HouseParty is a week-long festival raising awareness of the current housing situation and broader trends that led us here. With fun engagement, enriching activities, and educational talks. The efforts confront conditions around resources, ADUs, policies, renters’ rights, and more. The grassroots efforts are all organized independently by different organizations and volunteers. The events are not a formal city engagement effort as part of the comprehensive plan but outcomes plan to be shared for the consultant team to review if helpful.

Along with the scheduled events are some asynchronous ways for people to get involved including submitting content to a 4-issue zine called Houszine that will be released daily at Vault of Midnight during the week.

Interested participants can also schedule a 30 min session to record their own “House Stories”, which the effort describes as “The qualitative value of capturing the nuanced experiences of each individual is rich with unexpected anecdotes and data points to help find new and creative solutions to our housing crisis”. All recordings will be archived in AADL’s permanent collection and shared with the City of Ann Arbor as part of the Comprehensive Plan community-led engagement efforts. Participants will have the option to remain anonymous but all recordings will be shared publicly in audio and possibly transcribed text formats.