Dr. Lewis at TEDx Minneapolis: “Choice is an illusion for the unhoused”
On August 12, 2024, Dr. Brittany Lewis was among six speakers selected for TEDxMinneapolis. She shared the following remarks, illuminating the false narratives that too often define houselessness and inspiring attendees to reframe their perspectives and actions.
Imagine you live in a city where rents are skyrocketing. You need to find a place for yourself and your daughter before winter. After two months of searching for an apartment you can afford, you find a place that you barely believe is still standing. But your fear of freezing on the street, outweighs the fear you felt when you saw the boarded-up windows, mildew, and traces of mice. There are no shelter beds open, and Minnesota’s cold is deadly. You grit your teeth and sign the lease: you have no choice.
This is the city where most of us live, but not all of us are experiencing. My name is Dr. Brittany Lewis. I am a social justice action researcher. I collaborate with communities to ensure their stories lead to change. In all my research, I have found that the lack of access to safe and dignified housing continues to harm far too many people, whether they are facing wrongful evictions, seeking affordable housing, or shelter from domestic violence. Choice is an illusion for the unhoused.
In the United States, 18 out of every 10,000 people experience houselessness. Houseless means you might not have a house to call your own, but it does not mean you are not creating a home in other ways. Although white people make up about half of this population Black and Brown people disproportionately suffer houselessness. Why? From the strategic destruction of low-income neighborhoods in the name of slum clearance to mortgage brokers who steer Black and Brown applicants to subprime loans, a long history of systemic oppression created racial housing inequities that persist to this day.
Unfortunately, many people are reproducing the harmful idea that unhoused people simply fail to make good choices causing their own circumstance. The idea that everyone has the same access to sufficient choices for safe, affordable, dignified housing is simply not true. This idea has been weaponized against distressed Black and brown communities. When we center the stories of people harmed by housing injustice, we see how institutions and systems are eliminating their choices. And let me be clear, institutions and systems are led by everyday people like me and you.
My groundbreaking research confirms this: My work has won a Minnesota Supreme Court case on behalf of tenants, eliminated harmful shelter policies at the county level, created City tenant protection ordinances, and supported the creation of the first Office of missing and murdered Black women and girls in the country.
Why have my projects been successful at moving the needle on a problem most folks believe can’t be solved? It is because I know the power and necessity of centering the stories of people with lived experience and engaging with them as experts. Using my Equity in Action research process I ensure that people like me and you who work in these systems, listen to these stories and co-create solutions with those most impacted. Making change requires us all to play a role.
“Why have my projects been successful at moving the needle on a problem most folks believe can’t be solved? It is because I know the power and necessity of centering the stories of people with lived experience and engaging with them as experts. ”
Consider the role you play in the housing ecosystem, as I share three stories from two of my research studies. Pay close attention to how you or the institutions you support expand or constrict choices for the unhoused in these stories. Because everyday people like me and you carry out the strategies of institutions and systems that impact housing choices. How we show up and use our different levels of influence and power is key to making more choices available to people seeking safe, dignified housing, but we first must change the narrative.
Choice is an illusion for the single Black mother who moved into a property owned by a slumlord to avoid going back to a shelter that was unsafe for her and her two small children. The landlord frequently pressured her for sex, trying to bribe her with reduced rent because he knew she was struggling financially. She and I cried together when she described the fear she felt when the landlord came to her door. When she refused his sexual advances, he retaliated by filing multiple unlawful detainers against her in court. The filings rendered her ineligible to apply for housing in the traditional housing market.
Let’s dive into the roles people played in this story and the limited choices made available to those on the brink of houselessness. In my role, as an action researcher I advocated, facilitated, and collaborated with communities impacted by evictions in North Minneapolis to produce research studies that resulted in new strategies to serve the community’s needs. The slumlord chose to use his financial advantages and legal savvy to exploit his tenant. His decision to harass this woman was made easier by the court system that privileges a legal filing over the story of a tenant. The landlord knew the court would be blind to his acts of sexual harassment unless the tenant could find legal representation to fight the detainer. The single Black mother’s choices were limited by these actors and institutions at every turn. Lack of affordable housing stock, inadequate family shelters, and a court system that makes decisions that cannot be easily refused or repealed ignored her needs and dismissed her story. All these institutions are led or supported by everyday people like me and you.
