Addressing Racial Disparities

Destination: Home is committed to racial equity and housing justice. While combatting the entrenched forces that have disproportionately pushed people of color into homelessness is no small task, we have committed ourselves to integrating a racial equity lens in all facets of our work.

Understanding the Intersection of Race & Homelessness in Our Community

In 2019, we began investigating how race and homelessness intersect in our community. This effort resulted in a report, Race & Homelessness in Santa Clara County that documented the significant racial disparities in the rate at which our neighbors experience homelessness.

Read more about this research

Taking on Systemic Forces

Guided by recommendations in the above report, Destination: Home and our Supportive Housing System partners have committed ourselves to eliminating racial disparities in homelessness and attacking systemic racism. 

In 2020, the Continuum of Care released the 2020-2025 Community Plan to End Homelessness – which explicitly acknowledged systemic racism as one of the root causes of homelessness – identifying the actionable steps below to address racial disparities related to homelessness. 

Our Strategies

Adopt and implement new fair
housing plans for the region.

Provide legal assistance to ensure that individuals and families most severely impacted by the lack of affordable housing, namely people of color, have equal access to housing.

Center the voices of people who have lived experience of homelessness, especially people of color, in the policy and program design decisions of the supportive housing system.

Within the supportive housing system, incentivize hiring of people who have lived experience of homelessness to reflect the client population—especially people of color and LGBTQIA+ persons.

Increase access to supportive housing programs for people of color by addressing racial bias in our system.

Provide trauma-informed care and racial equity/anti-racism training to all staff working with people experiencing homelessness.

Align racial equity work in the homelessness sector with other racial equity initiatives in Santa Clara County.

Work Underway

While we have a long way to go to implement these important actions, Destination: Home is taking some important initial steps.

Launching the Andre Ellison Equity Fund

Announced in March 2022, this fund was developed to support the outstanding work of organizations led by people with lived experience of homelessness and/or people of color – those who best know the needs of their community. Named in memory of a dear friend and colleague, we’re committing a total of $3.95 million to 11 organizations, who’ve sought funding to develop their capacity to help end and prevent homelessness. This year, we launched a second round of funding.

Engaging with The Justice Collective, we’re also providing trainings for system partners on equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), delving into the historic and present contexts and implications of inequity in Santa Clara County and the field of housing.

The first training, linked below, focuses on a shared understanding of key concepts, terms, and frameworks related to EDI, to build a common level of understanding in the collective action required to eliminate racial disparities in homelessness. 

This is a long-term commitment for Destination: Home. As we continue to build new systems and solutions to end homelessness, we pledge to listen to, learn from and co-create with those who have experienced the injustices we mean to eliminate.

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