House Hayward Now
House Hayward Now (HHN) is a resident-led group formed to address the housing and homelessness crisis in Hayward. HHN approaches this work from three angles:
- Policy research and development: HHN researches regional and national housing solutions, translating them into policies that can be put into practice specifically for Hayward.
- Advocacy: HHN engages in community outreach to inform our policy research and provide housing education to local decision-makers and organizations involved in housing and homelessness work.
- Tenant Organizing: HHN actively canvasses tenants across the city to understand their needs, educate them about their rights and resources, and encourage them to organize with their neighbors.
In 2023, HHN successfully advocated for the City of Hayward to allocate $500,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding towards free legal aid for residents facing evictions after the COVID moratorium expried, preventing a wave of unjust evictions and homelessness.
HHN also introduced a Rental Registry System (RRS) to the city, which will provide our city with the necessary data to track and enforce fair rent increases while also gaining better insight into housing and homelessness trends in our city. We succeeded in moving the RRS past the city’s Housing and Homelessness Task Force, and City Council has incorporated its development into their strategic roadmap for 2024-2025.
We are currently developing a student homelessness intervention plan (SHIP) in partnership with Hayward Promise Neighborhood, Hayward Unified School District, South Hayward Parish, and La Familia.
HHN is completely resident/volunteer-run and takes ZERO funding from corporate real-estate interests.
HHN Members awake at 5am to participate in the County’s Point-In-Time Count (Homelessness Census)