August 30, 2024

By Elizabeth Funk, Founder & CEO, DignityMoves

My daughter left last week to start her next phase of life, moving from our home in the Bay Area to begin college in Nashville, Tennessee. It is an important milestone. While she’s been relatively independent for some time, she has always known that I was nearby, able to see she got home safely each night and help her when she needed it. 

Now she’s thousands of miles away, living, as all freshmen at her school do, in a dorm. She and her roommates are sharing a “triple,” and the three of them share two bathrooms with an entire floor of students.  The dorm has a common kitchen area for late-night snacking, but meals are primarily in the dining halls.  

My organization, DignityMoves, builds Interim Supportive Housing communities for people experiencing unsheltered homelessness.  When someone moves into one of our “cabin communities,” it is often the first time they have lived indoors for many years.  We started DignityMoves with the fundamental premise that everyone should get their own private space.  People often don’t accept “shelter” because they don’t like sleeping on bunk beds next to strangers, where they always have to be on alert to protect themselves and their belongings. In truth, offering every person a door that locks has proven to be a game-changer for people’s willingness to accept housing. We also find that it dramatically improves the effectiveness of supportive services. When people get out of “survival mode,” they are in a much better mindset to begin working on constructive next steps.  

Yet in order to build DignityMoves communities quickly and cost-effectively, we chose to build common  bathroom, laundry, and dining facilities. By making the expensive parts shared spaces, we can build our communities for a fraction of the cost of permanent housing.  It was a cost- and time-saving sacrifice for which I was always quick to apologize. 

Yet, listening to my daughter talk about her life in the dorm I had an epiphany: the community-focused design is a feature, not a bug.  Most universities require freshmen to live on-campus, and dorm rooms don’t have private bathrooms or kitchens for a reason – it forces even the shyest student to come out of their room to interact.  At least in the first year or two away from home, that community living is healthy  – it helps create an instant support network, energy, and friendships.  

When DignityMoves community members were living in encampments, they came to depend on each other for survival–literally.  Transitioning from that environment to a relatively structured living situation requires a period of adjustment. For those who are  in the early stages of re-learning responsibilities and social norms, the supportive community of peers provides an essential element of psychological safety as well as peer support.  While privacy offers a new level of security, being solely responsible for yourself can also be overwhelming.  

My conversation with James came to mind.  He had only been at DignityMoves for a few weeks when he was informed that he might soon receive his permanent housing placement– a thought that terrified him.  He just wasn’t ready for independent living yet.  “If I go away, you’d have to put me on suicide watch.  I don’t have enough stuff to fill an apartment, and I don’t cook.  I just need to be here with my ‘peeps.” After several more months of working with his case manager, sleeping full nights, and regaining self-confidence, he eventually moved on and is thriving today. But that “stabilization period” was an essential step.  Data shows that when people move too quickly from the streets straight into permanent, independent housing, many fail out.  

We often say that “the streets cannot be the waiting room” for permanent housing, that people need a dignified, safe place to wait while the supply of permanent housing catches up to demand.  But I’ve now come to realize that ISH is more than just a better waiting room, it is in itself a valuable step on the path to exiting homelessness for good.  In many ways, both my daughter and the residents of DignityMoves are on similar journeys—transitioning to a new phase of life, learning to navigate independence, and finding their place within a community. Just as dorm life will teach my daughter resilience, social skills, and the importance of a supportive network, the communal living model at DignityMoves provides an essential foundation for our residents. It offers not just a roof over their heads, but a structured environment where they can reconnect with others, rebuild their confidence, and prepare for the next chapter of their lives. As I watch my daughter grow and thrive in her new environment, I am reminded that the path to stability and independence is rarely a straight line—it is a journey best taken together, with support and understanding along the way.