On April 14, 2022, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) released its Equity Action Plan. The foundational belief of USICH is to end homelessness by creating equitable opportunities for people of color to live in safe and affordable housing. While the research shows that racial equity benefits society, people of color have been “systematically excluded and denied equitable access to not only housing but the systems that help people stay housed: health care, education, and employment.”
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) acknowledges the need for increased awareness of the disproportionate representation for people of color experiencing homelessness. In this context, the Equity and Diversity Committee of the Nashville Continuum of Care (CoC) has organized the following resources for CoC members and others interested in housing/homelessness. Not meant to be comprehensive, these resources serve as a foundation for understanding racism, focusing on the impact of racism on housing and homelessness, accompanied by tools that promote antiracist practices within organizations that serve people experiencing homelessness.
More information on HUD’s equity initiatives
Resources
Local data and research
Homeless Management Information System Monthly Data Reports (2024); Office of Homeless Services. The Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) is Nashville's shared database that collects data on households experiencing homelessness and programs intending to end homelessness. These data reports are presented to the Homelessness Planning Council to provide an overview of the who is experiencing homelessness compared to who was housed in a given month.
Monthly American Rescue Plan (ARP) Reports: Showing Progress on the $50 Million Investment in Homelessness (2024); Office of Homeless Services. In October 2022, Metro Council approved Mayor John Cooper’s historic $50 million investment in homelessness using ARP funds. The investment is broken down into four areas: Temporary Interim Housing ($9 million), Gap Financing for Permanent Supportive Housing ($25 million), Housing First Supportive Services ($9 million), Low Barrier Housing Collective and Competitive Grants ($7 million). Each month, the Office of Homeless Services reports progress on usage and allocation of these critical funds. These reports include demographic breakdowns of service recipients for key programs funded through the $50 million investment.
Continuum of Care Priorities Report (2024); Continuum of Care Data and HMIS Oversight Committee. This report utilized data pulled from the Homeless Management Information System to assess local needs and priorities for ending homelessness in Nashville-Davidson County. This report highlighted that, on average, it takes Black families much longer to move into permanent housing (198 day) than White families (156 days).
Understanding racism as a structure and system
Structural Racism and Community Building (2004); Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change | While a bit old and lengthy, this report is an oft-cited overview of the meanings of structural racism and white privilege and how it plays out in society and systems. It also includes a helpful FAQ list on issues of race and racism. Use this to encourage staff and Board members to think of racism beyond the interpersonal dimension.
White Dominant Culture and Something Different; Created and adapted based on “White Supremacy Culture” by Tema Okun and Kenneth Jones, this tool allows individuals and organizations to look at the characteristics of white dominant culture and think about how they might apply. Alternatives to white supremacist culture characteristics are provided to assist individuals and organizations with making changes.
The following three resources were shared by the trainers at the Continuum of Care’s “Advancing Equity in Homelessness Services” workshop in 2023.
White Supremacy Culture by Tema Okun. In the last three years, Tema Okun adapted her work for "White Dominant Culture and Something Different" into an interactive website.
How Race Was Made, (Scene on Radio, Season 2, Episode 2).
Made in America, (Scene on Radio, Season 2, Episode 3).
The House We Live In (Race, the Power of Illusion, Episode 3 Excerpts).
Racism in housing and homelessness
Supporting Partnerships for Anti-Racist Communities: Phase 1 Findings (2018) C4 Innovations | Well known to many in the Continuum of Care world, the SPARC report was the first major effort to call attention to the racial disparities in homelessness. While the demographics had been known through the AHAR, the SPARC reports reflects deeper research into the causes of the disparities, the experiences of Black and Brown people experiencing homelessness, and the racial makeup of the homeless-services-sector staff. Consider this foundational to understanding the intersection of racism and homelessness.
Segregated by Design ; Silkworm Studios (2019) | This 18-minute, animated video compellingly summarizes Richard Rothstein’s acclaimed book The Color of Law, and is narrated by the author. Use this video as an alternative to articles/reading to educate staff on the history of racist policy decisions that lead to housing segregation and the widening wealth gap.
Homelessness and Racial Equity (2021); National Racial Equity Working Group | This 2-minute, animated video summarizes why homelessness is a racial justice issue. Use this to get initial buy-in from homeless-services staff on why tackling racism is essential to ending homelessness.
