Revord Steps Down as Housing Solutions Network Director, Reflects on Journey and Advocates for Housing Solutions
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Photo Courtesy of Liz Revord [/caption]
News by Angela Downs
Liz Revord has been the Network Director for Housing Solutions Network (HSN) for the past three years, and will be stepping down effective June 30th.
“When I first started at HSN, I was housing insecure and it was all encompassing. To be housing insecure in a crisis is unimaginable. It is because of my community's support that I have the privilege of stepping away from work,” Revord said.
After emergency spinal surgery in November, Revord shifted from 40 hours a week working for HSN to 24, with the expectation to return to 40. But after a year and a half of discussions with her doctor, Revord needs to prioritize health.
Prioritizing all levels of her health, Revord said, “It is a full-time job of healing, and I would be doing a disservice to the program to stay on when I do not have the resources. Both healing and housing solutions are nonlinear processes, responding with the resources we have.”
HSN is a grassroots effort working collaboratively on new strategies to increase the availability of affordable and attainable housing in East Jefferson County. While it is a swift and drastic shift for the team still trying to navigate what is next after the change, HSN will still be communicating through their newsletter, social media, and website run by the Communications Strategist Eric Jones.
Jefferson Community Foundation, HSN’s Field of Interest Fund, will be supporting HSN’s Leadership Steering Committee as they actively oversee the next steps.
Revord remarked on having witnessed the part HSN has played in the development of important players in the web of housing solutions, such as Community Build tiny homes, and people like Kellen Lynch with Olympic Housing Trust moving forward with the Dundee Hill Project.
“The cool thing about HSN is that we have continued to engage local young professionals to share not just their insights, but the insights of their own community and networks and have created housing advocates out of them, no matter what work they're doing,” Revord said.
Revord took on the challenge when starting with HSN to look through a network lens to see how to accomplish goals through the hands of many, learning to trust the many that are involved in the work. “I have hope for building the next 20 years through the Comprehensive Plan. This work does not belong to any one person.”
Housing security is a key point in climate and community resilience. Keeping people in their networks strengthens everyone. Affordable housing includes many points of resilience, like green spaces, agriculture, food security, and water. “We cannot become community prepared if those that are not secure are not taken care of,” Revord said.
“It was hard to make this choice, and I fought it for a while. I thought, ‘If not me, then who? ’ But we don’t know what is possible if we don’t make room for what is next. It’s like Bill Wise, our chair says, ‘We have this one life. If we don’t prioritize our health, then when will we?”
Apply the rule of three degrees of separation, and you’ll find the housing crisis is at the bottom of any given concern you are focused on. Whether you are evicted, living in your car, without water and electricity, or concerned about over-development and gentrification, this is an issue for everyone.
“When I first moved here, I heard the rumblings of this historic romantic tale of shed boys and shed girls. To me, that just means that people have been living in inadequate housing here for a very long time,” Revord said.
HSN is the voice of the collective, but there is a need for the individual voices to show up and advocate as allies for the housing-insecure and the character of the county.
HSN encourages community members to submit written public comments or attend meetings in person to share their perspectives on housing, even if they feel intimidated by the process.
Revord recommends joining the HSN newsletter and signing up for advocacy alerts for opportunities for public comment and write-ins. As part of a well-organized network, HSN is working with programs like Engage PT Initiatives, which help people understand how issues connect to each other.
“It's really been important to me to fight for the people who are in this community, who want to stay in this community, because I think they're the people who make it worth wanting to be here. I have a lot of pride in the work I’ve done, and am ready to work with the grief of the unknown,” Revord said.
