Lessons from self-organising shelter communities: ‘We were already a community and you put a roof over us’— Aaron Munro & Vikki Reynolds with Rachel Plamondon

This paper illustrates the work of a community of shelter folk and shelter workers to create safe-enough and dignified communal living conditions in housing shelters. The aim of this writing is to make clear the intentions and practices of promoting self-organising communities, by embracing a messy and imperfect practice, and working collaboratively with shelter folk to resist professional imperatives to tell people how to live.