Reflection, Resistance and Repair: Growing Our Capacity to Eradicate Homelessness and Create Home

HCN's CEO delivers a groundbreaking framework at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

October 1, 2025 – In a powerful presentation for Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Initiative on Health and Homelessness (IHH), Homeless Children's Network (HCN) CEO Dr. April Y. Silas engaged audience members from across non-profit, public health, social services, private, and academic sectors to fundamentally reimagine how we approach homelessness—not as a housing problem to be managed, but as the latest chapter in a 500-year continuum of systematic displacement that demands our deepest reflection, boldest resistance, and most committed repair.

Kicking off IHH’s webinar series for the year, Dr. Silas delivered a powerful session that the Initiative described as radical for its bold examination of how historical trauma continues to shape present-day systems and contribute to homelessness, particularly within the Black community in the United States. The presentation served as both a historical reckoning and a practical roadmap for systemic transformation.

A New Framework for Liberation

Dr. Silas introduced a transformative three-pillar framework that positions efforts to eradicate homelessness as fundamentally about human liberation and restoration:

Reflection: Liberating ourselves from the fear, guilt, shame, dissociation, and the enormity of homelessness to bring our most courageous and authentic selves to this work.

Resistance: Resisting the urge to see resistance itself as anything other than pivotal to the movement. Building capacity to resist limitations and be radically expansive in our approach.

Repair: Moving beyond housing-centric solutions to truly resource humanity—creating and cultivating home through Afri-centric principles that honor interconnectedness, community accountability, and the village model of care.

Developing the Internal Capacity for Authentic Action

In addition to introducing this new framework, Dr. Silas emphasized developing the psychosocial, spiritual, and internal capacity required to sustain this work. She guided the Harvard audience through what’s needed to maintain authenticity while bringing unique contributions toward the eradication of homelessness—and perhaps most importantly, toward the creation of home.

The Continuum of Displacement: Historical Context as Strategic Imperative

In what may be the most defining insight for organizations working in this space, Dr. Silas traced an unbroken line from the 1500s transatlantic slave trade through present-day encampments, demonstrating that today’s homelessness crisis is not an anomaly—it is the continuation of centuries of systematic displacement:

1500s-1600s: The birth of displacement as African people were violently uprooted from ancestral lands, establishing patterns that would evolve but never fully end.

1700s-1800s: Wealth built on bondage, followed by convict leasing and Jim Crow laws that transformed displacement from physical chains to legal barriers.

1900s: Vagrancy laws and redlining that criminalized Black mobility and prevented generational wealth-building through homeownership.

1980-2000s: Mass incarceration as the “new plantation system,” combined with urban renewal that destroyed thriving Black communities.

2010-2025: Gentrification and housing commodification—the same displacement patterns “dressed in the language of improvement and development”.

For organizations, funders, policymakers and community members committed to eradicating homelessness, Dr. Silas’ framework offers both a challenge and an opportunity. Understanding homelessness as part of this historical continuum transforms it from a technical housing problem into what it truly is: a human rights crisis requiring systemic repair.

From Afri-Centric to Action-Centric

Dr. Silas’ vision of repair refuses the false choice between individual and collective—instead centering Afri-centric principles where personal contribution gains meaning through community accountability. Spirituality and cultural centeredness aren’t peripheral considerations but the very foundation of her framework, drawing on village models that understand family and community as inseparable from individual wellbeing. The concepts of Ma’at and Ubuntu aren’t borrowed metaphors—they are living, operational philosophies that shape how we pursue healing, liberation, and the restoration of harmony in communities fractured by centuries of displacement. Ma’at, an ancient African principle representing truth, balance, and justice, and Ubuntu, a Southern African philosophy affirming our shared humanity (“I am because we are”), form the moral and structural foundation of HCN’s innovative Ma’at Program, which centers cultural identity and collective healing as pathways to collective wellness. This translates into how we design programs, develop staff, and engage with families. This means centering interconnectedness over individualism, honoring the role of spirituality in healing, and recognizing that true repair requires restoring cultural identity alongside material stability.

The Radical Act of Connection

What makes Dr. Silas’ work truly radical is her unwavering commitment to making the connections others avoid—linking historical trauma directly to present-day systems, naming the specific impact on Black communities, and insisting that our solutions must be as comprehensive as the problem is deep.

This radical honesty is precisely what the field needs. Without understanding the roots, we’ll continue treating symptoms. Without acknowledging the specific communities most harmed, we’ll continue designing universal solutions that perpetuate inequity. Without developing our own internal capacity, we'll burn out before the transformation is complete.

A Call to Courageous Action

The journey from displacement to healing requires our collective understanding, acknowledgement, and action. It requires organizations brave enough to reflect on how we’ve been complicit, bold enough to resist the limitations of conventional thinking, and committed enough to invest in true repair.

As Dr. Silas reminded the Harvard audience, “Imagine a people who've experienced these atrocities, as beloved Maya Angelou has spoken, AND STILL WE RISE!”

Watch the Full Webinar

Access Dr. Silas’ complete presentation and the full webinar recording through Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Initiative on Health and Homelessness: https://hsph.harvard.edu/research/health-and-homelessness/events/

About Dr. April Y. Silas

Dr. April Y. Silas is the visionary CEO of Homeless Children's Network (HCN), bringing over 40 years of experience in strength-based work with low-income youth and families of color facing multiple barriers. Since founding HCN in 1992, she has been the driving force behind the organization’s groundbreaking Ma'at Program, Amani Mental Health Training Program, and Jabali Substance Use Prevention, Intervention, and Treatment Program.

With deep expertise in Afri-centric healing and trauma-informed care, Dr. Silas addresses the mental health and early childhood development needs of families impacted by homelessness and housing injustice in San Francisco. Her leadership approach centers on building relationships for health and well-being, locating families experiencing homelessness in a web of social relations, improvisational resiliency, and strengthening capacity for growth.

Nationally recognized for her leadership in Black/African American, LGBTQIA+, and homeless advocacy, Dr. Silas serves on the Mayor's LGBTQI+ Advisory Committee for the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. In 2022, the Ma'at Program was highlighted in a federal guide on “Adapting Evidence-Based Practices for Under-Resourced Populations” by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

About Homeless Children’s Network

Homeless Children’s Network is committed to eradicating homelessness and creating pathways to home through holistic, community-centered approaches. We believe that every child and family deserves not just housing, but home—a place of safety, belonging, and opportunity.

For more information about HCN's groundbreaking work or Dr. Silas’ speaking engagements, contact community@hcnkids.org