Choice is an illusion for the single elderly Black man who had just completed a rehab program and had signed a lease on an apartment–only to find out days later that the City had condemned the building. The city gave him 15 minutes to collect all his belongings and find a new place to go. The day I met this man he told me that all he wanted to do that day was to have a drink, but instead, he checked himself into the psych ward. After our interview, I collaborated with a Legal Aid Attorney to find an open shelter bed.
Let’s dive into the roles people played in this story and the limited choices made available to those on the brink of houselessness. The Attorney and I worked together as social justice actors to ensure that this elder found a shelter bed for the night, which is hard to come by as a single male. Even more importantly, to hopefully prevent a relapse. The City and its code enforcement staff play the role of ensuring buildings are safe to live in, but they largely trust landlords to comply with regulations until deadlines pass or complaints are made. The landlord chooses when and how to maintain the buildings. The landlord chose to delay repairs. The landlord chose to collect application fees and first month’s rent payments from new tenants, despite knowing the City could condemn the property at any minute. Like the slumlord in the first story, the property owner chose to exploit tenants until the slow-moving system caught up to their neglect. The shelter plays a role in helping people in need but is dependent on government or philanthropic organizations to provide funds to keep their doors open. But those grants aren't sufficient to meet the overwhelming needs in the community for shelter– let alone for single adults. The single elderly Black man’s choices for safe housing were limited within a housing system that ignored his needs until it was too late. All the institutions in this system are led or endorsed by people like me and you.
“All the institutions in this system are led or endorsed by people like me and you.”
Choice is an illusion for the Black woman living in a rural county trying to escape her long-time abusive partner. On average it takes seven attempts to leave an abusive relationship. Each time she made the long trip to the nearest domestic violence shelter, the mostly white female staff judged her choices and favored white victims. When I led a focus group with Black women in such a shelter, they discussed forming their own support group to make up for the lack of cultural competency of the mostly white staff. I thanked the elderly Black woman who started the group. She alone was holding space for younger Black women survivors even while she sought shelter for her own safety.
Let’s dive into the roles people played in this story and the limited choices made available to those on the brink of houselessness. The abuser chose to use economic and psychological leverage to act out their pain on an isolated woman. The shelter staff chose to shame a Black woman survivor rather than meet her with compassion. State agencies and philanthropic organizations have chosen to NOT provide funds to increase bedspace and train staff to understand survivors from different ethnic and racial backgrounds. The Black woman domestic violence victim faced limited choices in a system that determined she is not worthy of shelter. All these institutions that she tried to navigate are led by people like me and you.
We can all relate to wanting to protect our children from unsafe environments, we can all relate to the pride that comes along with overcoming obstacles, and we can certainly think of hard times in our lives where our support networks did not judge us but embraced us with compassion. Those who are experiencing houselessness are actively pursuing these same things in their lives while processing grief, trauma, and pain with little to no economic resources or systemic recourse. Vulnerable people are struggling to find housing within an ecosystem that forces them to contend with slumlords, under-resourced shelter facilities, and culturally biased staff. Choice is an illusion for the unhoused, and we need to stop operating as if houseless people had any good options to choose from in the first place.
Today, I ask everyone listening to this talk to do two things. First, work with me to change this narrative that those experiencing houselessness simply failed to make good choices. Second, choose to question the things you do not understand about houselessness with curiosity, not condemnation. I invite us all to take a closer look at the role we each play in the ecosystem and question whether we are receiving and believing the hard truths that those most impacted are telling us.
“When we do not receive and believe the stories of impacted community members, we are getting in the way of finding the best solutions to the housing crisis. When you hear their stories, be ready to move through any discomfort you have if their words contradict your prior beliefs about housing choices.”
When we do not receive and believe the stories of impacted community members, we are getting in the way of finding the best solutions to the housing crisis. When you hear their stories, be ready to move through any discomfort you have if their words contradict your prior beliefs about housing choices. This is necessary if we want to generate a system with more choices for the people I talked about today. Every day people like me and you must be bold enough to model a different way of being in relationship with impacted communities. By changing the narrative we sound the alarms of change, motivating people all across the world to commit their lives to advocating for, and creating lasting practice and policy change.
It is people like me and you that have the tools to do that work. Until that happens, choice will continue to be an illusion for the unhoused.