Honah Thompson, Social Justice Intern

I’m Honah (pronounced “HAH-nah,” both A-sounds are soft) the fresh meat of the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance. I was born and raised in Santa Rosa, California (in Sonoma County’s wine country). I recently graduated from Chapman University in Southern California with a B.A. in sociology and religious studies and an emphasis in social work. I come from a busy summer of internships and volunteer work relating to HIV/AIDs, child abuse, and hospice care at various agencies in Orange County. The time I spent with each agency affirmed my desire to continue with social justice work before entering graduate school for a master’s degree in social work.

While I would like to say it was a natural urge to embrace the rain and public transportation that brings me to Seattle and the Housing Alliance, it is actually the United Church of Christ’s Young Adult Service Communities program. For a year, I will live in community with some pretty stellar folks and engage in social justice issues such as homelessness, living wages, and so many more as the year goes on. As someone interested in equity and fair access to basic human needs, I feel everything I learn this year will be extremely fulfilling.

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My first experience with the Housing Alliance was in Yakima at the Emerging Advocates Program. I had an amazing time learning oodles of great information about how advocacy works in the world of housing and homelessness. Hearing the stories of the participants as well as the presentations of our guest speakers was greatly inspirational and put me in the right mindset to begin this internship. Some of what I learned was eye-opening and some shocking. But what I have taken away from the many new statistics and stories shared at Emerging Advocates is that homelessness is a grossly misunderstood social problem. Another takeaway is that there is a huge need for advocacy if we are bridge the state's affordable housing crisis and end homelessness. If you wish to learn more about what I am talking about, I would suggest looking into the document Without Housing: Decades of Federal Housing Cutbacks, Massive Homelessness and Policy Failures produced by Housing Alliance partner agency Western Regional Advocacy Project.

As the Housing Alliance’s dedicated intern I will be involved in supporting the many projects, plans, and proceedings that we are whipping up and working on in the office and around the state. I will help in the planning for the Conference on Ending Homelessness as well as Housing and Homelessness Advocacy Day. So look for me in Tacoma and Olympia next year. (I can’t wait to go to Olympia.) Word on the street is that I will also be helping with state and federal advocacy, which I am very excited about after spending so much time on direct services wondering how the nitty-gritty of advocacy and legislation go down.

I am all kinds of excited to be here and can’t wait to see what this year has in store for me. Let the advocacy and action begin!

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Top: Honah posing with the Yakima Emerging Advocates Program participants.
Bottom: Honah participating in the social media and advocacy component of the Emerging Advocates Program in Yakima.