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Facilitating my first interview about affordable housing and its impacts was a powerful and unique experience. Though I’ve done a lot of reading and investigation into the housing crisis and have been made aware of it just by living in Santa Cruz, hearing firsthand accounts of what it actually means in real people’s lives says more than anything I’ve been exposed to in the past. It also reinforced the importance of humanization when talking about social issues. If social issues aren’t humanized or taken at the level of a single person, they can seem unmanageable or out of reach. This was definitely the case for me. While it is still overwhelming, hearing the ways in which housing solutions worked for an individual makes the possibility of tackling the broader issue seem so much more attainable. This experience has also reaffirmed my interest in improving housing policy. To me, centering people’s experiences and needs when thinking about policy is the most important. I am excited to continue these interviews to see the ways that housing can change lives and am hopeful for using these stories and others like them to start to make these necessary changes. – Rosalie Lansing