A Brief Timeline of Race and Homelessness in the USA (2019); Jeff Olivet et al. | This three-page document was created by leaders of the National Racial Equity Working Group and published by Community Solutions. It traces key incidents starting from 1607 to the 2010s on the role of racism in the crisis of homelessness and housing insecurity in the US. Use this as an introductory education tool on key historical periods, which can be a springboard to learn more about specific events.
Understanding Nashville’s Housing Crisis, Part 3: Residential Segregation; Metro Human Relations Commission | This pamphlet goes deeper on many of the issues raised in Segregated by Design (above) such as redlining, blockbusting, and racially restrictive covenants, all specific to Nashville. It concludes with a summary of how some other cities have used a Racial-Equity Lens to housing policy. Use this resource to understand the wealth gap and housing not just on a national/theoretical level but here in our city.
Homelessness and Racism: Historic Roots by Sonja M. Spears. This essay was first delivered as a speech at the 2019 National Health Care for the Homeless Conference & Policy Symposium by Sonja Spears. Spears, who has worked as a lawyer, city-level judge, and professor, relates the American history of racist dispossession to homelessness for people of color and marginalized communities.
Tools to confront racism within your organization
REJI Organizational Race Equity Toolkit (2nd Ed., 2020); Just Lead Washington | At 115 pages, this document covers a lot of ground. It includes material on introductory concepts like the five levels of racism and the difference between equity and equality. Part 2 prepares you to begin organizational work on racial equity, including an assessment tool, while part 3 offers strategies to go deeper. Nearly the entire second half is Appendices that include worksheets, sample plans, supervision guides, and more. While lengthy, this document has bite-sized components that can be used for various purposes independently.
Tool for Organizational Self-Assessment Related to Racial Equity (2013); Eliminating Disparities in Child and Youth Success Collaborative | This document is an assessment tool (in two versions) that measures readiness for tackling racial equity issues in the workplace. It includes detailed instructions on how to use it and what to do with the results. Consider using this with your DEI team, leadership team, or all-staff to assess perceptions on progress on issues related to workforce competencies, community partnerships, governance, and more.
Awake to Woke to Work: Building a Race Equity Culture (2020); In collaboration with over 120 experts in the field of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and race equity, Equity in the Center created this downloadable guide to provide insights, tactics, and best practices to shift organizational culture and operationalize equity.
The Longest Journey Starts with a Single Step (2021); Published by the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, this publication is grounded in the real-life experiences of Health Care for the Homeless health centers and other direct-service nonprofits in pursuing DEI internally. Rather than telling readers what to do, this presents what others have done and, in particular, where they faced obstacles.
Racial Equity: Getting to Results by Local & Regional Government Alliance for Equity. This resources focuses on the importance of gathering quality and actionable data for social change.
Racial Equity Action Plans: a How-to Manual by Local & Regional Government Alliance for Equity. A clear step-by step guide to design thinking and implementing action plans for social change.
Abusive Power and Control in Shelter by Emi Koyama and Lauren Martin. This illustrates how domestic violence shelters (and other shelters that work with vulnerable populations) may inadvertently abuse power and control over survivors who seek services from them.
Equity in Homelessness Services
Coordinated Entry Systems: Racial Equity Analysis of Assessment Data by C4 Innovations. White people experiencing homelessness have higher mean prioritization scores than their BIPOC counterparts. This results in a tilt towards the prioritization of White folks over BIPOC.
New Research on the Reliability and Validity of the VI-SPDAT: Implications for Coordinated Assessment by Homeless Hub. A recent study suggests the VI-SPDAT has weaknesses in its reliability and validity. The type of housing support a person had was a better predictor of returning to homelessness than their VI-SPDAT score. (Not sure this fits into a narrow definition of equity and homelessness, but at least wanted to put this out for the group to decide if this belongs.)
Report and Recommendations of the Ad Hoc Committee on Black People Experiencing Homelessness (2018); Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority | The Los Angeles Continuum of Care, known as LAHSA, formed an Ad Hoc Committee on Black People Experiencing Homelessness. This report describes their work and recommendations to address the overrepresentation of Black people among those experiencing homelessness. While a different city, the lessons it describes are instructive for Nashville in how we confront inequity here. If nothing else, consider reading the Executive Summary and review the appendices.
Engaging Lived Experience in Homelessness Services
Engaging with Lived Experience by the National Coalition for the Homeless. Tips for engaging people who have been homeless in your organization or agency’s decision-making process.
