OUR PURPOSE

The Open House is a quarterly meeting of a broad base of community stakeholders committed to racial equity in housing and ending homelessness. The Open House has the following objectives:

1. Amplify the voices of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, AAPI, people of color, Women, LGBTQ+, disabled community members and community members with lived experience of being unhoused to inform department policies, procedures, and funding priorities.
   
   
2. Center the voices of those with lived experience and increase representation of resident leaders in decision-making and leadership positions.
   
   
3. Increase transparency and accountability to ensure the Department centers equity in its work.
   
   
4. Educate our communities on what is happening to build new housing and to end homelessness through community conversations and conversations within organizations.
   
   
5. Bridge new or improve relationships and create opportunity to work together to respond to community needs across silos, differences, or traditional lines of opposition.
   
   
6. Inform the community and non-profit partners of the current work of the Housing Department including Funding opportunities (RFPs), policy development, and other important housing and homelessness information.
   
   
7. Create opportunities for consistent community engagement with community groups and resident leaders of communities most impacted by housing insecurity and homelessness.
   
   
8. Create a forum to develop and present community-led recommendations.
   
   
9. Raise awareness of existing community resources and provide referrals for participants as needed.
   
   
10. Provide space for participants to coordinate mutual aid

To read more about the Quarterly Open House, and its vision and structure, please check out the Quarterly Open House framework.

• Quarterly Open House Framework (English)
• Marco trimestral de Casa Abierta (Spanish)
• Khung Open House hàng quý (Vietnamese)

BACKGROUND

Racial equity is the condition that would be achieved if one's racial identity no longer predicted, in a statistical sense, how one fares. Racial justice is the systematic and proactive fair treatment of people of all races, resulting in equitable opportunities and outcomes for all. Racial justice—or racial equity—goes beyond anti-racism. It is not just the absence of discrimination and inequities, but also the presence of deliberate systems and supports to achieve and sustain racial equity.

The concept of the Open House is rooted in movements for Open Housing locally and nationally, also known as Fair Housing.

Racially restrictive covenants were widespread tools of discrimination written into property deeds in communities across the US, including San Jose, to prevent people of color from moving to exclusively white neighborhoods.

As long as discrimination and violence has been used to enforce segregation and displacement for marginalized communities, there has also been resistance.

In the 1950s, the San Jose Council for Civic Unity lead a campaign where thousands of homeowners to adopted open housing covenants declaring: ‘I hereby bear witness that I am ready to welcome into my neighborhood residents of whatever race, creed, or national origin.’ In 1962, fair housing activists pressured San Jose into becoming the second city in Santa Clara County to try to resolve residential apartheid with a fair housing ordinance - prior to the adoption of both federal and State fair housing laws."

With this initiative, we are building off our local history of welcoming our neighbors. In order to make any impact on the issues described above, a first step is to have open and consistent partnership with those most affected and who are racial equity leaders in our communities. If this initiative lives up to its fullest potential, we will build lasting meaningful relationships and persons with lived experience of housing insecurity and homelessness will guide the Housing Department to implement racial equity through its policies, procedures, and programs.

Notes and Slides from Previous Open Houses

OPEN HOUSE STEERING COMMITTEE

The Open House Steering Committee was formed to develop the Open House Framework and to set agendas for future Open House meetings.

The steering committee is made up by individuals with lived experience of housing insecurity and/or homelessness, and those who serve and are in-relationship with communities most impacted by housing insecurity and/or homelessness in San Jose. Housing staff support the committee by providing information and logistical support.

The roster for the steering committee is below.

Open House Steering Committee Roster

* Lived Experience Community Leaders