Young People to the Front

Navigating Youth Homelessness: Advocacy, Dignity, and Rebuilding Systems Ft. Amanda Nicholson

Episode Notes

Episode Notes
Host Tonny St. James sits down with artist, organizer, and consultant Amanda Nicholson to unpack the realities of navigating homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic—and the urgent need to rebuild systems with dignity at the center.

Amanda shares her journey from couch surfing in high school to surviving homelessness in San Diego and Los Angeles, and how those lived experiences fueled her transition into grassroots advocacy, workshops, and consulting. Together, they explore the failures of housing programs that label people “service resistant,” the challenges of navigating dehumanizing social systems, and the radical possibility of harm reduction, rest, and direct cash support as tools for true transformation.

This conversation is as much about survival as it is about vision: what it means to claim humanity in spaces that erase it, and how art, organizing, and unapologetic truth-telling can spark systemic change.

Topics Discussed in this Episode

• Navigating homelessness in San Diego vs. Los Angeles during COVID
• How Project Roomkey closures exposed systemic cruelty
• Why “service resistant” is a damaging and false narrative
• The role of art, consulting, and research in shaping advocacy
• Harm reduction principles beyond substance use: dignity, rest, and autonomy
• Tokenization vs. authentic inclusion of lived experience voices
• Rebuilding social safety nets from scratch instead of reforming broken systems
• The promise of direct cash transfers and affordable housing

Connect with Amanda Nicholson:

• Clear Path NYC: clearpathnyc.org