Nan Roman, President of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, on the State of Homelessness in America

Since I started InvisiblePeople.tv the National Alliance to End Homelessness has supported me. A few years back, during my first national road trip, I had a chance to visit their offices and interview Steve Berg, Vice President for Programs and Policy. My interview with Steve was one of the first live streams I ever tried to produce and you can watch it here. To put this in perspective, in 2009 I was this crazy guy who just lost his house to foreclosure and was driving the country using social media to scream real loud about homelessness and poverty. At the time, many agencies in Washington would not return my calls (although today things are different), but NAEH took me seriously and accepted me always encouraging me to keep going.

I have been honored by NAEH to be asked to speak at their conferences. At each conference I tried to get a moment with Nan Roman, President of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, but as to be expected her time is very limited. This last week I was at 2011 National Conference on Ending Family Homelessness and as luck and persistence would have it, I was able to record a short interview with Nan.

Nan Roman opened up the conference by highlighting National Alliance to End Homelessness' recent report State of Homelessness in America 2011. I wish I had the bandwidth to stream her powerful speech like I have in past years, it was just not possible this year. For this short interview I asked Nan to sum up the report on State of Homelessness in America.

Please help support National Alliance to End Homelessness and all the great work they do.

 

 

 

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Comments

[urbanruralhealthcare]

06:04 AM on 02/22/2011

My attention was captured by the word "invisible" homeless. Dr. Marjorie Bard has published a doctoral dissertation and two books about the undetectable homeless and the alternative ways they are living and working. Unfortuately, people tend to lump all homeless people into one category: homeless. But there are subcultures that are overlooked, and those people have chosen to become self-sufficient, using anonymity as a strategy to stay away from being IDed by gov't agencies which not only force rules on living and working, but leave one in a downward spiral instead of allowing for a return to a mainstream lifestyle. If you want to hear 10 years of personal narratives of the root causes of homelessness and the solutions posited by those living it, go to www.studioclub.com Home Page and look for their link to the undetectable homeless Cyberlogs by Dr.Marjorie Bard. She was homeless and has been locating, interviewing and filming this subculture for 35 years. She has been invited to the National Coalitions conferences to speak about alternative strategies many times. Her books: "Shadow Women: Homeless Women's Survival stories" and "Organizational and Community Responses to Domestic Abuse and Homelessness" are in bookstores and free online. "Shadow Women" has been made into a film "It Was a Wpnderful Life." Why her expertise has virtually been ignored by the HuffPost is a puzzle since moderators have not posted her comments. They offer pertinent information that doesn't focus on mission life. Hopefully this comment posts.
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