Anti-Racism

Racism 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 and design 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 much to do to back our verbal commitment with action, 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 learning collaboratives on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (code for Racial and Social Justice), 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. The list is far from comprehensive, but even so, you could spend all day just at racialequitytools.org. If you have any questions or suggestions about these materials, therefore, please contact us.

Note: for related COVID-specific materials, see the Equity section of the Coronavirus Resource Page.

NHCHC Resources

• The Longest Journey Starts with a Single Step: Reflections on Antiracism in Organizations Serving People Without Homes (2021); Report
• Anti-Racism Advocacy & Consumer Perspectives (2020); COVID-19 Coffee Chat
• Community Meet-Up on Racism and Oppression (2020); webinar
• Compounding Oppression: Antiracism in COVID-19 Response (2020); COVID-19 Coffee Chat
• 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
• Building an Inclusive Oganization Toolkit (2020); produced with ACU and AAPCHO

Additional Resources

Articles & Reports

• So You Want to Hire an Equity Consultant: Equity in the Center
• The Great Fire: Letter from guest editor Ta-Nehisi Coates (2020); Vanity Fair
• Centering Equity in Health & Housing Partnerships in Times of Crisis & Beyond (2020); CSH
• So You Want to Be a White Ally: Healing from white supremacy (2020); Equity in the Center
• The Role of Racial Justice in Building a Culture of Health (2020); Health Affairs Blog
• Racial Trauma and Trauma-Informed Services (2020); HUD
• Equity Capacity Building: Hiring, Supervision, Training (2020); HUD
• 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
• 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

• Aid for Creating Your Own Roadmap to Being a Better Ally; Developed by Seattle HCH Network for the 2021 NHCHC Conference
• Sample DEI in Hiring Plan; Joseph’s House
• Leadership Model for Race Equity (2021); ProInspire
• Talking About Race: Toward a Transformative Agenda; Kirwin Institute
• Group Norms for Breakthrough Social Change: OpenSource Leadership
• Dismantling Anti-Black Bias in Democratic Workplaces: A Toolkit; AORTA
• Communication Guidelines for a Brave Space; AWARE-LA
• Dismantling Racism: A Resource Book for Social Change Organizations; Western States Center
• Diversity & Inclusion Toolkit: Association of American Medical Colleges
• Scientific Workforce Diversity Toolkit; NIH
• Trauma-Informed Principles through a Culturally Specific Lens; National Latin Network
• More than Numbers: A Guide Toward Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Data Collection; Schusterman Family Foundation
• Race Equity and Inclusion Action Guide (2014); The Annie E. Casey Foundation
• 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 Toolkit: An Opportunity to Operationalize Equity; Government Alliance on Race & Equity
• 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:

• Homeownership is Rigged Against Black People; The Amber Ruffin Show (January 29, 2021)
• Advancing Racial Equity Webinar Series & Discussion Guide; American Public Health Association
• Webinar: Policing, Incarceration, Homelessness, & COVID-19 (2020); National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty
• 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)
• Racial Equity and Homelessness: Archived 3-part training for Western Mass Network to End Homelessness by Jeff Olivet and Donald Whitehead (June 2020)

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
• Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice (2017); Paul Kivel
• So You Want to Talk About Race (2019); Ijeoma Oluo
• How to Be an Antiracist (2019); Ibram X. Kendi
• Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (2017); Ibram X. Kendi
• Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor (2020); Layla Saad
• An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (2015); Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz