This document discusses framing strategies for housing advocacy. It provides sample messaging from various states focusing on themes of opportunity, fairness, and stability. The document emphasizes connecting the need for affordable housing to broader issues like education, health, and community well-being. It also contrasts using "portrait" stories of individuals with "landscape" approaches that discuss trends and policy solutions. Finally, the document shows how stable housing can positively impact families and ripple out to other community members and institutions.
1. RE:Frame: Housing basics
Putting it all together to create
housing opportunity
Grace Badik, Street Roots
Michael Anderson, Center for Community Change
Janet Byrd, Neighborhood Partnerships
3. What Can be Done
Solutions
Why it Matters
Values
What’s Wrong
Needs
4. Talking about Needs:
Using Data
Digestible
numbers
Relatable
image
Good
Social
Math
5.
6.
7.
8. Top Oregon Messages
2004
• Hardworking people should be able to afford housing and still have
enough money for groceries and other basic necessities *
• Children deserve an opportunity to succeed in school and life,
which is tied to having a stable home
• Housing gives people an opportunity to build better lives. To
succeed you need a place to call home
• Its only fair that everyone has a safe, decent place to live
* Support for message equal substituting seniors, people with disabilities or young families
9. Top Washington Messages
2008 & 2009
Everyone should have the opportunity to live in a safe, healthy
affordable home
It should be possible for working people* to afford housing and still have
enough money for the basics like groceries, gas and child care
Children deserve a chance to succeed in school and in life, which all begins
with their families being able to afford a decent place to live
It’s better for society, the environment and families if people can
afford to live close to where they work.
* Can insert US military veterans, senior citizens, people with disabilities, and families
10. Top Arkansas
Messages
2011
• Every child deserves a safe place to call home
• A place to call home offers seniors* an opportunity to live
and grow with independence and dignity
• Our veterans should have access to safe, affordable
housing
• Hardworking Arkansans should be able to afford a home
and still have enough money for groceries and child care
* Can insert people with disabilities into this message.
11. Top Alabama
Messages
2013
• Every child deserves a safe place to call
home
• Hardworking Alabamians should be able
Retirees & people with disabilities on fixed
to pay rent and still be able to put food on
the table
incomes should be able to pay rent and still be
able to put food on the table
• The men and women who defend our
country deserve to return to a safe and
affordable home
12. Public Opinion Research
Kalamazoo
Arkansas
MI
Minnesota
Illinois
Vermont
Pennsylvania
North Carolina
Washington
Oregon
California
Rhode Island
Alabama
13. What We Know
opportunity
Value frames
that work for
home
security stability
housing
reward for work
fairness
responsibility to care for
the less fortunate
22. Different Stories > Different Solutions
Portraits
• Individuals
• Events
• Private
• Appeal to consumers
• Better information
• Fix the person
Landscapes
• Issues
• Trends
• Public
• Appeal to citizens
• Better Policies
• Fix the Condition
- Based on work by Iyengar and Gilliam
24. Family finds
safe &
affordable
housing
Kids stable
in school
Kids
involved in
afterschool
activities
Mom able to
go to work
consistently
Mom’s stress
decreases,
health
improves
Referral to
SNAP
Music
Teacher
Employer
Doctor,
Nurse
Resident
Services
Staff
Teacher
Editor's Notes
Data/facts—can only take us so far
-Social math = relatable data + strong image
Coalition for a Livable Future: Regional Equity Atlas Maps of Portland-Metro Area—series of different maps including housing with analysis of findings
Specific lessons learned from affordable housing communication & public opinion research from Arkansas, Minnesota, Vermont, Illinois, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Washington, California, Rhode Island and national research.
People get the concept of home
There is a general but latent support for affordable housing among general public; 2010 Zogby Poll (86% said having affordable place to live a priority)
Talk about HOME, not housing
Other trends
Support for programs that help seniors, people with disabilities have strong support
Support drops when issue is of citing housing in direct proximity (i.e. NIMBY)
Child doing homework on dining room table
Seniors able to stay in the communities in which they have lived and to which they have contributed t
Stable, secure housing allows people with physical and mental disabilities the chance to thrive
When people are not forced to move for economic issues, communities are stronger. Parents know each other, and feel safer about their kids playing outside
A simple way to distinguish news story frames is to think of the difference between a portrait and a landscape. In a news story framed as a portrait, audiences may learn a great deal about an individual or an event, heavy on the drama and emotion. But, it is hard to see what surrounds individuals or what brought them to that moment in time. A landscape story pulls back the lens to take a broader view. It may include people and events, but connects them to the larger social and economic forces. News stories framed as landscapes are more likely to evoke solutions that don’t focus exclusively on individuals, but also the policies and institutions that shape the circumstances around them.