In our previous blog posts, we have discussed the intersections of homelessness and health, trauma, single motherhood, and much more. Throughout these discussions, racial inequality and its impacts on access to resources, opportunities for upward mobility, and overall quality of life remain a central issue. The relationship between racism and homelessness is complex. While some policies and practices are easily identifiable as blatantly discriminatory, others require us to look beyond what is presented at face value. It’s a good practice to delve further and always ask the question: who is benefitting and who is suffering from these systems in place?

Racial Disparities in Homelessness

Since the 1980s, people of color have been consistently overrepresented in the homeless population. A recent analysis of homelessness in the US revealed that 64 percent of people experiencing homelessness were Black or Hispanic. The Black community experiences homelessness the most disproportionately of any group. Data from the 2023 to 2024 Point-in-Time Count shows that despite making up only 12 percent of the US population, Black individuals accounted for 32 percent of people experiencing homelessness. In DC, this disparity is especially staggering: Black residents comprise 44.4 percent of the DC population but account for nearly 85 percent of people experiencing homelessness. While homelessness has not affected the Hispanic community as disproportionately as the Black community, the number of Hispanic individuals experiencing homelessness has increased dramatically in recent years. A 2023 analysis of homelessness trends shows that nearly 40,000 Hispanic people became unhoused from 2022 to 2023. 

Although this data displays clear evidence of racial disparities in homelessness, it is challenging to fully comprehend why these gaps exist without more information. Viewing data without context can lead to harmful misconceptions; a prime example of this is the assumption that homelessness is the result of a person’s moral failings. From this perspective, homelessness is justified, unavoidable, and not the responsibility of those unaffected. In reality, homelessness, racism, and how they intersect are directly tied to systems, practices, and policies designed to disenfranchise people of color.

The History of Housing Discrimination 

The origins of housing discrimination can be traced back to the late 1930s and the invention of a  policy called redlining. In response to a massive housing shortage brought on by the Great Depression, the federal government and real estate companies devised a color-coded map used to identify areas of “riskiness” for mortgage lenders and investors. On these maps, locations that were occupied by Black residents were marked in red, labeling these communities as “high-risk” for investors. As the government invested in providing affordable housing to whites in the suburbs, Black communities were prohibited from living in these neighborhoods and restricted to living in urban spaces. 

Government-sanctioned housing discrimination persisted into the following decades with the creation of the G.I. Bill. After the end of World War II, the G.I. Bill was introduced to provide veterans a step up into the middle class with the offer of free education and affordable mortgages. Black veterans, however, were overwhelmingly excluded from many of these benefits. Many Black veterans could not afford to take time off from work to go to college. For the men that did go to school, segregated schools were often underfunded and offered fewer opportunities for training and work prospects. Additionally, the barriers to housing remained largely unchanged. Since the G.I. Bill did not address discriminatory housing practices, the same financial institutions that had enforced redlining in the previous decades continued to deny mortgages and loans to Black homebuyers. 

The Lasting Effects of Housing Discrimination 

Coinciding with the civil rights movement, the United States passed the Fair Housing Act in 1968, which outlawed housing discrimination. Despite the promise of fair and equal housing, the detrimental effects of discriminatory housing policies remain today. Neighborhoods that were historically impacted by redlining have been shown to have poorer health outcomes and higher  levels of environmental pollutants. 

 Housing discrimination has also been identified as a key contributor to racial wealth inequality. Home equity is how the majority of middle-class families accumulate wealth. Throughout the 1940s to the 1960s, white families were able to purchase homes in the suburbs at a relatively low rate. In modern times, the values of these homes have increased exponentially, which has allowed white families to pass these economic gains down over several generations. On the other hand, Black and brown families, who were explicitly barred from purchasing homes in these neighborhoods, have been denied the same opportunities to build generational wealth. While Black homeownership has increased in recent years, so has the racial wealth gap. Research shows that for every 100 dollars in wealth held by white households in 2022, Black households only held 15 dollars.

Systemic Racism and Homelessness Today  

While housing discrimination is a central factor to housing access, the link between racism and homelessness reaches far beyond historical housing policies. Systemic racism can be defined as the overt and covert policies, laws, and prevailing norms embedded in our society and institutions that perpetuate racial discrimination. Racial inequality is intertwined with homelessness in many different ways in the US, including mass incarceration, workforce discrimination, and barriers to healthcare access

People of color are disproportionately represented in the prison system, receiving harsher punishments and longer prison sentences than their white counterparts. Formerly incarcerated individuals face significant barriers to obtaining housing and work due to background checks and are up to 13 times more likely to experience homelessness than people without criminal records. Further, discrimination in employment puts Black and brown households at a greater risk of housing insecurity and homelessness. Although it is technically illegal for employers to discriminate based on race, several studies have shown that Black applicants with equal or superior educational experience to white applicants are less likely to receive job callbacks. 

Another contributor to racial disparities in homelessness is healthcare access. People experiencing homelessness are more than twice as likely to have a disability, and 18.5 percent have a serious mental illness. In a healthcare system that is already challenging to navigate for many Americans, people of color experience additional hurdles to healthcare access. Research has shown that doctors provide different treatment to patients based on racial biases, leading to poorer health outcomes for Black and brown individuals. For people living with a disability or serious mental illness, maintaining housing can be especially difficult. Health conditions can prevent individuals from working, and even if they are employed, the mounting medical bills can consume most of their income. While race is socially constructed, the effects of racist policies and practices are real and damaging. In a society that disregards basic rights like healthcare access and a living income, housing is no exception. 

Shifting Our Approaches to Homelessness 

Understanding the relationship between homelessness and racism is critical to informing our approaches to homelessness. In the 1980s, the US adopted the “colorblind” approach to homelessness. This method has since proven largely ineffective in addressing homelessness, especially in communities of color. This approach has failed because it discounts the integral role racism plays in homelessness. In order to provide effective solutions, we must acknowledge racism and respond with interventions that are actively and definitively anti-racist. To enact lasting change, this shift ultimately needs to occur at the federal and state levels. This means creating policies that directly address racial inequality like mass prison reform, protections for Black and brown workers, increasing access to healthcare, and investment in affordable housing in communities of color. 

But what can homelessness services providers and affordable housing developers do at the ground level? A breadth of research revealed the importance of collecting demographic data on homelessness to identify disparities. While this may seem like an obvious approach, for years the colorblind approach excluded race from data collection. Other homelessness interventions have also demonstrated the importance of including people of color with lived experiences of homelessness in retrieving data and formulating approaches. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority has been a leader in this data collection method, utilizing subpopulations such as women, veterans, and people of color with experiences of homelessness to gather data from those respective populations. Lastly, training and educating staff about racial disparities in homelessness is key to providing informed, empathetic, and client-centered care. 

Racial disparities in homelessness in Washington, DC are particularly prevalent. At Housing Up, we understand the importance of recognizing the systemic and historical factors that contribute to this inequity. As we work to accomplish our mission of ending family homelessness in DC, prioritizing families of color is imperative. The majority of the families Housing Up serves are Black and brown. Despite these challenging times of uncertainty in the US, we remain committed to providing safe and affordable housing to all the families we serve throughout the District.