Culture, Connection, and Change

How we work is who we are.

At Community Shelter Board, we are not just providing housing. We are building a workplace and system that works for everyone. How we show up with each other shapes how we show up for our system and for the community. That is why we are intentional about creating a workplace and system culture where people feel connected, supported, and part of something bigger than themselves. Justice and belonging are not extras. They're embedded in how we lead, how we listen, and how we live our mission.

We believe:

• Housing is a human right.
• People with lived experience must be centered.
• Shared leadership yields collective impact and fosters a sense of real community.

Housing is a human right.

We believe housing is foundational to dignity, stability, and opportunity, not a reward for navigating broken systems or meeting arbitrary conditions.

At Community Shelter Board, this belief drives everything we do. That is why we are shifting from managing homelessness to building a housing readiness system that centers people, not programs.

When we say housing is a human right, we mean:

• Everyone deserves a safe, stable place to live, regardless of income, background, or circumstance.
• Access to housing should never be contingent on sobriety, service participation, or compliance with systems not built for everyone.
• Our response to homelessness must be rooted in justice, compassion, and community responsibility.

We work to remove obstacles, reimagine pathways, and advocate for a system that treats housing as a basic need, not a privilege.

We also support a broader movement to ensure housing justice, where policies, practices, and power structures align to ensure fair, affordable housing access for all.

People with lived experience must be centered. 

The experts in our system are the people who have lived it. That’s why we center those with lived experience of homelessness or housing instability in how we lead, design, and evaluate our work.