Black Americans are disproportionately impacted by homelessness, making up 40 percent of the homeless population, while representing only 13 percent of the population. Black [People] are five times more likely
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#blackhomeless #blackunhoused #blackpeople #blackamerican #blackmastodon
to experience homelessness than white people. In Washington, DC, Black or African American make up 86.4 percent of the homeless population, while representing only 46.6 percent of our city’s population. AND, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness,
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this imbalance is not improving over time.
The overrepresentation of Black Americans in the homeless population is no accident. It is the result of historical and continued racism–from slavery and violent land theft to housing discrimination that exists even today.
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Black [People] are more likely to experience poverty and other social gaps that place people at risk of homelessness, ranging from interactions with the child welfare and criminal legal systems to lack of access to affordable housing, employment and health care, and the
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longstanding impacts from the practice of redlining, which prohibited [Black People] from accruing land and wealth. Black [People] are also more likely to experience bias within the very systems and data algorithms designed to support them.
https://everyonehomedc.org/homelessness-racial-inequity/
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Audubon Ballroon (he/him)