People with Lived Experience and Expertise of Homelessness and Data Decision-Making Toolkit by HUD Exchange. People with lived experience and expertise of homelessness (PLEE) are essential partners for Continuums of Care (CoCs). Creating community models that acknowledge and practice inclusivity, while also valuing the agency of PLEE is essential. CoCs should work together with PLEE to engage in collection, review, analyzation, and use of data to make collaborative decisions impacting their local community. This toolkit includes resources on partnership practices, compensation, and training.
Consumer Advisory Board Manual by the National Health Care for the Homeless Council. One of the best ways to engage consumers in governance are Consumer Advisory Boards (CABs). CABs are advisory groups for health centers, made of people who use services at the health center, and work to improve program management and service delivery. CABs help health centers not only meet their governing requirements, but also support the development of consumer leaders as partners in the movement to end homelessness.
Engaging Community Residents with Lived Experience: Common Concerns and What to do About Them by 100 Million Healthier Lives. Often times organizations want community buy-in for projects and programming, but worry that it might not be worth it to make it a priority. This resource explains the benefits of co-designing programs alongside members of community.
Consumer Employment in the Health Care for the Homeless Setting: Promising Practices by the National Health Care for the Homeless Council. Organizations can take a variety of approaches to support employment opportunities for their consumers, from programming that focuses on employment skill development and links consumers to employment opportunities in the community to creating employment opportunities for consumers within organizations. This report highlights employment strategies that six organizations apply in hiring individuals who have experienced homelessness and received health services.
Employing People with Lived Experience of Multiple and Complex Needs: A Toolkit for Employers by Fulfilling Lives South East Partnership. Multiple and Complex Needs (MCN) refers to people who have experienced homelessness, are in recovery from substance use, have experienced mental health challenges, have experienced domestic violence and/or have had experience with the criminal justice system. While recruiting people with experience of MCN may seem daunting to an employer initially, consider that any of these experiences can happen to anyone at any time.
Criminalization of Homelessness
Statement on Criminalization of Homelessness by National Coalition for Housing Justice. The NCHJ released this following statement, condemning the ongoing use of law enforcement in response to visible homelessness and calling on the federal government to take steps to stop this harmful approach.
Mapping the Criminalization of Homelessness in the United States by Housing not Handcuffs. These visual maps illustrate the increasing criminalization of visible homelessness from 2007 to 2017.
Homeless Bill of Rights by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless. The main goal of the Homeless Bill of Rights is to enshrine and protect the civil and human rights of people while they are experiencing homelessness.
Six Ideas for Talking about Housing not Handcuffs by Housing not Handcuffs. This resources lists talking points that would contribute to a narrative shift around the criminalization of homelessness.
Design Against Humanity: Examining Anti-Homeless Architecture by National Coalition for the Homeless. Hostile architecture is an urban-design strategy that restricts behavior deemed undesirable by urban leaders. While not exactly criminalization, it attempts to exclude people who rely on public space including youth, low-income people and people experiencing homelessness, who are disproportionately Black and Indigenous people. The effect is to also make the designs hostile to seniors, people with disabilities, pregnant women, and care givers for children and seniors.
Immigration and housing and homelessness
The Law: Immigrants are Legally Eligible for Transitional Housing by National Immigrant Women's Advocacy Project. This brochure provides advice for immigrants and their advocates in obtaining access to programs such as emergency shelter and transitional housing.
Report on the Harms of Public Charge by the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families. In August 2019, the Trump administration expanded the definition of public charge, which meant any legal immigrant who received one or more public benefits could risk having their visa or change of status application denied. While the Biden administration reversed this rule in 2021, this has continued to cause a "chilling effect" on immigrants' access to public resources.
Homelessness and Immigration Enforcement: What You Should Know by the National Alliance to End Homelessness. This article was written after the Trump administration issued a number of executive orders to direct law-enforcement officials to have greater authority to pursue and prosecute a wide range of undocumented immigrants. This advice remains relevant for homelessness shelters that work with individuals, regardless of documentation status.
Gender, Domestic Violence, and Homelessness
Homelessness is a Women’s Rights Issue by Hannah Brais, Alex Nelson, Jesse Jenkinson, and Kaitlin J. Schawn. Under human rights standards, women and gender-diverse peoples’ housing should not depend on their relationship status. However, according to the Pan-Canadian Women's Housing and Homelessness Survey, the primary reason for women losing their access to housing is a break up.
