A nice thing about working from home is that I can look out my window and see trees, rather than the brick wall out my window at the Alliance office. Some of the leaves are turning yellow and red now, fall is here. In many cultures around the world, fall is a time to contemplate the end of things, as the end of the year begins to approach.
With the election tomorrow, the approach of the end, of something, is imminent. A new beginning will follow, but of what?
Most relevant to us, there is growing public opinion that it’s important to invest the money necessary to ensure that everyone has housing, that homelessness and housing instability are bad for the nation, and that housing is what’s missing. This development is the result of years of work to raise that awareness.
No matter which politicians are elected up and down the ballot, we will need to continue to show results for any funding we receive. We’ll need to continue building an effective system that ensures that anyone who loses their housing and becomes homeless is found, kept safe, and quickly moved into new housing. If rental assistance becomes universal, as a number of bills in Congress have proposed, we still need to make sure that there is housing to rent, in healthy communities, accessible in ways that will undo race discrimination.
We are in for a period of uncertainty – maybe a few days, maybe longer. Thanks to everyone who’s put in unprecedented levels of work to make sure that homeless people are able to vote. Let’s keep each other safe, with a special focus on vulnerable people like those who are homeless now or in immediate danger of becoming so. Let’s watch carefully what’s going on, support each other, and be ready for whatever action is necessary in the new world that starts soon.