Social Abuse: Community, Care & Contracts

Social Abuse — Community, Care & Contracts exists to explore the systems, policies, and power structures that shape the lives of unhoused people in America and to bring policymakers, service providers, and the people being served to the same table in pursuit of a shared standard of human dignity. We are a podcast for anyone working in, affected by, or simply paying attention to the systems that shape the lives of unhoused people, the people doing the work, making the decisions, and living with the consequences, and for everyone who believes that dignity should never be optional and that we can always do better. Every episode goes beyond the headlines and into the conversations that rarely happen in public, pulling back the curtain on how decisions about unhoused people actually get made. Into the rooms where contracts are awarded and policies are shaped, yet the people most affected are too often the last ones in the room. Into the frontlines where dedicated workers fill the gaps institutions leave behind, and the systems designed to track poverty rather than end it. Because when the gap between policy and people goes unaddressed, everyone pays the price. We believe that behind every person without a home is a complex story. For some, it is a system that failed them. For others, it is the cumulative weight of personal choices made before crisis took hold and the absence of the support needed to course correct. In most cases, it is both. What we share across all of those stories is this: systems are made of choices, and choices can always be made differently. Naming them clearly, honestly, and without apology is the first step toward making better ones. We are not here to point fingers. We are here to spark honest, grounded conversation that moves people from awareness to action — and builds unity among those who serve, those being served, and the local governments responsible for both. Our commitment is to the truth of lived experience, the rigor of evidence, and the dignity of every person who has ever been reduced to a statistic, a problem to be managed, or a line item in someone else's budget. This is the conversation that needs to happen. We’re having it.