One of the biggest challenges to solving the crisis of housing is a crisis of imagination. We know that the City of Santa Fe builds between 65-100 units of affordable housing a year. We also know that the need is currently between 5,000 – 8,000 units. Even in doing our very best within the systems we currently have in place, we will never meet the need. We need to rethink what is possible and explore wildly new strategies and ideas. What better way than engaging the arts and science fiction to open up new worlds and collectively dream a future with housing for all.
Gabriel Teodros of Octavia’s Brood designed a challenge for our community. He asks, what does housing in our city look like in 50 years? In 2068, what solutions have we imagined, and what challenges exist? We encourage you to explore these questions in your imagination, to think beyond current limitations, and to design the future you would want to live in.
“One of the things that has kept me writing is knowing that if we don’t write our own stories, we get written out of the pages of history. And I realized when we don’t write ourselves into the future, we get written out of the pages of tomorrow as well.” -Gabriel Teodros
We designed a Creative Challenge for you.
Click the links below to access PDF’s to read, print, and interact with. We encourage you to respond to the questions embedded through stories, poems, drawings, designs, or any medium that allows you to imagine the future housing in our community.
• Housing the Future – Creative Challenge PDF
• Alojando el Futuro- Desafío Creativo PDF
CLICK HERE for the web version of the Creative Challenge
Kids are Important in the
Conversation Too!
Multiple studies have proven that empowering youth and allowing them the opportunity to participate in the community benefits their development greatly. When youth become engaged in community activities they develop the skills needed to be effective leaders. The Family Activity and Lesson Plan below were designed to engage youth with imagining the future of housing their community, giving them voice in this important issue. We encourage you to use them with your family, youth groups, classes, or through any other opportunity.
Family Activity PDF / Lesson Plan PDF
Actividad Familiar PDF / Plan de la Lección PDF
What Happens Next?
We will be collecting submissions from the Creative Challenge and including them in zine about affordable housing in Santa Fe. The zine will be distributed for free digitally and in print across our community and throughout our network. A select group of volunteer artists will be curating creative challenge submissions along with information on the housing crisis from our partners working on the ground with the issue. We hope that the zine will highlight the reality of the issue, the incredible work people are doing to solve this crisis, and the powerful visions our community has for the future of Santa Fe. Responses will be collected continuously to be incorporated into multiple zines over time.
SUBMIT YOUR RESPONSE TO THE CREATIVE CHALLENGE HERE
Hakim Bellamy wrote the powerful piece ‘Land. Lords.’ in response to the ‘Housing the Future’ event. Click here to read.
For more information on the affordable housing crisis in our community and our ‘Housing the Future’ event, checkout the article ‘Building Up or Tearing Down‘ by Matt Grubs.