Dear Neighbor,
Now more than ever, we are spending time at home and recognizing how important our homes are for learning, working, and staying healthy. We are also seeing how connected we are to our communities and how important it is for our entire community to have what we need to stay safe and healthy.
"We often say we are one crisis away from homelessness and that crisis is here."
With the ongoing health pandemic and economic crisis, families, seniors, and youth are struggling to maintain stable housing that we know is vital to their health. At the same time, the data tells us that, in DC, the people most affected are disproportionately Black and Latinx.
This isn’t new, a history of systemic racism in housing has led us to where we are today.
In DC, we know that the vast majority of extremely low-income, severely rent burdened households are headed by a person of color, while 87% of the population experiencing homelessness is Black despite representing less than half of the population in DC.
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Racial Equity and Housing Justice
As we see movements for racial justice across the country and in our backyards, perhaps there is no better place to start than to look at our housing system. Our Leadership Council member, Amanda Andere, may have said it best in her recent op-ed:
"We can’t put an end to racism until we create a more just housing system: A stable place to call home is necessary for learning, maintaining employment, being healthy, feeling safe, and building strong family and community life.”
Last month we hosted a Social Justice Town Hall on Housing Justice, and along with experts in the field, we discussed the essential role of housing and the right of all people to have safe, quality housing that they can afford.
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With the information we have about who is experiencing homelessness and housing instability, we know that our work through the Partnership to End Homelessness must focus on racial equity in everything we do. We also know that we need to be transparent about how we are going to do this. That’s why we have put our commitments to this work in writing so that you can help hold us accountable.
With the current pandemic and economic crisis perpetuating inequities and disproportionately impacting Black and Latinx communities, we have an opportunity to respond in a way that does not perpetuate these inequities, but starts moving the housing sector to be more just.
During the Social Justice Town Hall, Robert Warren from the People for Fairness Coalition said it best: "We're trying to get back to normal - when normal wasn't right in the beginning."
What is the Partnership doing?
- Investing to ensure low-income households, that are disproportionately Black and Latinx, do not lose their housing in the middle of a health pandemic.
- Speaking up and supporting advocates to fight for public investments in rent relief, affordable housing for extremely low-income households, and housing and supports for people experiencing homelessness.
What can you do?
- Join us and 27 US Mayors in telling your representatives that you believe everyone deserves safe, secure housing they can afford, and our public investments should reflect that. We need to align our investments with our values. As Parisa Norouzi from Empower DC reminded us during the Town Hall, “the city is subsidizing housing for people that earn more than the average income. We need to prioritize public resources for low-income households that are majority Black and Brown in DC."
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Invest through the Partnership to End Homelessness. With our partners we are making strategic investments to help people experiencing homelessness to access the resources they need, and to help low-income households maintain their housing so they can continue to work, learn, and stay healthy.
We hope you will continue to join us, by investing in our work, following us on social media, and responding to our advocacy alerts.
Your investments and your voice are powerful tools to help ensure that DC is an affordable and thriving city for all our neighbors. This work is more urgent than ever, and we are working hard to stay up to date and responsive to our community’s needs. By investing in strategic priorities, aligned with the city’s plan and informed by data, research, and community input, we know we can end homelessness and ensure stable housing for all our neighbors.
Sincerely,
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Silvana Straw
Senior Community Investment Officer & Senior Philanthropic Advisor
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Jennifer Olney
Community Investment Program Officer, Partnership to End Homelessness
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About the Partnership to End Homelessness |
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The Partnership to End Homelessness, led by the Greater Washington Community Foundation and the District Government’s Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH), brings together the public and private sectors to ensure homelessness is rare, brief, and non-recurring in DC. We believe that all DC residents deserve a safe, stable, and affordable place to call home.
By joining together, we will increase the supply of deeply affordable housing, help everyone find a home they can afford, and help more people access housing and exit homelessness more quickly.
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