I have decided on a different approach to my campaign for affordable housing. Instead of focusing on the same areas that many other organizations are already working on, I turned my focus to changing people’s mindsets.
I knew it is not an overnight task, and it will take time. I concentrated on talking to one person at a time and tried to change attitudes. I used my research on affordable housing to put forward my points:
- If people working here can live in Newton, they will not need to commute in and out of the city. This will reduce traffic.
- Affordable housing opportunities will create a vibrant and self-reliant community. People with different skills like plumbers, electricians, masons, roofers, chefs, etc. will be available easily in the city.
- When people from different ethnicities live in a city, then restaurants serving different cuisines come up.
For one month, I talked to the same set of individuals and was able to convince most of them. After a month again, I repeated the survey and found that most people now are in favor of affordable housing.
Encouraged by this turn-around, I started to reach more people in places like the Newton Free Library, the Cooper Center, etc.
I could not reach many people at the same time. Individual discussions were helpful, but the pace was slow. Also striking up conversations with people in the library or similar spaces was not very easy, as sometimes people were busy reading. Different village fairs and community events provided a good opportunity for campaigning. Over the next two years, I set out to campaign at many such events, including Newtonville Village Day, Nonantum Village Day, Newton Highlands Village Day, the Boston Marathon, India Day at Newton Highlands, Christmas celebration at Coletti-Magni Park, “La Festa Italiana” at Pellegrini Park, to name a few. I handmade posters to display, as I believe it is more effective than a computer printout.
The benefits of housing affordability were described. Many people approached me and wanted to know more about my work. I presented my pitch about the benefits of housing affordability and most of the time people agreed. Even when they disagreed, they did so politely. I do not have an exact number of people I reached through these campaigns, but a rough guess will be around 400 individuals. This number is many more if one considers the individuals who got the message from them.
Looking back now, I feel that with this kind of campaign, I could reach more people and make at least some small impact. My major focus had been to reach as many people as possible and create a mindset supporting affordable housing in the city, instead of talking to the policy makers, or campaigning for housing schemes, etc. Those avenues are also important, but there are many organizations working toward them. Instead, I chose to reach people and create a healthy environment for affordable housing to take flight.
Kaushiki Banerjee
Senior, Newton North High School