# data[].attributes.headline
Soft, bright and inviting. My home is my sanctuary, a safe haven, a place of respite away from this oppressive world. It feels like community; a group of chosen family who lend sugar and onion powder, lent keys and plants when a few of us are away. It smells like mami's arroz con habichuela, seasoning the air. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Soft, bright and inviting. My home is my sanctuary, a safe haven, a place of respite away from this oppressive world. It feels like community; a group of chosen family who lend sugar and onion powder, lent keys and plants when a few of us are away. It smells like mami's arroz con habichuela, seasoning the air. 

# data[].attributes.headline
Home to me is both people and place. It's the duplex I grew up in with my cousins and the single family home where my parents now live. Home is my large family, a network of people related by "blood" and those we have chosen to include.  All the same when it comes to birthdays, holidays, and a summer barbecue. Home is also the land I inhabit: the ancestral homelands of my people connecting me to generations of my family in the past, present, and future. Home is my father making grilled pizza while my mother dances in the kitchen to Mary J Blige. Home is feeling safe, seen, and supported.

# data[].attributes.subject
Home to me is both people and place. It's the duplex I grew up in with my cousins and the single family home where my parents now live. Home is my large family, a network of people related by "blood" and those we have chosen to include.  All the same when it comes to birthdays, holidays, and a summer barbecue. Home is also the land I inhabit: the ancestral homelands of my people connecting me to generations of my family in the past, present, and future. Home is my father making grilled pizza while my mother dances in the kitchen to Mary J Blige. Home is feeling safe, seen, and supported.

# data[].attributes.body
Home is full of guitar music, cooking of really yummy food and the sound of my cat meowing at me.

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Home is where I can really be myself, relax completely and become grounded. Not to say there's no stress but I am so glad to have a place to come to.

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Recognition that housing was out of reach for so many people who were working hard in one or multiple jobs; housing was simply out of reach and $$ could never be saved as it all went to rent.

# data[].attributes.subject
Recognition that housing was out of reach for so many people who were working hard in one or multiple jobs; housing was simply out of reach and $$ could never be saved as it all went to rent.

# data[].attributes.body
Home is love and comfort. It's precious moments with people I love – a place to gather, to connect, and to relax. It's a place I can be me, doing what I want to do however and whenever I want. I can tend and care for what brings me joy like my growing collection of plants; to indulge in the silly and 'wasteful' like reality TV; to be lazy and still while I watch the moon rise in the night sky. Home hasn't always been readily available to me and a concept that I'm building everyday with my people.

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Home is a place where I'm not alone. I can always look and see remnants of my roommate's scattered clothes, or the smell of his cooking, or the smell of wet dog that invariably arises as I messily splash dishwater on myself in the successive clean up. It is the sound of my roommates rustling out of his chair when I announce that I'm home from work. Home is where I know I'm with people I feel safe around.

# data[].attributes.headline
Home is more than 4 walls. It is a feeling of comfortability and peace. I know I am home if I walk into a space and instantly feel a sense of calmness. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Home is more than 4 walls. It is a feeling of comfortability and peace. I know I am home if I walk into a space and instantly feel a sense of calmness. 

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Family member unable to find shelter and living out of her car, with kids,  after DV incident.

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Family member unable to find shelter and living out of her car, with kids,  after DV incident.

# data[].attributes.body
Home is Boston
It is early clear and bright Autumns
The rumbling of airplanes flying over Fenway Park on Opening Day
Hot summer nights with nothing to do
Grey shivering winter mornings waiting for the bus

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Growing up poor in an affluent area, we rented from an Uber-wealthy family. After3 chimney fires, my mother moved us out. Landlord took mom to court for $300 damages - and won! I’ve always been sensitive to injustice. Maybe stems from my formative years, but I studied (first in my family to go to college) and worked on anti-poverty, mainly housing justice issues. I know there are so many stories, voices of the less powerful, quieter voices that MUST BE HEARD. That’s my story, my fight.

# data[].attributes.subject
Growing up poor in an affluent area, we rented from an Uber-wealthy family. After3 chimney fires, my mother moved us out. Landlord took mom to court for $300 damages - and won! I’ve always been sensitive to injustice. Maybe stems from my formative years, but I studied (first in my family to go to college) and worked on anti-poverty, mainly housing justice issues. I know there are so many stories, voices of the less powerful, quieter voices that MUST BE HEARD. That’s my story, my fight.

