Each year, the Center for Social Justice and Public Service at SCU’s School of Law awards the Nancy Wright Social Justice Award in memory of Professor Nancy Wright. Nancy, in partnership with her husband, Professor Eric Wright, led the way in social justice work at Santa Clara Law and inspired generations of students to work for justice. The Award is given to members of the Santa Clara Law community for commendable work in furtherance of social justice and public service. UI faculty, Michelle Oberman and Marlene Bennett, are honored to receive the 2025 Nancy Wright Social Justice Award.
Ms. Bennett joined the Center for Social Justice’s Public Interest and Social Justice Graduation Ceremony on May 22nd to receive the award on behalf of the Unhoused Initiative. The UI is grateful to the Center for Social Justice and Public Service, Prof. Eric Wright, Prof. Vangie Abriel, and Dean Michael Kaufman for selecting us to receive this award in honor of Nancy. We also commend Santa Clara Law for its commitment to upholding the dignity and humanity of our unhoused neighbors.
On Saturday, May 17th, Unhoused Initiative Research Assistants, Sarah El Qadah and Iman Badr presented at SCU’s Alumni Science Conference which features student research and experiential learning projects. Both Senior Public Health Sciences majors, Iman and Sarah submitted UI-partnered projects for conference consideration.
Iman’s project, “Addressing Stigma against People Experiencing Homelessness at SCU: A Collaboration between the Unhoused Initiative and Public Health Capstone Students” discussed the UI’s stigma-reduction research and media campaign.
Sarah’s project “The Impact of Strategic Communication and Shifting Attitudes Surrounding Unhoused Individuals: A Student-Facing Anti-Stigma Campaign” highlighted her strategies for engaging students and increasing their interest in and awareness of the local response to homelessness through social media, interactive events and calls to action.
Sarah and Iman will both graduate this spring. They have been instrumental in moving the UI’s student-facing projects forward and we are so proud of their achievements!
Scroll down to see the posters submitted to the conference by Iman and Sarah.
Sarah El Qadah’s poster titled “The Impact of Strategic Communication and Shifting Attitudes Surrounding Unhoused Individuals: A Student-Facing Anti-Stigma Campaign”Iman Badr’s poster titled “Addressing Stigma against People Experiencing Homelessness at SCU: A Collaboration between the Unhoused Initiative and Public Health Capstone Students”
SCU’s Day of Giving is coming up on Wednesday, April 23rd! The Day of Giving is an annual twenty-four hour fundraiser dedicating to supporting the student experience. This year, the Unhoused Initiative is raising funds for undergraduate and law school experiential learning courses, student internships at local non-profit organizations, service oriented opportunities, and campus events highlighting how the homelessness crisis impacts our community.
In a few short years, the UI has grown into a year-round coordinated effort to harness the myriad resources within our SCU community to forge meaningful improvements in the local response to the homelessness crisis. The UI offers campus events, course work and service opportunities centered on homelessness and rooted in community partnerships. Through an internal grant program, we support faculty research that is informing local policy and advocacy. In partnership with student researchers and organizations, we are reducing stigma and misinformation related to homelessness. By collaborating with administrators and staff focused on campus life, we are advocating for ways to address student housing insecurity. Because of our faculty’s dedication to promoting the dignity and humanity of our unhoused neighbors, students have access to experiential learning opportunities – Senior Capstone, ELSJ, and an upcoming legal clinic course – centered on service and advocacy.
We hope you will support the Unhoused Initiative and our commitment to building a more humane, just and sustainable world for our unhoused neighbors, our community and all Broncos.
If you would like to support the Unhoused Initiative and social justice in action, please visit the UI’s Day of Giving website. Thank you!
People experiencing homelessness are uniquely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, particularly extreme weather. Unhoused Initiative Research Grantee, Dr. C.J. Gabbe, and UI Affiliated Faculty, Dr. Jamie Chang, researched the impacts and risks of heat exposure for unsheltered people experiencing homelessness in Santa Clara County.
Dr. CJ Gabbe
Using geospatial mapping and in-depth interviews with unhoused residents of Santa Clara County, Dr. Gabbe and Dr. Chang examined the environments where unhoused individuals stay and learned about their experiences with extreme heat. Their multiple findings include that heat causes and amplifies health problems for unhoused individuals and that this population often has to choose between shade, water and stability when deciding where to live.
Dr. Jamie Chang
Based on their findings, Dr. Gabbe and Dr. Chang provide both near-future and long-term policy recommendations for California cities and counties to reduce the impacts of extreme heat on unsheltered people experiencing homelessness.
You can read Dr. Gabbe’s and Dr. Chang’s full findings and recommendations in the policy brief, which is available in the UI’s Online Resource Bank.
In case you missed it, a recording is available of our recent panel discussing the intersection of gender and homelessness, with an emphasis on the experiences of unhoused women in Silicon Valley.
