It was also obvious that many more people of color were living in homeless shelters. Under the influence of societal half-truths, I assumed that merely reflected who lived in poverty. It quickly became clear that poverty was only one part of the picture.
A 2011 study by George Carter of the U.S. Census Bureau found that even when controlling for poverty, poor African Americans were dramatically more likely than poor whites to become homeless. Once homeless, black men remained homeless longer than white men. Read more about "Homelessness, Racism and Social Justice."
The fact that racial disproportionality in the homeless population is more than an issue of poverty raises troubling questions: Does residential segregation and racial discrimination in housing drive homelessness? How does discrimination in employment leave many people of color more vulnerable to homelessness than whites? How does the mass incarceration of people contribute to homelessness?
When people of color are disproportionately incarcerated, they are more likely to experience homelessness and face additional challenges as they attempt to exit homelessness.
Rarely recognized and even more rarely discussed, homelessness is a symptom of the rampant institutional racism in our country. This racism plays out in housing, jobs, education, health care, and criminal justice.
Racism is, of course, not the only cause of homelessness. Over the past four decades, we have gutted our federal investment in affordable housing and underfunded our mental health and substance use treatment systems. We have not brought effective models for ending homelessness to scale. We have not held our elected officials, faith communities, or corporations accountable for helping to solve the entrenched social problems related to homelessness.
We must fix these injustices. We must also understand that homelessness and racism are inextricably linked, and that any solution to homelessness is necessarily wrapped up in the work of dismantling racism. We must begin to address, in a fundamental way, all of the true underlying causes of homelessness.
Learn about Jeff's work with the SPARC (Supporting Partnerships for Anti-Racist Communities) initiative and efforts to address racism and homelessness in 10 cities.
Image by shikeroku (CC by 2.0).