Description & Purpose of the Network:
The Homelessness, Housing Precarity, and Disaster Network (HHDN) aims to bring together scholars, practitioners, policy makers and key stakeholders, such as those with lived experience with homelessness, to discuss and work together on topics concerning homelessness, housing precarity, hazards, and disasters. In March of 2020, the Natural Hazards Center CONVERGE Facility released a call for working group applications on topics pertaining to COVID-19. Many of us identified a need to submit a proposal concerning housing precarity and COVID-19 and were subsequently awarded. From this award, we developed a research agenda and framework.
Our group has since evolved with a broader focus, and continues to evolve to become a more sustainable network of scholars, students, key stakeholders, and practitioners engaged or interested in work at the intersections of homelessness, housing precarity and disasters. Although representation is largely U.S.-based, we are working to broaden participation to make this a more internationally-focused network.
Contact:
Jamie Vickery (vickeryj@uw.edu)
Listserv:
Vision:
To bring together individuals and communities to learn about and address the root causes of marginalization and disaster vulnerability among individuals experiencing homelessness and housing precarity.
Mission:
Our mission is to mobilize and build momentum for research, policies, and actions that will inform the prevention of disaster-caused disruption and efforts to reduce disaster vulnerability for people experiencing homelessness and housing precarity while promoting safe, affordable, sustainable, and accessible housing for all.
To achieve our mission and work toward our vision, we the Homelessness, Housing Precarity & Disaster Network, will:
- Create outputs (e.g., op-eds, policy briefs, presentations, academic papers) to inform or encourage ethical research, practice, and/or policy on topics concerning housing precarity and disasters;
- Provide mentorship to early-career scholars and students interested in working in this space (both in research and practice);
- Mobilize and build momentum and visibility for policies and actions that will enable homeless and precariously housed people to find resources, enhance their well-being, and facilitate their ability to exit homelessness and housing precarity; and
- Where appropriate, provide our insights and expertise to sign onto or advocate for policy and calls for or against actions that may reduce or cause harm, respectively, in an effort to prevent further marginalization and increased disaster vulnerability among precariously housed communities.