If you have no idea what this program is about, here's a little sample of the questions we'll be asking the folks on the panel: Is housing still part of the social safety net? Foreclosures have affected many families, and as more people lose their jobs, some face the specter of homelessness. How do experts in the housing field see the challenges and opportunities of the coming decade? What new pressures will we see in the housing market due to economic conditions? Is the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness still viable? What can we expect from the Housing Levy this fall?

David McCracken of the University of Washington and Linda Hall, Development Director at YWCA of Seattle King County, have sent us some nuggets to think about and some suggested reading to get your brain grinding before you come to the May 22 program!

Things to Think About for Next Friday's forum:

(click here to register!)

McCracken has published on the subject (see below for links!). Hall had this to say:

"I have a personal interest in tracking movements toward downsizing the single family home and figuring out what to do with the very large homes being built.  I recently read the following on a creative communities blog:

…exurban communities are a unique challenge. The houses within them are big, but not generally as big as, say, Victorian mansions in San Francisco that can be subdivided into apartments. So they’re not great candidates for transformation into multi-family rental housing.  I did visit a housing development last year that offered 'quartets,' McMansions subdivided into four units with four separate entrances. These promised potential buyers the status of a McMansion with the convenience of a condominium, but the concept felt like it was created more to preserve the property values of larger neighboring homes than to serve the needs of the community’s residents …

I still dream that some major overhaul can occur: that a self-sufficient mixed-use neighborhood can emerge. That three-car-garaged McMansions can be subdivided into rental units with streetfront cafés, shops and other local businesses." (Allison Arief)

To describe the topic in one or two sentences, our panelists say --

McCracken: "Homelessness is a shocking failure of our society, and it is not inevitable. Each of us – not just governments and charities – needs to be a part of ending it."

Hall: Housing touches everyone from the day they are born. Each of us has a set of unique experiences and values that directly impacts how we think about and react to this topic.   For me, the topic isn’t 'hard questions about housing'—the true topic is 'hard questions about the future of our community and its people'."

As your homework, our panelists ask you to think about the following questions --

• Do you know homeless people? What difference does it, or would it, make?
• History has a great deal to teach us. What lessons should we be referencing to help us navigate the upcoming ten years?

Finally, McCracken leaves us with this thought: "Reading Real Change and talking with vendors and other homeless people have transformed my understanding and attitudes.  Finding a way to interact with, talk to, and know homeless people is a good way to begin seeing this as an issue of individual human survival."

Links to Learn More:

Tent Cities Bridge Growing Gap - Seattlepi.com Op-Ed by David McCracken

Panelist-Recommended Reading:

The Scandal of the Gospels: Jesus, Story, and Offense, by David McCracken (McCracken says: Also relevant […] about Jesus on offenses and scandals.  I doubt that the word “homelessness” appears in the book, but homelessness is the major scandal of our society and, like Jesus, it still scandalizes the religious and the non-religious.)

Citizen Hobo: How a Century of Homelessness Shaped America, by Todd DePastino