Elizabeth Colorado
The panel features Dr. Jesilyn Faust of SCU’s Political Science Department. Dr. Faust is an Unhoused Initiative Faculty Research Grant awardee and recently conducted a community-based study of unhoused women in San Jose. Joining Prof. Faust are Denisse Vera-Romo of SCU’s International Human Rights Clinic and Elizabeth Colorado from Destination: Home’s Lived Experience Advisory Board.
The panel provides an overview of the experiences of unhoused women – cis and trans – in Silicon Valley, describes why this population’s needs are unique, and highlights opportunities for advocacy. If you were unable to attend, be sure to check out the recording linked above!
Prof. Michael KevaneProf. Dosun KoProf. Naomi Levy
The Unhoused Initiative is excited to announce our 2024-2025 Faculty Research Grant awardees. This year, we selected five projects- four original proposals and one UI-developed proposal in partnership with the Santa Clara Police Department. Despite the severity of the crisis in the Silicon Valley, there is a lack of research related to local homelessness. Through faculty research grants, we hope to bridge this gap to inform local policy and programs. Continue reading below for more information about this year’s selected grantees and their projects.
Prof. Tim UrdanProf. Bill SundstromProf. Micah Lattanner
Dosun Ko, Assistant Professor in Santa Clara’s School of Education & Counseling Psychology will address how the intersections of race, disability status, and homelessness contribute to disparities in school discipline, absenteeism, and juvenile justice involvement, with particular attention to marginalized student populations. The study will employ Quantitative Critical Race Theory to explore the systemic inequities that affect students of color with disabilities who also experience housing instability. Professor Ko will collaborate with local organizations, such serving these student populations to co-develop policy recommendations that will inform local educational interventions.
Micah Lattanner, Assistant Professor in Public Health, seeks to assess the impact of Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) on health outcomes and identify predictors of PSH retention—providing valuable insight into “for whom” and “under what conditions” PSH is most effective in enhancing health and continued residence in PSH. The study, titled Who Stays in? A Longitudinal Study of Individual and Social Factors Predicting Long-Term Retention in Permanent Supportive Housing and Health Outcomes, utilizes data from Santa Clara County’s Valley Homeless Healthcare Program and is in partnership with Santa Clara County’s Behavioral Health Department, as well as Unhoused Initiative affiliate faculty, Dr. Jamie Chang.
Naomi Levy, Professor of Political Science, will focus on the impacts of local organizations that serve people experiencing homelessness. Her project will employ the Firsthand Framework for Policy Innovation’s structured research process to generate “bottom up” indicators of program impact of three homeless service organizations. The study’s findings will be used to evaluate programming and inform funding decisions to maximize impact beyond traditional outcome measures. Professor Levy will use her grant funds to support SCU student researchers working on the project.
Bill Sundstrom & Michael Kevane, both professors of Economics in SCU’s Leavey School of Business, will dedicate their Winter and Spring 2025 Santa Clara Urban Issues Research Lab (SCUIRL) courses to an Unhoused Initiative developed project in partnership with the Santa Clara Police Department (SCPD). The project, titled Data Wrangling, Visualization, and Analysis of Data Provided by Santa Clara Police Department on Calls and Police Responses Related to Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) Sites, will evaluate SCPD data related to calls for service at PSH sites to identify patterns and trends. The data analysis will be utilized to inform recommendations for allocation of services and resources. The study will also provide Professor Sundstrom and Kevane’s students with training in spatial data analysis and community-partnered projects.
Tim Urdan, Professor of Psychology, will study the what local schools, government agencies and community organizations are doing to support the academic success or unhoused students. He will also interview the parents/guardians of unhoused students to obtain their insights about how well their students’ needs are being met and what more they believe could be done to better support their children. Professor Urdan will use the resulting data and analyses to create recommendations for how local schools, organizations and agencies can better meet the needs of unhoused students.
The Unhoused Initiative welcomed two new members to our faculty this fall to help guide the UI’s work and further our vision.
Daniel B. Summerhill is an Assistant Professor of Poetry at SCU. His poems and essays have been published widely and he is the author of Divine, Divine, Divine (2021) and Mausoleum of Flowers (2022). Daniel is an Oakland native and the inaugural Poet Laureate of Monterey County, bringing a unique local perspective to the homelessness crisis.
Alexis Takagi is the inaugural Basic Needs Coordinator at SCU. In her role, she helps students access essential resources, such as food, housing and public benefits programs to help them meet their basic needs. Alexis is also a doctoral student in SCU’s School of Education and Counseling Psychology, studying social justice leadership with an emphasis on higher education. Alexis brings a deep understanding of SCU students’ needs and campus connections that help the UI build cross-campus collaborations.
For Alexis’ and Daniel’s full bios, please see our Faculty page.
The Unhoused Initiative at SCU 