I recently had the privilege of serving as a judge at the Georgia State University Undergraduate Research Conference. It was a great way to immerse in the creative and future-facing ideas of more than 200 student researchers. While all the projects and each of the students I met were impressive, one stood out to me. I spoke with a young lady about her research developing a Human Aid Robot to assist those with disabilities. She shared with me her use of Common Voice in her project. Common Voice is a voice recognition technology allowing your speech to be converted to text. Imagine voice recognition as a translator, but instead of working between languages, it makes it possible to use your voice to control devices or dictate messages. Think Alexa or Suri, or any other voice technology device available. Although it is a convenience for most of us, it is even more valuable to someone missing a limb, or with difficulty hearing. Again, I was impressed with the project but even more impressed with the student because of her interest in making life better for those with needs while different than her own, still connected. Herein lies the link to homelessness, our common voice.
Our Common Voice
One of the critical aspects of serving the unhoused and those at risk of homelessness is the importance of hearing the story behind the need. Needs are in essence, part of our common voice because we all have them. Similar to many other nonprofit agencies, A Home For Everyone In DeKalb (AHFEID) has seen a recent surge in need for financial assistance from renters in receipt of a dispossessory warrant, which means they are facing eviction and are at an extremely high risk of becoming homeless. In a 2022 U.S. Census survey, nearly 25% of Georgia households with children reported little to no confidence in their ability to pay their next month’s rent. Please take a moment to view an interview of a family who recently received eviction prevention assistance from AHFEID here
Our Ability to Help
Homelessness prevention requires three essential components:
1) the ability to hear the need (case worker)
2) the ability to meet the need (funding)
3) the appropriate system to have a lasting impact (service model)
A Home For Everyone In DeKalb endeavors to serve as many renting families as possible to ensure they can remain in their homes. According to Eviction Lab, most poor families are spending at least half of their income on housing. Statistics show one in four of those families spend more than 70% of their income just on rent and utilities due to a lack of affordable housing options.
Please give here if you would like to support one or more of our programming areas, such as eviction prevention for those at-risk of homelessness; assisting those who are unhoused during extreme weather conditions; providing initial move-in costs to the newly housed; or supporting our transitional home programs for men and soon-to-be for women.
We are always grateful for all of your support.
By focusing on collaboration (our common voice), AHFEID looks to co-create a true path to safe and affordable housing for those struggling to get out of homelessness, while at the same time preventing as many as possible from falling in!
In service,
Dr. Tammy Hughes