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2024 California Philanthropy Convening on Housing Justice

Posted by 320sc on February 23, 2024

On Tuesday, February 13, 2024 philanthropy and community leaders from across the state convened at The California Endowment offices in Los Angeles for a special event on how philanthropy can collectively support housing justice for all California's communities.

Hosted by Fund for an Inclusive California (at the Common Counsel Foundation) and the California Homelessness and Housing Policy Funders Network (at Funders Together to End Homelessness), the California Philanthropy Convening on Housing Justice brought together philanthropy with diverse priorities and movement leaders to explore how housing justice efforts intersect with other movements such as climate, health, immigrant rights, and economic justice. 

This convening provided an opportunity to engage directly with funder peers and community leaders to reimagine how philanthropy from across justice movements can support organizing to build a state where all residents have a safe, accessible, and affordable place to live. Through in-depth discussions and breakouts, we also examined what it means to build and shift cross-sector power for residents to have a voice in local and state policy settings and systems change. 

Co-hosted by:

Co-Sponsored by:

NFG Logo GCIR Logo Northern California Grantmakers logo

 

Speaker Bios are located here.

9:00am PT

Welcome and Grounding 

  • Amanda Andere, CEO, Funders Together to End Homelessness
  • Jazmin Segura, Director, Fund for an Inclusive California

9:15am PT

Opening Keynote: Housing Justice is the Foundation to a Thriving California

  • Professor Ananya Roy, UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequitality and Democracy

Resources:
Keynote slides

9:45am PT

Session: The State of the Movement for an Equitable and Just California

This panel conversation featured community leaders and organizers working on housing justice and its intersections for a look back at what has transpired over the past year and where there are opportunities for the future.

  • Saa'un Bell, Senior Associate Director, Power California
  • Chris Ko, Vice President, Impact and Strategy, United Way of Greater Los Angeles
  • Christina Livingston, Statewide Executive Director, ACCE Institute
  • Jewel Patterson, Director of Organizing and Programming, Congregations Organized for Prophetic Engagement (COPE)
  • Jazmin Segura, Fund for an Inclusive California (moderator)

10:45am PT

Break

10:55am PT

Funder Spotlight: Making the Case for Housing Justice & Table Discussions

  • Susan Thomas, President, Melville Charitable Trust 

11:50am PT

Lunch

During lunch, an educational conversation around the California State Affordable Housing Campaign provided updates on the campaign.

Resources:
California State Affordable Housing Campaign information

1:00pm PT

Breakout Sessions

During these breakout sessions, participants dove deeper into the intersections of housing justice with other justice movements such as immigrant and worker rights, health equity, and environmental and climate. As we learned from community leaders and funders engaged in these spaces, we also explored ways to advance housing justice through innovative solutions grounded in community.

2:30pm PT

Session: Power-Building for Housing Justice Policy Impact

  • Saa'un Bell, Senior Associate Director, Power California
  • Chione Lucina Muñoz Flegal, Executive Director, Housing California
  • Joseph Tomás McKellar, Executive Director, PICO California
  • Christa Brown, Associate Director, State Policy and Advocacy, San Francisco Foundation (moderator)

3:30pm PT

Closing

  • Rajib Guha, Director of Program Development, The James Irvine Foundation
  • Craig Martinez, Senior Program Manager, The California Endowment
  • Jazmin Segura, Fund for an Inclusive California
  • Amanda Andere, Funders Together to End Homelessness

4:00pm PT

Networking Reception

 

This convening was generously supported by the Arlene and Michael Rosen Foundation, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Crankstart Foundation, and United Way of Greater Los Angeles. A special thank you for their continued support!

Showing 1 reaction

  • Lauren Bennett
    published this page in Past Events 2024-02-23 13:07:56 -0500

We joined Funders Together because we believe in the power of philanthropy to play a major role in ending homelessness, and we know we have much to learn from funders across the country.

-Christine Marge, Director of Housing and Financial Stability at United Way of Greater Los Angeles

I am thankful for the local partnerships here in the Pacific Northwest that we’ve been able to create and nurture thanks to the work of Funders Together. Having so many of the right players at the table makes our conversations – and all of our efforts – all the richer and more effective.

-David Wertheimer, Deputy Director at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Very often a lack of jobs and money is not the cause of poverty, but the symptom. The cause may lie deeper in our failure to give our fellow citizens a fair chance to develop their own capacities, in a lack of education and training, in a lack of medical care and housing, in a lack of decent communities in which to live and bring up their children.

-President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964 State of the Union Address

Funders Together has given me a platform to engage the other funders in my community. Our local funding community has improved greatly to support housing first models and align of resources towards ending homelessness.

-Leslie Strnisha, Vice President at Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland

Our family foundation convenes local funders and key community stakeholders around strategies to end homelessness in Houston. Funders Together members have been invaluable mentors to us in this effort, traveling to our community to share their expertise and examples of best practices from around the nation.

-Nancy Frees Fountain, Managing Director at The Frees Foundation


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