Speak Up: What We *All* Can Do

We can all act right now to end the eviction crisis in our community.
Here is an assortment of ways to get involved, no matter your time or resources.

Sign up for the Collective Impact Lincoln / Speak Up For Housing Rights newsletter. In addition to neighborhood-building information, this email newsletter connects readers with information and news about Lincoln’s housing crisis, shares opportunities to get involved, and provides specific calls to action on behalf of our neighbors who are being unhoused.

Attend a Speak Up For Housing Rights event. These events, both appropriately distanced in-person and virtual, are a great way to meet others who are committed to confronting this crisis right now. See our Events page for an exhibition, discussion, or community project near you.

Find local resources and connect with organizations and efforts to protect community members from eviction and its effects in both the short and long term.

Read Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. Matthew Desmond’s seminal nonfiction work on the nation’s housing crisis is urgently relevant to what’s happening right now in our community. Reflect upon the stories and tensions in the book with this reading guide. Then, visit The Eviction Lab for a current picture of Nebraska’s eviction crisis.

Experience Evicted: The Exhibition. The exhibition introduces visitors to stories and statistics that help explain the causes and ramifications of chronic eviction. A special “Nebraska Stories” section will focus on the history of housing disparity, discrimination, and instability and contemporary action being taken to help prevent and alleviate eviction right here at home. The main exhibition ran through February at the Nebraska History Museum; “Nebraska Stories” will continue to be shown through 2021.

Read the City of Lincoln’s Affordable Housing Action Plan. This document charts the city’s approach to affordable housing for at least the next 10 years. Here’s the plan’s executive summary.

Write, email, or call elected officials. Express your concern about the city’s eviction crisis and encourage them to take any and all steps necessary to protect our fellow Lincolnites from eviction. Lincoln City Council | Mayor’s Office | Nebraska Legislature

Testify. Here are recent tutorials from Collective Impact Lincoln on how to effectively advocate at both the city and the state government levels.

Volunteer for / support the Tenant Assistance Program. You don’t have to be a lawyer to get involved with this effort, which provides free legal representation to those facing eviction. Nebraska licensed attorneys, law students, and community volunteers all can go here to connect and support this vital program.

Put your time, talent, and treasure to work. If you have special skills, access to information, or have available resources, you can put them to work on this issue. Contact us to learn of ways you can get more involved. Remember: Many hands make light work!

Join this campaign. Are you a member of a local organization, a business, or a group of neighborhood advocates who want to help end the local eviction crisis? We are stronger with you.

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