Learning from Lived Experience: Our Time at the National Conference on Ending Homelessness

During the final week of October, we participated at the National Conference

on Ending Homelessness, organized by the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEH). This annual conference brings Canada’s movement to end homelessness together to learn from each other, connect, and accelerate progress in communities from coast to coast. It was a wonderful opportunity for members of our team to share what we have been learning in our work across Halton Region and to hear from others who support our unhoused neighbors across Canada.

Titled “Learning from Lived Experience with the Housing Crisis: Peer Support & Co-Design”, our panel included two of our peer researchers – Gerald and Helena - who generously shared their stories with housing precarity and homelessness, as well as the stories of others impacted by the housing crisis in our region. These stories contain valuable lessons about root causes, housing barriers, and resilience required to survive homelessness, and informs our collective understandings of homelessness through a deeply human lens. Together, we explored ways that organizations can engage lived experience, peer support and co-design of policy and practice to ensure that actions taken to address homelessness are done alongside those most directly impacted.

       Sharing these stories was not easy, however, and in doing so Gerald and Helena led the way for us to be vulnerable and authentic with one another in this space and in our work together. Since the event, we reflected on how the experience felt to present and connect through story at such a public platform. Helena shares that,

…As a first time CAEH attendee, it was incredible, powerful and profound; much more heartfelt, open, and inspiring than I had anticipated.

A tremendously vulnerable, compassionate, wonderous, and healing experience all round. A feast for the intellect, intuition, soul, & spirit. A tonic to combat the erosion of hope. The connections & energy experienced was off the charts! It was deeply transformational.

       In my conversations with Gerald, he was kind enough to share with me that it took great strength to stand up and tell his story. I learned that it was the first time Gerald spoke in front of more than 3 or 4 people at a time, and that it was a very new experience for him. After sharing at our panel about what it took him to reach home from years of being without one, Gerald connected with people at 3 different tables to engage participants in a discussion about what it was like and what is needed to help those living precariously today. While only those who experience homelessness can truly know what it is like to be without a roof or home, Gerald’s sharing helped us learn how to better support and walk alongside our unhoused neighbors.

       As a social planner, researcher, and advocate, this work of engaging voices of lived experience with the housing and affordability crisis has been deeply humbling, as has been the sharing of this knowledge at events like this conference. When I hear people share traumatic experiences or conditions, my immediate response is often to try to help, fix, or change the situation for them. The humility lies with the fact that it is not within my capacity, nor right, to “fix” anything – instead, learning to actively listen and walk alongside folks has been the biggest lesson. The peer researcher team, as voices of lived experience and story-holders for the experiences of others in our region, have been teachers in this work. I continue to learn a great deal from Gerald, Helena, and all our friends on the peer team as we continue to connect with people currently unhoused and collaborate with our community to take action collectively.

Community Development Halton and our friends and partners in community would like to honor these stories and the strength and vulnerability it took for our peer leaders to share at the conference and in our work each and everyday. We are grateful to the peer team for all the gifts they share with community, and to those currently experiencing homelessness who lend their voices and stories to drive meaningful change.

In Solidarity,

-Steven Barrow