From 2018-2019, Hester Street (HST) led public engagement for Where We Live NYC, a City-led collaborative planning process to better understand how fair housing challenges like segregation and discrimination impact New Yorker’s everyday lives. In order to conduct deep engagement on difficult subjects such as segregation and the legacy of racist policies and practices, HST developed a multi-faceted, de-centralized engagement approach. We partnered with 13 trusted community-based organizations to host conversations with a diverse cross-section of residents across the five boroughs.
The data collected was used to develop actionable policies to promote fair housing, confront segregation, fight discrimination and advance access to opportunity for all. The resulting public report was submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 2019. In June 2019, HST also supported the organization of the Where We Live NYC Summit, which offered a public preview of proposed policy solutions built on community input that resulted from our neighborhood-based outreach and conversations. Throughout the process, our partners held 62 Community Conversations engaging 500+ New Yorkers from 112 zip codes, with 52% of the conversations held in languages other than English.
For more information, read the City’s final plan (published October 2020) here and visit the Where We Live NYC website.
For the series of Community Conversations led by community-based organizations, HST provided
- A detailed facilitator guide to support CBO partners in leading the conversations
- Participant worksheets and an interactive poster board activity
This approach to engaging diverse community members by meeting them where they are proved fruitful in soliciting honest and authentic feedback on topics related to housing justice.