homelessness, racism, and social justice
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HOMELESSNESS, RACISM, and SOCIAL JUSTICE
Jeff OlivetJuly 2015
HOMELESSNESS IS NOT JUST ABOUT...
HousingHealthcareServices
HOMELESSNESS IS ALSO ABOUT...
InjusticeOppressionRacism
It is an issue of
Justice, Equality, and What is Right
WHERE I GREW UP.
WHERE I GREW UP.
WHERE I GREW UP.
WHERE I GREW UP.
WHERE I GREW UP.
WHERE I GREW UP.
WHERE I GREW UP.
PROGRESS? MOVING BACKWARDS?
The Facts about Homelessness and Race
POVERTY
(Hopper, 1995)
“We should reintegrate discussions of homelessness with those of persistent poverty. And in these discussions, the issue of race is unavoidable.”
(Urban Institute, 2013)
Racial Wealth/
SHELTER USAGE
ACCORDING TO HUD
60% of the sheltered homeless population are minorities.
Almost 40% are African American.
Minorities overall are about 1.5 times more likely to be in
the sheltered homeless population than in the total U.S
population, and African Americans are 3 times more likely.
(HUD, 2012)
One study found that:Blacks were 16x more likely than whites to live in shelters.
AND
Black children under 5 were 29x more likely than white children to end up in shelters.
(Culhane & Metraux, 1999)
(HUD, 2012)
Total US Population Shelter Population
White, non-Hispanic 64% White, non-Hispanic 40%
Hispanic 10.5%
Hispanic 9%
African American 12.5%
African American 38%
Other, one race 10.5% Other, one race 5.5%
Several races 2.7% Several races 7.9%
“Since the 1980s, blacks have been overrepresented in the homeless population with respect to their share of the national populations and the poverty population.”
(Carter, 2011)
(Carter, 2011)
National Population
Poverty Population
Homeless Population
12.8% 27% 41% total56% for families
Among African Americans...
“The Latino Paradox”
(Gonzalez-Baker, 1996)
RESIDENTIAL DISCRIMINATION
“Listen here people, Listen to me.
Don’t try to find a home in
Washington DC cause it’s a
bourgeois town.”
Leadbelly “Bourgeois Blues”
Homelessness can be seen as a symptom of structural racism.”
(Powell, 2003)
“
Homelessness is tied to disparities in income and wealth, availability of housing and jobs, education level, and healthcare access
(Powell, 2003)
Structural Causes
(Carter, 2011; Power, 2006)
• Poverty
• Increased demand for and decreased supply of affordable housing
• Housing discrimination & residential segregation
• Discrimination in employment and housing
• Lack of access to behavioral health care
• Racial bias in criminal justice
• White privilege
INCARCERATION
While people of color make up 30% of the US population,
they account for 60% of those imprisoned.
(Center for American Progress, 2012)
1 in 3 black men can expect to go to prison in their lifetimes.
(Center for American Progress, 2012)
The number of women incarcerated has
increased by 800% since 1980, and women of color are
3 times more likely than white women to be incarcerated.
(Center for American Progress, 2012)
“We avoid talking about caste in our society because we are ashamed of our racial history.”
A Historical Perspective
Runaway slaves and free blacksAlmshousesCivil war work campsThe failure of reconstructionTramps and cowboys1927 Mississippi River flood A “permanent class of migrant workers”CriminalizationThe great migrationUrban renewal
(Johnson, 2011; Wilkerson, 2010)
For 100 years, between 1870 and 1970, African Americans moved to the cities of the North and West.
Whites fled.
“Social and racial inequities are geographically inscribed.”
(Powell, 2003)
• How do racism and homelessness intersect in your community?
• What is your organization doing to fight it?
Racism in Our Communities
• Is there racism in our programs?
• What does it look like?
• How can we change it?
Racism in Our Programs
“Invisibility is not an accident, but a determined refusal not to see.
Dispelling invisibility...is not so much a matter of shedding light as it is one of choosing, deliberately, to look.”
(Hopper, 1996)
What happens to a dream deferred?Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore--
And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-- like a syrupy sweet?Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
A Dream Deferredby Langston Hughes
We must work to bend the arc of the moral universe towards justice.
(Parker/King/Obama)
ReferencesBarry, J. M. (1998). Rising 'de: The great Mississippi flood of 1927 and how it changed America. Simon and Schuster.
Blackmon, D. A. (2009). Slavery by another name: The re-‐enslavement of black Americans from the Civil War to World War II. Anchor.
Carter III, G. R. (2011). From exclusion to desGtuGon: Race, affordable housing, and homelessness. Cityscape, 33-‐70.
Cortes, A., Leopold, J., Rothschild, L., Buron, L., Khadduri, J., & Culhane, D. P. (2011). The 2010 annual homeless assessment report to Congress.
Culhane, Dennis P. & Stephen Metraux (1999). "Assessing RelaGve Risk for Homeless Shelter Usage in New York City and Philadelphia." Popula'on Research and Policy Review 18(3): 219-‐236.
Ellio_, M., & Krivo, L. J. (1991). Structural determinants of homelessness in the United States. Soc. Probs., 38, 113.
Hopper, K. (1995). Taking the measure of homelessness: recent research on scale and race. Clearinghouse Review, Nov-‐Dec 1995: 730-‐739.
Hopper, K. (1996). Homelessness among african-‐americans: a historical and contemporary perspecGve. In Homelessness in America, ed. J. Baumohl. Oryx Press.
McKernan, S., Ratcliffe, C., Steuerle, E., & Zhang, S. (2013). Less than equal: racial dispariGes in wealth accumulaGon. Urban InsGtute.
Nunez, R. (2012, March). InsGtute for Children, Poverty, & Homelessness. Retrieved from h_p://www.icphusa.org/index.asp?page=21&news=11
Powell, J.A. (2003). Race and Homelessness [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from h_p://www.kirwanins'tute.osu.edu/presenta'ons/2003_09_29homelessness.ppt
Power, S. (2006). The Color of Homelessness: Why Persons of Color Are Overrepresented Among Emergency Shelter and Transi'onal Housing Users in King County & What the CommiVee to End Homelessness in King County Can Do To Reduce This Problem. (Unpublished dissertaGon). University of Washington, Sea_le, Washington.
Shinn, M., & Gillespie, C. (1994). The roles of housing and poverty in the origins of homelessness. American Behavioral Scien'st.
The NaGonal Center on Family Homelessness. (2009). State Report Card on Child Homelessness. Retrieved from h_p://www.homelesschildrenamerica.org/documents/rc_summary_004.pdf
Wilkerson, I. (2010). The warmth of other suns: The epic story of America's great migra'on. Random House.
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