Summary

There are growing numbers of people experiencing homelessness in the United States, including people who are experiencing it for the first time. People with firsthand experience of homelessness are also increasingly becoming advocates and have important contributions to make to the nonprofit sector. Yet meaningfully including people with lived experience of homelessness in the sector remains a challenge for myriad reasons, including existing public mindsets that can make it difficult to see the expertise that comes from lived experience.

The recommendations in this report can help nonprofit advocates and communicators speak to the field and the public about the importance of meaningfully including people with lived experience of homelessness in their work. An overarching recommendation is to prioritize taking direction from people with lived experience when portraying them and their experiences. The four strategic communications recommendations described within are based on our empirical research. The first two recommendations focus on how to talk about meaningfully including people with lived experience in solutions to address homelessness, and the last two focus on best practices for using images of people with lived experience of homelessness.