subscribing!
Yesterday I had meant to send the newsletter, but I’ve had a lot going on lately and I just couldn’t make it happen. Before I get into what I really want to talk about in this unique edition, I am sending out a call for pitches.
Work on, or support, a social impact related podcast? I am looking for guest curators and folks to interview. I especially would love to hear more from english-speaking podcasts from outside the U.S.
Also, I want to hear from readers: what topics do you want to see covered?
Top of mind for me are LBGTQIA+ rights, the climate crisis, and…please keep reading.
The previous edition of Sounds Like Impact was the Best of Impactful Podcasts 2024. On the list were two podcasts that are the focus of an issue I can’t stop thinking about: affordable housing. The shows in question were Homeland and The Tenant Association. On the 2023 list, City of Tents: Veterans Row, was another affordable housing related show.
Just before I published this year’s list, someone reached out to me about this initiative of the San Francisco Chronicle called the Season of Sharing (SoS) Fund, a charitable fund that has given over 200 million in aid, largely in the form of direct funds to pay rent or utilities for people at risk of becoming unhoused. 100% of donations go to recipients, and the fund operates year-round. Along with the initiative this year, they launched a podcast called Sharing Stories, which profiles folks who have benefited from rental assistance.
Over the past few years I’ve been impressed with many of the shows coming out that focus on the affordable housing crisis. One thing Homeland made very clear was that the root of the homelessness crisis is lack of affordable housing. Not addiction, not mental illness, affordable housing. And without affordable housing, addiction struggles and mental illness are exacerbated.
Unfortunately, because we live in a society that believes that if you end up on the streets, that it’s only you to blame, homelessness—read: affordable housing—is not an issue taken seriously.
Having listened to podcasts and watched documentaries over the past couple of years covering different sides of the issue, it’s one that I’m even more worried about than I once was. After listening to The Tenant Association, I became aware that affordable housing doesn’t stay that way forever, that there are covenants that expire, and when that happens, housing will become market rate and likely unaffordable.
And then there are the climate disasters. Hurricane Helene is but one example that took over the U.S. news cycle last year, now this week we watch in horror at the wildfires in LA / Southern California. California is already the state with the greatest housing insecurity, and now you add the climate crisis on top of it? What affordable housing are people going to be able to return to, especially as home insurance companies try to avoid protecting homeowners when climate-driven disasters happen. Renters are even more vulnerable, and those with renter’s insurance may be no better off.
This seems like a ramble of sorts, but this is what I want to say: we are never the exception. In my view, having worked in and around the impact space, I’ve spent a lot of time getting people to care about an issue. It’s harder than some might think, and what I find is that it’s because we often think that an issue doesn’t directly affect us. With homelessness in particular, we think we’d never be in that situation.
The truth, however, is that we are all susceptible to trauma, we all can experience job loss, we all age and end up on a fixed income unless ultra wealthy, and we are all vulnerable in a climate crisis.
So maybe it’s time we start thinking about advocacy for affordable housing as self-preservation or better yet, insurance for an unwritten future?
🚨 Calls to Action
Support for those affected by California wildfires
Los Angeles Food Bank: Providing emergency food assistance to disaster victims
Direct Relief: Supporting California wildfire victims
Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation: Equipping firefighters on the front lines
California Fire Foundation: Providing direct assistance to wildfire victims
We Are LA Fire: Mutual Aid Resources
Read
ProPublica “I Have Lost Everything”
A record number of Americans are living outside. Cities have responded by removing encampments from public spaces, a practice commonly referred to as “sweeps.” In the process, workers often take people’s belongings — including important documents, survival gear and irreplaceable mementos.
Over and over, people across the country told ProPublica they were devastated by such losses. We gave them notecards so they could explain in their own words how the sweeps have affected them.
ProPublica “Justice Department Sues Six of the Nation’s Largest Landlords Effort to Stop Alleged Price-Fixing in Rental Markets”
Federal prosecutors allege that the landlords have used RealPage pricing software to collude and artificially raise rents. The legal action is the latest development stemming from a 2022 ProPublica investigation.
Most Street-Homeless Housing Applicants Never Get a Shot, Inside Stats Show
New York City agencies tracked nearly 1,000 homeless people as they waited for supportive housing. Just 18% obtained a spot, despite thousands of vacant units.
- Newsletter: Also check out these maps on their website.
- Newsletter
Watch
Locked Out (Free on TUBI)
Nothing symbolizes ‘making it in America’ quite like owning a home. Yet today, the racial gap in home ownership is widening, and those most impacted are women of color.
Set in Detroit, LOCKED OUT takes us into the lives of courageous Black women who face evictions, predatory lenders and traditional banking, as they become ground fighters in a movement to battle modern-day redlining and housing injustice, so The American Dream may become a reality for all.
Razing Liberty Square (PBS)
As rising seas threaten Miami’s luxurious beachfront, wealthy property owners are pushing inland to higher ground. The historically black neighborhood of Liberty City has been ignored by developers and policy-makers alike, for generations. Located 12 feet above sea level, Liberty City now becomes more attractive with each rising tide.
At the heart of Liberty City is the Liberty Square housing projects, the first segregated public housing project in the South. The new documentary from Academy Award nominated filmmaker Katja Esson begins at the very moment when Liberty Square is being razed to the ground to make way for the “ New Liberty Square ”: a $300 million mixed income development.
The dramatic changes happening in Miami’s Liberty Square are a looking glass for contemporary issues of wide-scale significance: the affordable housing crisis, the impact of systemic racism and climate gentrification. Miami is experiencing sea level rise before the rest of the country. What is happening in Liberty Square is a prescient story of what is to come, and strategies put to the test here are being closely observed by the rest of the world.
Lead Me Home (Netflix)
More than 500,000 people experience homelessness every night in America.
Lead Me Home is a documentary short that tells a few of these real-life stories giving the audience a rare, in-depth look at the scale, scope, and diversity of what it means to be unsheltered today while calling into question uninformed attitudes and outmoded policies.
Unzipped: An Autopsy of the Housing Crisis in America (Free on TUBI)
UNZIPPED: An Autopsy of American Inequality is a searing exposé of the growing affordable housing crisis in America.
This intimate feature documentary focuses on one of the country's most iconic and income divided zip codes, Venice CA 90291. Once a mecca for artists, outsiders and a thriving black community, Venice is now the frontline for America's heated battles over gentrification, lack of affordable housing, and homelessness.
With moving, personal profiles of several artist families who struggle to remain in their neighborhood, to bitterly contested community fights over a proposed homeless shelter, UNZIPPED explodes stereotypes and humanizes the lived experiences of people caught in the crossfire of America's growing housing divide.
🌟 Classifieds
Nothing to promote but still want to support? You can donate here.