Advocating for humanity
Union Station Homeless Services’ Senior Director of Advocacy & Community Engagement, Shawn Morrissey, and Director of Public Policy & Legislative Affairs, Sarah Thomas, work to address the systemic causes of homelessness, including guiding our positions on issues and legislative matters to achieve our mission of ending homelessness.
about advocacy at union station homeless services
The homelessness crisis has been generations in the making. To end homelessness, we must meet individual needs for housing and services—and address the systemic causes that lead thousands of people to lose their housing every year: rising housing costs and inequitable pay are driving the crisis. But we must recognize that racism, redlining, generational poverty, the war on drugs, mass incarceration, lack of healthcare, and a dire lack of basic social safety nets are the broken systems that created this crisis.
The Advocacy Department focuses on ways to fund and streamline the creation of affordable housing, to ensure that the true costs of evidence-based services are funded, and to remove barriers to the adoption of best practices and outcomes-based models.
Lived Expertise Advisory Panel (LEAP)
LEAP (Lived Expertise Advisory Panel) gives a voice and leadership role to individuals who have experienced homelessness. Composed of community members who are currently and formerly unhoused, LEAP makes recommendations to guide our executives, administration, and Board in their decisions about the types of services we provide and the advocacy issues we should address.
The LEAP leadership team works alongside Shawn Morrissey and Sarah Thomas, focusing on capacity building and bringing the value of Lived Expertise to the community at large. LEAP’s leadership team is dedicated to extending the advisory panel’s impact since it was launched in 2020. LEAP is led by Chair Cynthia Kirby and Vice Chair Cory Patterson, while Scott DesJardins serves as Secretary, Keith Crenshaw is an ambassador for Community Engagement, and Lindsay Dennis ensures the group is up to date on Policy and Advocacy.
the Voice of Lived Expertise:
Keith Crenshaw
Keith Crenshaw remembers the exact night he realized that he had nowhere to go. He had lost a job and place to stay. That night was his first time sleeping outdoors. Pasadena was his hometown, and through his friends, he found Union Station Homeless Services and now has an apartment. Keith is grateful for the moments of true human connection that he found at Union Station and now uses his experience to guide others. Using both his platform as USHS LEAP’s Community Engagement Chair, as well as his own personal experience of homelessness, Keith is dedicated to giving back and making an impact on the homeless crisis.
“In one sentence, LEAP is my way of paying it forward for the community.” -Keith Crenshaw