Assessing Vulnerability, Prioritizing Risk: The Limitations of the VI-SPDAT for Survivors of Domestic & Sexual Violence by Safe Housing Partnerships and National Resource Center on Domestic Violence. The authors of this reports find that the VI-SPDAT tends to inadequately assess “vulnerability,” especially for survivors of Intimate Partner Violence or Sexual Violence, by failing to address the unique risk factors for homelessness experienced by survivors.
Gender, Housing, and Homelessness: A Literature Review by Engender. Women’s experience of homelessness tends to be disproportionately “hidden,” undercounted, and therefore unaddressed.
The Intersection of Domestic Violence and Homelessness by Safe Housing Partnerships. This one-pager explores the unique experience of domestic violence survivors with homelessness. Many studies have found domestic violence to be the number one cause of homelessness for women.
Gender identity, sexual identity, and housing and homelessness
LGBTQ+ Equity and Housing Fact Sheet by Opportunity Starts at Home. Despite well-documented and consistent reports of discrimination against LGBTQ people in housing rentals and purchases, in the majority of states there are no explicit legal protections from bias on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in housing transactions
Homelessness among LGBT adults by UCLA’s Williams Institute. This study is the first to provide estimates of the percentage of sexual and gender minority adults experiencing homelessness compared to cisgender straight adults using representative national data. Among the findings is that 20% of sexual minorities in this study experienced homelessness before the age of 18.
40% of Homeless Youth are LGBTQ by LGBTQ&A. Ryan Berg talks about his work with queer and trans homeless youth and how foster care can often seem like a pipeline to incarceration and homelessness.
Demographic Data Project: Gender Minorities by the Homeless Research Institute. This brief analyzes 2018 Point-in-Time demographic data provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban and finds transgender and non-binary individuals are more likely to experience unsheltered homelessness than the general population.
Youth and Homelessness
Youth Homelessness Resources by HUD Exchange. This page compiles information on a range of initiatives and programs that can assist youth service providers to help prevent and end youth homelessness. The page includes policy guidance, best practices, publications, tools, and links to other agencies and organizations. Additionally, this page provides an explanation of how HUD programs currently serve homeless youth and how HUD works together with other agencies to combat this problem.
Youth and Young Adults Fact Sheet by National Alliance to End Homelessness. An overview of the factors and experiences of youth experiencing homelessness and/or housing instability.
Your Child has the Right to Stay in School by National Homeless Law Center. This toolkit is about students’ rights under federal law. he law gives students who experience homelessness the right to equal access to the same free, appropriate, public education as all other students. Students have the rights in this toolkit during the entire time they are homeless. These rights apply to all homeless students, even those who are not U.S. citizens.
The Americans Most Threatened by Eviction: Young Children by the New York Times. The Americans most at risk of eviction are babies and toddlers, according to new data that provides the fullest demographic picture yet of who lives in rental households facing eviction nationwide. About a quarter of Black babies and toddlers in rental households face the threat of eviction in a typical year. Eviction greatly increases the probability that a child will experience homelessness.
Older Adults and Homelessness
Homelessness Among Older Adults: An Emerging Crisis by American Society on Aging. Homelessness among older adults is increasing; among single homeless adults, approximately half are ages 50 and older. Of these, almost half first became homeless after age 50. Ending homelessness among older adults will require increasing the supply of affordable housing, targeted prevention efforts, and expanding permanent supportive housing, adapted to older adult needs.
Addressing Homelessness Among Older Adults by the U.S. Department for Health & Human Services. The number of older adults at risk of and currently experiencing homelessness has increased rapidly in recent years, a trend that is projected to continue and further accelerate. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ created a (lengthy) roadmap to understanding the population of older adults at risk of or experiencing homelessness and what services and supports are available to serve them.
Addressing Soaring Homelessness in America Among Senior Citizens by Abt Global. An interactive overview of the increase in homelessness rates for older Americans.
Disability and Housing and Homelessness
The Economic Cost of Racism and Ableism by Included: The Disability Equity Podcast. This podcast episode focuses on the disproportionate costs of living borne by individuals living with disabilities—which puts them at higher risk of homelessness.
Costs and Harms of Homelessness by Community Solutions. Really good data on the negative health outcomes for people with lived experience of homelessness, financial costs to communities with high rates of homelessness, and “moral costs.” Some of this data includes information on how disability is linked to homelessness.