Sage Johnson

Sage Johnson is the Southern California Co-Chair for the BHHI Lived Expertise Advisory Board. She was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA and is currently a Peer Support Specialist in the Youth Services Department at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. Sage’s work and passion is centered on tackling homelessness for Transitional-Aged Youth (TAY) in LA County, particularly Black and Queer youth. She has eight years of local, statewide, and national advocacy experience working for homelessness and housing rights in Los Angeles county. 

Sage experienced being unhoused from her teen years to early adulthood. Shortly after she lost her housing, so did her mom. Because of this, Sage found herself navigating both the young adult homeless services system and the adult homeless services system simultaneously as she worked to secure housing assistance for them both. In learning to navigate these systems, Sage found herself immersed in a broken system. Her advocacy journey began then, when she became determined to help others navigate this complicated world while also pushing for institutional and structural change. Since then, Sage has dedicated herself to advocacy. She has sat with officials such as former Mayor Eric Garcetti, Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas, Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA), US Representative Karen Bass as well as of local officials to discuss the need for competency and urgency when allocating services and funding for Transitional-Aged Youth (TAY) in LA county. 

Beyond her work with BHHI, Sage has held many leadership positions including former co-chair of LAHSA's Homeless Youth Forum of Los Angeles and former chairperson for the LA LGBT Center's Youth Ambassadors Coalition. She has served on many boards working to end homelessness including Lens Co's Youth Expert Board, the Consumer Advisory Board for the National Alliance to End Homelessness, and the Consumer Advisory Board for the Hollywood Homelessness Youth Partnership. Additionally, Sage trained to be an advocate with Speak Up! Advocacy Group through the Corporation for Supportive Housing and worked as a youth leader and service provider for the LA Coalition to End Youth Homelessness. 

Sage firmly believes that the key to ending homelessness for good is partnering with people with lived experiences of homelessness in the drafting and execution of policies and practices. It is these perspectives and experiences that are needed at the table to create long-term meaningful social change. In her free time, Sage enjoys connecting to her creative side which includes stand up comedy, attending concerts, doing music, going to shows, and writing.