In 2023, a coalition of 80+ organizations formed to document every displacement, every broken promise, every cascading health crisis Paris's Olympic planning caused. They weren't just opponents. They were architects of a better approach. Los Angeles has two years to decide which version of this story it will tell.
Read MoreOn the morning of July 26, 2024, Paris opened its Olympic Games with a ceremony that stretched the length of the Seine. Millions watched. A woman in irregular housing watched from inside a squat she was afraid to leave. What her story tells us about Los Angeles in 2028.
Read MoreNone of these cities has solved homelessness. All of them are making measurable progress with fewer resources than we have.
Read MoreOne thousand young people age out of LA County's foster care system every year. Nearly one in four will experience homelessness by age 23. Manchester found a better way. Why haven't we?
Read MoreBuenos Aires is not a success story with a neat ending. It's a story about a city making hard choices during an impossible situation — and getting some things right that LA has been getting wrong for years.
Read MoreLisbon built a restaurant where people experiencing homelessness do the cooking and serving — and 68% landed permanent jobs. LA has the workforce crisis, the funding tools, and the Olympic deadline. What we're missing is the will to connect the dots.
Read MoreWhile Buenos Aires redesigned their entire homeless response system during an economic collapse, Greater Manchester cut rough sleeping by 42% through prevention, and Lisbon is moving people from streets into jobs — Los Angeles approved $843 million in homeless spending that includes nearly $200 million in cuts. The world knows what works. The only thing LA lacks is the will to try.
Read MoreWhen federal authorities rescinded protected areas policy in January 2025, LA's shelters stopped being sanctuaries. With up to 40% of the unhoused community undocumented, immigration enforcement isn't just a policy issue — it's driving people deeper into homelessness. This is the documented record.
Read MoreThe FY 2026-27 budget preserves 6,185 interim housing beds, 24,250 permanent supportive housing slots, and key co-design victories including community liaisons and faith-based coordinators. Part 6 of 6 in the series on LA County's Department of Homeless Services and Housing examines what Radical Hope looks like in practice.
Read MoreLA County's new Department of Homeless Services and Housing budget cut most community co-design proposals. Only 0.05% of the $843 million budget went to community-designed programs. Here's what we proposed, what survived, and why radical hope means continuing anyway.
Read MoreOver two days in September 2025, approximately 100 of us from Service Planning Area 4 gathered to reimagine LA County's homelessness response. We didn't know it then, but we were designing a lifeboat while watching the Titanic sink.
Read MoreConfronting Minnesota's federal occupation through the lens of family history, James Baldwin, and Ai Weiwei—and why radical hope demands local action now.
Read MoreAs Los Angeles gears up for the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympics, we are faced with a critical decision. The experience of Paris serves as a cautionary tale, highlighting the consequences of prioritizing spectacle over the well-being of the unhoused community. However, it also presents an opportunity to take a different approach - one that turns these events into positive agents of change, rather than catalysts for displacement.
Read MoreI spent the first 33 years of my life in Minnesota. Watching the fascist ICE raids in a place I know so well has hit me hard. But I stay hopeful—not that things will calm down, but that we were born for times like these.
Read MoreA deep dive into institutional isomorphism, the nonprofit starvation cycle, and how funder expectations systematically undermine the organizations trying to create change. Includes the author's firsthand account of Lava Mae's rise and fall. Complete three-part series with citations and resources.
Read MoreWorker cooperatives, community land trusts, and self-managing organizations prove that democracy, small scale, and community control produce better outcomes than hierarchy—and these models have been working for decades.
Read MoreEvidence shows trust-based philanthropy works. MacKenzie Scott's $19.2 billion in unrestricted giving strengthened 93% of recipient organizations. Here are six practices funders can adopt—and why most won't.
Read MoreWhen you give organizations unrestricted money and trust them to use it well, 98% succeed. How many times do we need to learn this lesson before we believe it?
Read MoreI was there when Lava Mae collapsed. We served 30,000 people, inspired 80+ organizations worldwide, and received a million-dollar grant. Then the founder said 'I'm exhausted.' This is what happens when we fund programs but not people.
Read MoreWelcome back. We ended last week with a quote from Lumbee Tribal member Edgar Villanueva: "All of us who have been forced to the margins are the very ones who harbor the best solutions." But those solutions remain unfunded because funders with the least connection to problems control resources meant to solve them. This week, we're digging deeper into the inequality—and inequity—in the vast majority of nonprofit boards.
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