Racial Equity in Homelessness Response: A Qualitative Study of Two Urban Communities

Background and Purpose: People of color, especially those who are Black or Indigenous, are at greatest risk of experiencing homelessness in the United States. As a result, scholars, policymakers, and advocates argue that effective approaches to ending homelessness in the U.S. must be based on an understanding of racism and include explicit strategies to advance racial equity. In the last six years, non-profits, government agencies, and other community institutions governing and distributing resources to people experiencing homelessness have increasingly incorporated this perspective into their work. This shift is in part due to changes in how the U.S. Department of Urban Development (HUD) funds its programs; in 2018, HUD changed its funding application to include a set of indicators to help determine the degree to which homeless service systems were evaluating and working to address inequities by race and ethnicity. Little is known about how these systems have responded to this new requirement. What strategies have been used? How do community leaders view these efforts?

Methods: This study addresses these questions through qualitative interviews with 20 leaders across two urban communities (Los Angeles, CA and the Twin Cities, MN metro area) whose homelessness response systems were among early adopters of racial-equity specific planning. Participants include nonprofit leaders, government leaders, advocates with lived experience of homelessness, and others actively involved in collaborative efforts to address racial inequities in homelessness. I use reflexive thematic analysis to identify themes central to the two research questions. I engage in member checking to gather respondent feedback and update my findings according to their comments.

Results: I find that communities are using a myriad of approaches towards racial equity, including increasing the representation of people of color and those with lived experience in decision-making roles and changing resource allocation strategies. Respondents identified progress acknowledging the role racism plays in driving homelessness, but they also spoke of difficulties in defining the boundaries of their work, including navigating complex power structures to influence policy and fostering cultural changes to redress the legacy of white supremacy and racial violence.

Conclusions and Implications: The collaborative, interdisciplinary work of my participants encouraged me to situate my findings across literature in antiracist social work practice, equity-oriented public administration, and reparative urban planning. I highlight the promising strategies that stakeholders are taking to advance equity in their response to homelessness in the current moment, as well as the tensions they face as they grapple with the limitations of their work. The results have applied relevance to practitioners in homeless services, human services, and collaborative governance.