Monday, February 23, 2026 | 11:00am ET, 10:00am CT, 9:00am MT, 8:00am PT, 7:00am AK

Hosted by: Fund for Housing and Opportunity

The rise of automated systems driven by artificial intelligence and large language models (LLMs) are reshaping the landscape of housing access and homelessness in America. From landlords deploying opaque background screening algorithms, to surveillance technology that tracks unhoused populations, to rent-setting systems that price working families out of their neighborhoods, AI is becoming a powerful tool for exclusion.

The same networks advancing mass surveillance and data mining are funding efforts to criminalize homelessness, creating a feedback loop where technology enables both the displacement of communities and their subsequent punishment. At the same time, the significant and growing land use and environmental footprint of data centers pose serious risks, particularly to historically marginalized communities.

This session will discuss how profit-driven technological innovation has brought us to this point and how investing in tech justice—a people-powered movement and approach where technology challenges structural inequities—is essential to a more just democracy.

Learning Objectives

• How AI, including its infrastructure and development, impact our housing and homelessness systems, advance the spread of misinformation, and threaten to deepen existing inequities.
• How funders can support organizations building power to resist emerging harms of automated systems. This can include supporting legal action against algorithmic discrimination, pushing for democratic governance of technology, and investing in organizing approaches adapted for today’s digital reality.

Speakers

• Mariana Ruiz Firmat | Senior Fellow for Movement Infrastructure and Explorations, Freedom Together Foundation
• Kevin De Liban | Founder, TechTonic Justice 

Registration  

Please RSVP for this webinar using the button below. You will receive your unique Zoom link once a Fund for Housing and Opportunity staff person has approved your registration. You will receive your Zoom link directly from Zoom once you have been approved. 

Technology 

This webinar will take place via Zoom. Registration will be open until the time of the call. If you do not receive your Zoom link or have technical issues logging into this call, please reach out to Lauren Bennett.

This call will last 90 minutes.