# data[].attributes.body
Back in the 90s, I was a broke college kid and I lived in my car for awhile and then couch surfed. Luckily I had a friend’s mom who helped me find an apartment and find a job. I’m older now but I always remember how hard that was and how disconnected I felt.

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The home is a place where you can find peace, joy, love, family, and memories

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Housing stock as an investment vehicle- outbidding and preventing those looking for a home from buying.

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Housing stock as an investment vehicle- outbidding and preventing those looking for a home from buying.

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The cycle of poverty made housing a very difficult topic, because you didn't know if your landlord will suddenly up the rent and you're now house searching or the place you're living is even a quality home (i.e. mice running everywhere). It led me to housing advocacy, because I so strongly believe home and community are the foundations of people's wellbeing. Through people's stories, I developed my understanding of housing as a commodity manipulated by the rich.

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Moving to Boston, i could see the stark differences in housing accessibility and resources. It was disheartening to hear countless stories of people without adequate housing. It moved me so much that I felt that I needed to make a difference that will directly impact various folks.  

# data[].attributes.subject
Moving to Boston, i could see the stark differences in housing accessibility and resources. It was disheartening to hear countless stories of people without adequate housing. It moved me so much that I felt that I needed to make a difference that will directly impact various folks.  

# data[].attributes.body
Home is my shelter, where I feel most safe and comfortable to be myself. It's about being surrounded with the people I care about and reminders of who I am, where I came from, and what's most important to me

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I became concerned about housing issues as an environmental worker in east Harlem and Chelsea, where many asthmatic children were affected by housing conditions. It also was hard to see so many families having to live together to afford home. I also became concerned that I could lose my tenancy at a whim of my landlord, so my wife and I got a home a couple of years ago. Were we having to look for one now, we wouldn't be able to afford anything..and probably not afford rent. Housing shouldn't be based on luck!!

# data[].attributes.body
Home is a feeling, not a place or anything that lives in the physical world. It's the feeling of safety and refuge, of healing and comfort, of fulfillment and belonging. Sometimes it can be found in a warm hug, the scent of eucalyptus, a memory, or a dream. My lack of mind's eye may be kicking in...

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My housing advocacy began, unknowingly, many years ago when I ran a shelter for court involved youth. They taught me about the importance of a safe, understanding home where they felt loved and accepted. It also taught me about the need for stability that a home brings to all of us.

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Home tastes like the best deep cup of coffee when you walk in from the snow and smelled it brewing. And you can throw off your hat where you want to leave it. And the mug fits into the palm of your hand and makes it warm and it was made by someone you love or maybe you brought it back from somewhere you thought about staying but it wasn't home.

# data[].attributes.subject
Home tastes like the best deep cup of coffee when you walk in from the snow and smelled it brewing. And you can throw off your hat where you want to leave it. And the mug fits into the palm of your hand and makes it warm and it was made by someone you love or maybe you brought it back from somewhere you thought about staying but it wasn't home.

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Restrictive zoning that prevents multi-family and housing density.

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Restrictive zoning that prevents multi-family and housing density.

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That one time I was going to become homeless 19 years old a single mother struggling to make ends meet and the courage to get up fight and keep my home.

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I have been fortunate to consistently have a place to call home, although there has certainly been one bout of insecurity when the pandemic hit- it's hard to build a life or build meaningful connections when you have to move six times in under a year.

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Started out with volunteering at homeless shelters in college, and then I moved out to California and really understood how severe the housing crisis can get

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Housing is a particularly empowering and traumatizing thing for me. I've seen it make people chronically ill with little to no hope left in their eyes; I've seen my mom and whole family stressed from our landlords of 10+ years threatening to raise the rent to $3000 without any housing renovations while trying to swindle BHA. Evictions make my heart drop but that feeling pushes me to keep pushing for better housing conditions.

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The ways limited housing restricts freedom and opportunity and damages people lives

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The ways limited housing restricts freedom and opportunity and damages people lives

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Years ago I had young kids and lived in a small apartment in part of Boston that was at the limits of what we could afford. The kids started having awful experiences in the public school we were assigned to. There wasn't an option to change schools and stay where we were. Moving to a different school meant disrupting and uprooting our home, our community, and our connection to where we felt we belonged. The places that were reported to have "good" schools we couldn't afford. This was the start of the darkest part of my adult life and a dark chapter in my wife and my life together. We felt trapped by only horrible choices, all of which were going to make things worse.

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Home is a refuge for me, where I recharge from venturing into the world.The stability of that space is paramount for my well-being.Its importance of housing to me drives me to fight for housing options that meet everyone’s needs.