Thank you to everyone who joined Monday's (8/22) Our Homes, Our Votes webinar, “Voting while Experiencing Homelessness”!
People experiencing homelessness, service providers, and election officials often face uncertainty about the process of voter registration and obtaining voter ID for those without a permanent address. This webinar discussed how people experiencing homelessness can exercise their voting rights and overcome the obstacles to making their voices heard in the political arena.
Courtney Cooperman, housing advocacy organizer at NLIHC, gave an overview of the history of voting rights for unhoused citizens, the range of state-level rules that govern voter registration and access to mail-in balloting for people experiencing homelessness, and helpful resources from partner organizations. Sidney Betancourt, housing advocacy organizer at NLIHC, previewed the new edition of Tenant Talk: Housing is Built with Ballots. Kat Calvin, founder of Project ID and Spread the Vote, discussed how IDs lay an essential foundation for both housing security and civic participation, as well as the consequences of losing an ID as a result of homelessness. Kat also surveyed pioneering efforts to expand access to IDs. Sue Corby, coordinator at Welcoming Manchester, and Jessica Margeson, tenant organizer at Granite State Organizing Project, presented on their grassroots efforts to register and mobilize historically marginalized voters, including new citizens and people experiencing homelessness in encampments.
The webinar recording can be found here and the presentation slides can be found here. The meeting transcript can be found here and the saved chat can be found here.
The next webinar, “Ballot Measures and Housing," will take place on Tuesday, September 6, at 2:30 pm ET. Ballot measures are powerful mechanisms to secure tenant protections and significant investments in housing programs at the state and local levels. Bringing issues directly to the voters can be an expensive and complex undertaking but often produces transformative results. This session will discuss how to get housing on the ballot and carry out a successful ballot measure campaign. The panel will feature Ben Kelly, communications consultant, and Chris Bowen, public policy organizer at Southern California Association of Nonprofit Housing (SCANPH).
Visit the Our Homes, Our Votes website to preview the dates and topics for the full series.
Resources Shared on the Webinar
- Courtney Cooperman, NLIHC
- Sidney Betancourt, NLIHC
- Kat Calvin, Spread the Vote/Project ID
- Sue Corby, Welcoming Manchester, and Jessica Margeson, Granite State Organizing Project
- Welcoming Manchester website
- Granite State Organizing Project website
- Sue’s email: [email protected]
- Jessica’s email: [email protected]