Lauren Brown

I was born and raised in the U.S. and have been a visitor on Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territory since 2017. My previous work focused on environmental and food justice and I am grateful to have worked on participatory projects in Utah, New York, and Guatemala. I also completed a Fulbright grant in Mauritius facilitating community-based mapping around climate change, and a Jane Jacobs Fellowship in Toronto designing and installing an agricultural green roof.

My current research and activism are focused on housing and homelessness policy, highlighting the complexities of emergency shelter in the global north. Emergency shelters are often framed and discussed in terms of emergency services and crisis, but must also be understood in the context of colonization, racial capitalism, and in relation to global housing issues and deepening housing unaffordability. By thinking about the current housing “crisis” as rooted in these histories of land, race, and power, my work draws out the slower, more subtle forms of violence embedded in housing and homelessness policy.