Visionary Voices: Housing as Infrastructure – water and flooding

Climate change is commonly experienced at home, yet discussions between housing and climate advocates are rare. Our panel will address that as we focus on the points where housing and water/flooding justice meet including: 

• What should climate justice folks know about housing justice- and vice versa? 
• How does climate change intersect with housing policy today—for example, recent spikes in homeowner’s insurance or complete drops from coverage that firms blame on climate change—and how can we respond?
• Housing advocates face a legacy of redlining; climate justice workers deal with sacrifice zones. Thinking about how these policies harmed Black and Brown health and wealth, how can we collaborate to redress the damage done?

Our panel will address these questions from the perspective of communities across both Chicago and Illinois, mixing the viewpoints of housing and climate organizing and advocacy. 

Panelists: 

Sheila Sutton, Director of Advocacy, Chicago Area Fair Housing Alliance

Meleah Geertsma, Director of Clean Water and Equity at the Alliance for the Great Lakes

Kennedy Moehrs Gardner, Staff Attorney at Equity Legal Services

Cyatharine Alias, CNT, Senior Manager at Center for Neighborhood Technology 

Want to sponsor this or another 2024 Visionary Voices event? Please contact Gordon Mayer, gmayer@cnt.org. 

Join us for our third Visionary Voices — conversations with planners, organizers, and researchers about the built environment. Each event will feature a panel, Q&A, and time to meet and chat over refreshments and a beverage of your choice!  Free, but registration required so we know how much food to buy.