Fellows With Lived Experience Aid UC San Diego Homelessness Hub

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This article originally appeared in the fall 2024 issue of UC San Diego Magazine as “The HEART of Homelessness.”

Frank Kensaku Saragosa, a writer and former professor of American literature, knows the isolation, uncertainty and averted gaze of strangers that come with life on the streets of downtown San Diego. He has slept on sidewalks, weathered rainstorms and relied on soup kitchens for daily meals. He has also experienced addiction and incarceration. 

Today, Saragosa is a Home­lessness Experienced Action Research Training (HEART) Fellow. He is among the first cohort of formerly unhoused San Diego residents working as co-researchers with the UC San Diego Homelessness Hub. 

“When it comes to interviewing people who have lived on the streets, it helps to have an interviewer who has also had the same experiences,” says Saragosa. “It helps foster trust, rapport and a willingness to share thoughtfully and honestly.” 

The Homelessness Hub was established in 2022 in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. The team includes faculty and postdoctoral fellows, undergraduate students, service providers, homelessness advocates and community organizations who conduct applied research into the causes, complications and consequences of homelessness. By collaborating with researchers and advocates from across the nonprofit, academic and public sectors as well as those who have lived experience of homelessness, the team seeks to identify solutions that promote health, dignity and housing for all.

“The HEART Fellows bring perspectives and bodies of knowledge that complement our own and enrich the research,” says Leslie Lewis, MA ’02, PhD ’10, the Homelessness Hub’s director of education and community engagement. “They think of questions that we don’t think of. They also act as connectors and trust bridges to the broader community of people experiencing homelessness in San Diego.” 

The HEART Fellows participate in weekly training facilitated by Lewis and Stacey Livingstone, PhD ’23, a postdoctoral fellow at the Homelessness Hub, and receive an hourly stipend that’s on par with the compensation received by graduate student researchers at UC San Diego.

While integrating the voices of lived experience is becoming increasingly commonplace, the UC San Diego Homelessness Hub has elevated the practice to a new level. As co-researchers, the HEART Fellows are building case studies that examine barriers to meeting the service and shelter needs of those experiencing homelessness. Saragosa has conducted interviews in the field for the Homelessness Hub’s work and participated in research and case study design.

He says this work has given him reason for hope. “I now see how people who’ve experienced homelessness, experts in various fields and policymakers can work together to improve a system which, frankly, is broken.” 

Learn more about the HEART Fellows and the Homelessness Hub.