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What Communities, Providers, and Policymakers Can Do to Help

Ending family homelessness requires all of us.

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Families thrive when communities, institutions, and systems work together to create safety, dignity, and stability. This page outlines concrete actions that individuals, providers, organizations, and policymakers can take to support family healing across all ecological levels.

Every action that reduces stress or increases safety helps break the cycle of homelessness

1. For Community Members

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Offer Practical Support

Donate diapers, formula, school supplies, or gift cards to community organizations. These essentials reduce daily stress and support caregiver regulation.

2

Reduce Stigma

Use person-centered language (“families experiencing homelessness”), avoid blame narratives, and share factual information that reframes homelessness as a systemic issue.

3

Build Community Care

Participate in or support community groups that provide food shares, mutual aid, or cultural healing spaces. Connection reduces isolation and strengthens resilience.

Support funding for affordable housing, childcare, eviction prevention, and early learning. Attend city council meetings or sign on to community advocacy efforts.

Advocate Locally

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2. For Service Providers

Providers are uniquely positioned to reduce retraumatization and build healing relationships.

Practice

Trauma-Responsive Engagement

Simplify the Experience

Strengthen

Parent-Child Connection

  • Prioritize empathy, predictability, and choice

  • Normalize trauma responses (hypervigilance, withdrawal, missed appointments)

  • Use reflective listening and strengths-based communication

  • Coordinate with other agencies to prevent repetitive storytelling

  • Offer warm handoffs, not referrals

  • Embed culturally responsive practices in every interaction

  • Model attuned, calm caregiving interactions

  • Support caregivers in self-regulation and emotional recovery

  • Frame behaviors through a trauma-informed lens

3. For Organizations

Coordinate with schools, clinics, housing providers, and child welfare to create coherent service pathways.

Create Safety & Autonomy

Reduce compliance-heavy rules, curfews, and punitive approaches. Replace with collaborative, dignity-centered engagement.

Build Cross-System Partnerships

Coordinate with schools, clinics, housing providers, and child welfare to create coherent service pathways.

Invest in Staff Wellbeing

Offer reflective supervision, racial equity training, and vicarious trauma supports so staff can remain regulated, compassionate, and connected.

Integrate Lived Experience

Hire, compensate, and consult parents and youth with lived experience to co-design programs and accountability structures.

4. For Policymakers

Image by Jonny Gios

  • Guaranteed income programs

  • Trauma-responsive childcare

  • Mobile and flexible housing supports

  • Eviction prevention and rental assistance

  • Long-term subsidies for families

Policy choices determine whether families experience shame or support.

5. For System Leaders & Advocates

Build Trauma-Responsive Systems

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  • Align housing, childcare, healthcare, and education around relational safety

  • Treat trauma as a public health issue

  • Fund multi-year, cross-system partnerships

  • Support truth-telling and historical repair

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6. How You Can Support This Work Today

Donate to Local Organizations

Support diaper banks, housing programs, legal aid, and trauma-responsive early learning centers.

Contact Your Representatives

Ask them to fund prevention programs, affordable housing, and guaranteed income pilots.

Share This Resource

Pass this site to colleagues, partners, and community members.

Learn More

Explore the “Solutions” page to understand how change happens across systems.

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