Consider this story: John 6
After this, Jesus crossed over to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberias. 2 A huge crowd kept following him wherever he went, because they saw his miraculous signs as he healed the sick. 3 Then Jesus climbed a hill and sat down with his disciples around him.
4 (It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration.) 5 Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” 6 He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money[a] to feed them!”
8 Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. 9 “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?”
10 “Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.) 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted. 12 After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, “Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted.” 13 So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves.
14 When the people saw him[b] do this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, “Surely, he is the Prophet we have been expecting!”[c] 15 When Jesus saw that they were ready to force him to be their king, he slipped away into the hills by himself.’
What can we glean from the elements of a good story …
Verses 1-4 Building credibly, crowds, miracles, it creates a visual picture: mountains, sitting, credentials
Verses 4-7 It provides a time context and an economic dilemma, dramatic, with enough detail to know it’s real, but with not too much detail to bore the reader.
Verses 8-9 It provides reality check, tension, creates a clear visual…
Verses 10-13 Points to a spiritual reality, expectation and trust,
Verses 14-15 A surprise element—a punch line different than what you expect. He left them.
What is your housing story? How can you utilize some of the elements that have enabled us to remember this story for 2,000 years? How can you say it in three minutes? This is all the time we are given when we go to speak at Planning Commission or City Council meetings during the comment time.
A great resource to use: https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/30760283/Public-Narrative-Worksheet-Fall-2013-.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Jill Shook’s 3 min. story
Issue: Setting aside a percentage of land to be affordable
Good evening honorable mayor and our city council.
As the director of STARS, I wanted to stay in relationship with the students we served, so drove them to the restored 19th century Quaker Meeting house where the STARS program met, peppering them with questions about their lives, how their tutors were treating them and how things are at home. As I listened, I heard how their parents worked 3-4 jobs to make ends meet and how they lived in homes and apartments with up to 3 to 10 families and how their apartment buildings were being sold out from under them and being flipped to rent to higher income families.
I could see how the high cost of housing was keeping our youth segregated into one part of our city and trapped in a cycle of poverty.
For my doctoral work I researched with seven gang members in Pasadena. They all dropped out of school because of the stigma of being placed in Special Ed. They lived in an all-black neighborhood due to exclusionary housing policies that prevented Blacks from purchasing homes in other parts of the city—a policy while illegal today, the long shadows of these policies still create a segregated city. They found each other and formed a gang. The brother of one of the families was taken out of their home by child protective services, and placed with a white—but abusive family in east Pasadena. Despite the abuse he was the only one in his family who went to college because he was in a higher income part of town and a better high school, away from his gang friends.
When I bought my home, only a few blocks from where I met those seven gang kids, I was seeking to do the right thing, to be part of the neighborhood so that together we could address our common concerns. Yet as I improved my home, my property values have increased five-fold and I began to see my lower income neighbors leave due to increased rents or others going into foreclosure. I became part of the problem. So, I have become highly motivated to do all I can to create a more just society, where parents would not have to work 3-5 jobs to pay rent and gangs have no reason to exist because they would be treated with dignity in school and valued for their potential. A society where people would pay only a third of their income on rent or a mortgage—like it was for my parents.
To do that tonight I ask you, our City Council, that our city follow the example of Pennsylvania, that we set aside a percent of land to be affordable. In Pasadena 20% of all housing developments, that are ten units or more, are required to be affordable. With this one policy over 1,000 inclusionary affordable apartments of affordable housing have been built, at no cost to the city. Now we need to look at setting aside a percentage of land to be set aside for affordable housing, not just units. Like the young gang member that turned his life around just by being moved east Pasadena, we need land in all corners of this city set aside for affordable housing to create a more just and equitable city.
Pasadena has been put on the map by lowering our homeless count by 54% since housing over 720 of our most chronic homeless neighbors who no longer sleep on our streets. We would be model city for many to emulate by ending homelessness for the remaining 556 neighbors experiencing homelessness and help the 47% of our residents that are severely cost burdened—those spending more than 50% of their income on their housing needs. It is not unreasonable to ask that 20% of our land be set aside as affordable, to spread affordable housing throughout the city.
Just as you have set aside a percentage of units, I ask you to also set aside a percentage of land.