Giving Compass' Take:

• At the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, Jasmine Hayes indicates racial inequities -- specifically in education -- are the root of our problems in addressing homelessness.

• How could eliminating racial gaps in homelessness dramatically reduce the issue as a whole? How does education play a role in this? What can you do to focus your efforts on achieving equitable outcomes for homeless people?

• Discover more about helping young people avoid homelessness in the United States.

This theme – Together for Equity - resonated with me as I thought about the work happening in communities and at the state and national level to strengthen our skills and capacity to center racial equity across efforts to prevent and end homelessness. And I was reminded that in order to achieve racial equity in efforts to prevent and end homelessness, it’s essential for those systems—like education—that impact or contribute to the disparities in who is experiencing or is most likely to experience homelessness, to also be focusing their efforts on achieving equitable outcomes for the most under-served and disadvantaged populations.

We know that education is a pathway filled with opportunity and long-term success for countless individuals. At the same time, the education system can hinder success, particularly in communities of color, when there are inequities across domains like academic achievement, disciplinary practices, and school investments. Lack of a high school diploma or GED is the highest risk factor for experiencing youth homelessness – and similarly, youth experiencing homelessness are much less likely to remain in school. We also know that people of color are disproportionately impacted by homelessness.

Paying attention to the connection between education and homelessness, along with using demographic data to better understand existing disparities within the homelessness services system,  are key elements of the coordinated community plans being developed by grantees participating in the HUD-funded Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP). As communities are designing their local YHDP plans for preventing and ending youth homelessness, they are using data to ask hard questions about how the current response to homelessness is—and is not—reinforcing existing disparities across communities of color.

Read the full article about how education can reduce inequities in homelessness by Jasmine Hayes at the United States International Council on Homelessness.