Workshops

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Housing Summit

Saturday November 12, 2016


All workshops take place in the Frick Fine Arts building, across from the Main Carnegie Library in Oakland and adjacent to Schenley Plaza. Film sessions will take place in Posvar Hall, at the University of Pittsburgh.
Workshop block #1 11:00AM-12:15PM

'Tales of Displacement and Local Root Shock
Residents most impacted by housing insecurity will share their experiences and describe how the city's development policies have transformed Pittsburgh's neighborhoods and communities. Organizers working with displaced and housing insecure residents will help participants gain a better understanding of conditions in our city, including neighborhoods altered by encroaching university campuses.
Speakers: '
Jonathan Reyes, Braddock Carnegie Library Art Lending Collection; Lisa J. Gonzalez,Northside Coalition for Fair Housing & Homes for All Pittsburgh; Carol Hardeman, Hill District Consensus Group
Facilitators: Tony Fabio, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh & Patricia Parker, Northside Coalition for Fair Housing
Location: Frick Fine Arts Room 202
Resident Rights and Remedies
Learn about the legal resources and community agencies that can help residents get assistance when facing housing discrimination. What legal rights do residents have through City, County, and State Human Relations Commissions? How can residents be sure their legal rights are respected?
Speakers: Carlos Torres, MPA, Executive Director Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations; Lyle Wood, Acting Regional Director, Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission; Kevin Quisenberry, Community Justice Project
Facilitators: Mary Ohmer, School of Social Work, University of Pittsburgh; Sabina Dietrick, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
Location: Frick Fine Arts Room 203
'Taking back the land”Part 1: (Dis)investment and Displacement
This workshop uncovers the processes of investment and disinvestment that contribute to the global process of
serial forced displacement. In particular, the role of global finance and local/city policies and financial institutions in determining how communities' land is used is explored, as are some of the strategies communities have used to defend their right to stay.
Speakers: Desiree Fields*; Max Rameau*; Ernesto Lopez Morales*; '
Malcolm Torrejón Chu, National Right to the City/ Homes for All Coalition
Facilitator: Laura Wiens, The Union Edge, Labor's Talk Radio
Location: Frick Fine Arts Auditorium
Gender and Housing: Opportunities with new

City Women's Rights Ordinance?

How does the affordable housing issue impact women in particular? How does gender identity impact peoples' ability to find secure and decent housing? What opportunities does the new City ordinance on women's rights provide for those working for housing justice?

Speakers: Ronell Guy, Northside Coalition for Fair Housing; Marcia Bandes, Cities for CEDAW Coalition; Ciora Thomas, Community Human Services

Facilitator: Michael Goodhart, Department of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh & Human Rights City Alliance

Location: Frick Fine Arts Room 204


Films: Building Alternatives

  • Know Your Rights: The Human Right to Housing (5 mins.)
  • Streets of Dreams (16 mins.)
  • Movement for Justice in El Barrio (17 mins.)Discussion will follow film screening
    Facilitator: Roger Rouse, University of Pittsburgh Global Studies Center, TBA-Northside Coalition for Fair Housing
    Location: Posvar Hall, Room 1700 (Posvar Hall'' is located across from the Schenley Plaza tent)


Workshop block #2 1:45-3:00

Repetitive Root Shock: Immigrants' experiences in Pittsburgh
This workshop considers connections between the forces of economic globalization that displace people from communities outside the United States and the forces that have displaced/disrupted neighborhoods in Pittsburgh. How does continued housing insecurity impact immigrant residents of our city? What happens to people when they are displaced from multiple homes and communities? How can communities fight the forces that divide us?
Participants: Speaker TBA: Acculturation for Justice, Access and Peace Outreach(AJAPO)

Leslie Aizenman, MPPM, Director, Refugee & Immigrant Services-Jewish Family & Children's Services; TBA Latino Family Center
Facilitator: Brenda SÏŒlkez, Community Justice Project
Location: Frick Fine Arts Room 202


Renter Nation: Tenants'/Renters' Unions
as tools for building collective power
This workshop describes projects to organize renters in order to enhance collective voice in relation to landlords and to help shape public policies in ways that protect people's right to stay in the communities where they have grown up or where they have chosen to live while enjoying protections from dislocation and unfair treatment by landlords.
Participants: Ronell Guy, Northside Coalition for Fair Housing; Carl Redwood, Hill District Consensus Group; George Moses, Former Board Chairman, National Low-Income Housing Coalition; Malcolm Chu, National Right to the City/Homes for All Coalition
Facilitators: Waverly Duck, Sociology Department, University of Pittsburgh & Anu Jain, Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies Program (Pitt) & Coalition for Racial Equity in the Arts
Location: Frick Fine Arts Auditorium
Taking back the land”Part 2
Building Community Resistance and Resilience
How have people struggled to resist global processes of serial forced displacement and to build sustained communities? This workshop features accounts of popular struggles to take back control of the places where individuals and communities live and thrive.
Participants: Bonnie Young Laing, 'MSW, Ph.D. California University of Pennsylvania, Department of Social Work & Hill District Consensus Group; Max Rameau;* Rob Robinson;* Hillary Caldwell, NYC Community Land Initiative
Facilitators: '
Mary Ohmer, School of Social Work & Center for Race and Social Problems, University of Pittsburgh
Location: Frick Fine Arts Room 203
'Homes are not Enough:
Elements of Strong Communities
Building a city where human rights are a priority requires a radical re-thinking of many aspects of public policy. This workshop considers what it would take to achieve communities where residents enjoy all of the basic human rights they need to live life to their full potential. People need not just good, secure homes, but they need access to good jobs, transportation, quality education, food, and a healthy environment. How is the work of community activists in Pittsburgh and elsewhere contributing to achievements in advancing such a vision of peoples'
right to the city?
Participants: 'Jason Beery/ Jamil Bey Urbankind Institute;Alyssa Lieberman, United Students Against Sweatshops; Molly Nichols, Pittsburghers for Public Transit; Dawn Plummer, Pittsburgh Food Policy Council
Facilitators: Helen Gerhardt, Homes for All Coalition; Antonia Domingo, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement & USW
Location: Frick Fine Arts Room 204

Films: Fighting Foreclosure and Eviction

  • For Sale: The American Dream (25 mins.)
  • A Dream Foreclosed (11 mins.)
  • Fighting for Our Homes (6 mins.)Discussion will follow film screenings
    Facilitators: Roger Rouse,University of Pittsburgh Global Studies Center & Reggie Good, Northside Coalition for Fair Housing
    Location: Posvar Hall, Room 1700 (Posvar Hall'' is located across from the Schenley Plaza tent)