Fran Quigley’s Most Popular Posts from 2023

Photo of Motels4Now resident by Myriam Nicodemus

This piece originally appeared on Fran Quigley’s blog, Housing Is A Human Right

Thank you for reading this newsletter all or some of the past twelve months. As anyone who follows media knows, even humble publications like ours seem to be morally and contractually obligated to provide a year-end issue.

Since I always find it interesting to see which of our newsletter posts get the most reader engagement, I think you all may be intrigued by the rankings, too.

Here are the four most popular posts, measured by how many times the full article is opened, hyperlinks clicked, comments made, article shares, etc. The original posts are linked in the titles here:

1.    When it Comes to Housing, We Know What Works (October 13th)

This summary of an article I published in the magazine Commonweal laid out a Housing Justice 101 agenda, including fixing eviction court processes, committing to the Housing First approach, adopting rent control and other approaches to reverse housing racism, and ensuring vouchers or other housing subsidies for all who qualify. The article insisted that the path to achieve this agenda would be blazed by the inspiring tenant movements that gained real traction throughout 2023.

2.    Eight Lessons from Motels4Now (September 29th)

This story of a low-barrier shelter and Housing First success story was published first in Shelterforce, with a more direct lessons-learned overview provided in this newsletter. The original article placed in Shelterforce’s year-end top 10 rankings.

3.    How Wall Street Holds a Gun to the Head of Manufactured Home Residents (May 1st)

This post was later published as an article by Jacobin, where it became that publication’s most-read article for the month of May. It turns out that a lot of folks are concerned about the exploitation of people living in manufactured homes.

4.    Inspiration and Embarrassment in Vienna (October 6th)

Other communities around the world show that guaranteeing housing for all is not only possible, but also that it can be done in a beautiful and dignified manner. Vienna may be the best example of all, and I had a chance to report on their success first-hand.

You can see the full post rankings here.

Thanks to all of you for reading and sharing posts this year. And thanks to the editors at Jacobin, Common Dreams, Waging Nonviolence, Shelterforce, Commonweal, The Hill, IndyStar, and LEO Weekly for publishing housing articles by me this year.

I am fortunate in that I do not have to rely on readers’ clicks for my living expenses. But that is not the case for the many wonderful editorial staffers who make it a point to lift up housing justice in their publications. So please consider reading and subscribing (usually it is free) to any and all of these great outlets.

Here's to making some real strides toward housing justice in 2024!