Healing Spaces is a journalism collaborative focused on addressing environmental injustice. Project supported by Cleveland Documenters and Neighbor Up. Funded by Black Environmental Leaders (BEL) in partnership with The Center for Community Solutions, Cleveland Foundation, and The George Gund Foundation.

More than 2,000 of the 23,000 students in Akron’s public school system experience homelessness every year. That’s roughly 10% of the student body, far exceeding the national average of 2.5%. Further research indicates that the percentage of homeless students in Akron is likely even higher. Homelessness presents considerable challenges not just to the student who lacks a stable place of residence, but for the school administration and the greater Akron community. In this documentary, we talk to those individuals who know. Who understand. Who lived it. Or are living it. We listen to their stories of housing insecurity, as well as the experts and administrative officials tackling this issue head on.

“Doubled Up” was supported by the SPACES Urgent Art Fund and by the residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.

Official selection for the 43rd Cleveland International Film Festival, “Inside Akron’s Tent City” is a web series filmed by a local group of filmmakers that details the battle in Akron over a radical but ever so human approach to homelessness.

Shot on an iPhone 7+ for less than $1K, “Inside Akron’s Tent City” documents a local homeless community’s attempt to self-organized and the Akron city government’s efforts to displace them. Juxtaposing interviews with city officials and the houseless residents of the tent community, the documentary subverts stereotypes and humanizes a marginalized portion of American society.