Centering Racial Equity in Homeless System Design

Original Article by Everyone Home, cited below

Summary by Simply the Basics

In Alameda County, the percent of people experiencing homelessness increased by 43% in 2017-2019. The rise in homelessness, as well as its disproportionate racial impacts on the Black and Indigenous communities, led the county to create a revamp in their homeless system model that was led with a lens of racial equity. The system they used to seek to address the following:

1. Identify and address factors leading to the over-representation of people of color in the population of people experiencing homelessness.

2. Understand how facets of the homeless system benefit or burden people of color and pinpoint opportunities to advance racial equity within the system.

3. Formulate key elements of a model homeless system, including optimal types and quantities of housing units and service programs.

4. Develop recommendations to more effectively and equitably allocate resources, prioritize investments, and advance proactive, targeted strategies to end and prevent homelessness.

Alameda County was provided a grant by HUD and collaborated with stakeholders over 8 months to implement a system they hoped would help structure tax policy in the November 2020 ballot.

The 2019 Point in Time count shows that people of color make up more than 2 out of 3 people (or 69%) experiencing homelessness in Alameda County.

With an overrepresentation of people of color experiencing homelessness, it is a clear reflection of in which the ways there are structures of racism across multiple systems. An example of this is looking at the history of redlining when the Federal Home Owners Loan Corporation created a color-coded mapping system that used racial criteria to suggest “desirable” places to provide loans to vs areas there less “profitable.” This resulted in whole communities of people of color being unable to take out loans, renting instead of owning their homes, and other white neighborhoods becoming more “desirable” and expensive. With so many communities unable to establish property and wealth in this way, many families and individuals were unable to achieve the same generational wealth that many other communities and white families have the opportunity for.

When looking at Alameda specifically, between 2017 and 2019, their county saw an increase of 10% in their population but a decrease in housing availability by 48%. This led to a huge demand for property that ultimately increased the price of rent. Additionally, with a loss of federal and state funding for affordable housing in 2008-2018 and an increase in “NIMBY”ism (“not in my backyard” resistance), there has been a decrease in the development of affordable housing units for the community.

To support the revamp of the homelessness system model in Alameda County, facilitators conducted focus groups and asked questions regarding the following topics:

• Mass Incarceration

• Health

• Education

• Immigration

• Inability to Increase Income

• Displacement

• Distressed Networks and Supports

• Barriers in the Housing Market

• Lack of Deeply Affordable Housing

• Evaluating Current Homeless Housing Intervention and Services

The REIA found that the homeless response system does not have the interventions needed to permanently rehouse people experiencing homelessness. Reducing disparities and improving outcomes for the racial and ethnic groups most impacted by homelessness will require adding new types of programs to the homeless response system, increasing all programs’ availability, and improving program design and delivery.

Continue reading this Final Report to learn about the steps that Alameda County has taken to change its homelessness system and how it is currently an active and continuous process that must start now.

“Centering Racial Equity in Homeless System Design” adds an extensive Appendix that includes, but is not limited to, their focus group questionnaire, facilitator tips, informative charts and diagrams, as well as visual breakdowns for their program models.

“Centering Racial Equity in Homeless System Design.” EveryOneHomeorg, Oakland-Berkeley-Alameda County Continuum of Care, https://everyonehome.org/centering-racial-equity/.