Anti-Racism

Racism especially permeates the two systems central to the Council’s work: health care and housing. The crisis of homelessness would not exist but for the history of slavery, genocide, and white supremacist public policy. That 40% of the homeless population is Black/African American, though just 13% of the general US population, is no accident; it is the legacy of oppression. Moreover, research continues to substantiate what people of color have already known, that systemic and interpersonal racism in the health care industry leads to disparate health outcomes for people of color. If we are serious about ending homelessness and achieving health equity, we must center racial justice.

The Council has come to this far too late, but we are beginning to confront the reality that if we (and our members) do not actively resist racism in our work, we are complicit in racial inequity. Our external work on this includes a learning collaborative on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, which collected the following resources that span from historical housing segregation to countering bias in hiring. They focus on institutional and systemic issues, rather than interpersonal racism and individual privilege. If you have any questions or suggestions about these materials, please contact us.

NHCHC Resources

• Health, Homelessness, and Racial Disparities (2019); Fact Sheet
• Addressing Health Equity Through Health and Housing Partnerships (2019); produced in collaboration with CSH
• Premises of the 2019 Learning Lab on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
• Racism & Homelessness: Historic Roots; Sonja M. Spears, presented orally at the NHCHC Conference on May 25, 2019

Additional Resources

Articles & Reports

• The Neighborhood Is Mostly Black. The Home Buyers Are Mostly White. (2019) Emily Badger, Quoctrung Bui, Robert Gebeloff; New York Times
• The Most Important Work We’ll Never Finish: How the Center for Health Progress Made Racial Equity an Organizational Priority (2019); Sarah McAfee
• The Social Justice Sector Has an Internal Racism Problem; (2019) Itzbeth Menjivar; Sojourners
• New Study Finds Emergency Personnel Less Likely to Treat Pain for Black Patients Than White Ones (2019); Anne Branigin
• New Orleans’ Eviction Geography: Results of an Increasingly Precarious Housing Market (March 2019); Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative
• Nonprofits and Foundations Are Unintentionally Promoting Racism: Here’s How to Stop (February 20, 2019); Michele Norris and Sean Gibbons, Chronicle of Philanthropy Opinion
• SPARC Phase 1 Findings (2018); Center for Social Innovation
• Racial Differences in Addiction and Other Disorders Aren’t Mostly Genetic (2018); Scientific American
• Diversity and Inclusion in Medical Schools: The Reality (2018); Scientific American
• Social Exclusion: The Decisions & Dynamics that Drive Racism (2018); Connie M. Razza, Demos
• Report & Recommendations of the Ad Hoc Committee on Black People Experiencing Homelessness (2018); Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority
• Does Race Matter in Addressing Homelessness? (2016); Marian Moser Jones
• #BlackLivesMatter – A Challenge to the Medical & Public Health Communities  (2015); Mary T. Bassett
• The Trauma of Racism (2015); The McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research
• Race Equity and Inclusion Action Guide (2014); The Annie E. Casey Foundation
• The Asset Value of Whiteness: Understanding the Racial Wealth Gap (2013 ); Amy Traub, Demos
• From Exclusion to Destitution: Race, Affordable Housing, and Homelessness (2011); George R. Carter III
• Community Health Centers in US Inner Cities: From Cultural Competency to Community Competency (2009); James Jennings, Ethnicity & Race in A Changing World

Tools & Samples

• Tool for Organizational Self-Assessment Related to Racial Equity; Eliminating Disparities in Child and Youth Success Collaborative
• Colorado Coalition for the Homeless: Racial Equity Plan
• Racial Equity Resources from the US Interagency Council on Homelessness
• King County (Seattle) Equity & Social Justice Strategic Plan
• www.racialequitytools.org
• Bias Interrupters: Tools for Organizations
• Equitable Hiring Tool; City of Madison, WI
• Countering Bias in Hiring; King County web training
• A Toolkit for Recruiting and Hiring a More Diverse Workforce; UC Berkeley
• Honor Native Land Guide 
• Awake to Woke to Work: Building a Race Equity Culture; Equity in the Center, a project of ProInspire

DEI Job Descriptions

• Boston HCH: Chief Equity & Inclusion Officer
• Central City Concern: Chief Equity Officer
• Colorado Coalition: VP, Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity 

Media:

• Short film: Segregated by Design; Silkworm Studios, adapted from Richard Rothstein’s book The Color of Law (2019)
• Black patients, Black physicians, and the need to improve health outcomes for African Americans (May 6, 2019); NBC News
• Podcast: Responding to Homelessness: Integrating Racial Equity; Changing the Conversation interview with Regina Cannon (2019)
• The Racial Wealth Gap: Netflix series Explained produced by Vox (2018)
• Video: The little problem I had renting a house; TedX Columbus (2014)

Books

• The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America (2017); Richard Rothstein
• Strategies for Deconstructing Racism in the Health & Human Services (2016); Alma Carter, Alan Siskind, Mary Pender Greene
• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2012); Michelle Alexander
• Not in My Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City (2010); Antero Pietila