What would it mean for all people to be housed securely and sustainably in neighborhoods of interconnection and belonging? In A Home for All, Laura Stivers helps readers imagine a world where housing is accessible, affordable, and life-giving. Her book equips readers for generative action toward ecological, equitable, and democratic forms of economic life that promote housing justice.

Laura will discuss the worldview that treats economies as webs of relationship and, therefore, as moral matters subject to the call of neighbor-love and justice. Her work focuses on what individuals and communities are doing in response to their anger and lament at housing injustice--how they are resisting unequal neighborhoods, unsustainable sprawl development, and the commodification of housing; how they are making individual lifestyle changes to live more simply; and how they are building bridges with one another to create flourishing communities where people are both housed and at home.

Dr. Laura Stivers is a Professor of Social Ethics at Dominican University of California. She has degrees from the Graduate Theological Union, Pacific School of Religion, and Saint Olaf College. She is the author of A Home for All: Building a Moral Economy and Disrupting Homelessness: Alternative Christian Approaches; co-author of two case study books – Earth Ethics: A Case Method Approach and Christian Ethics: A Case Method Approach; and co-editor of Justice in a Global Economy: Strategies for Home, Community, and World. In relation to homelessness and housing, Laura has served on the Board of The Street Chaplaincy in San Rafael, participated in a rotating shelter through her church, worked with Stand Up Neighborly Novato, and now represents Dominican University in the Call Marin Home Coalition that advocates for production of affordable housing, preservation of existing affordable housing, and protection of tenants.

Maya Friedman is a community organizer with the Marin Organizing Committee (MOC), where she brings together faith-based and civic institutions to build collective power and drive systemic change across Marin County. A central focus of her work is leadership development, equipping local residents to take action on the issues affecting their lives. Since she began organizing, MOC has championed diverse community efforts including raising the living wage for caregivers, advancing policy priorities for aging and disabled communities, advocating for permanent supportive housing, addressing challenges facing immigrant families, and leading nonpartisan get-out-the-vote initiatives. By bridging grassroots civic action with faith-rooted values, she works to cultivate equitable, empowered communities where regular people can find a seat at the table.

Our bookseller for this event will be the Friends of the Mill Valley Library Bookstore.