| dc.description.abstract | This dissertation aims to contribute to research on the causes and responses to homelessness by centering race in analyses of the macro-level forces that drive homelessness and by exploring the strategies homelessness response systems are using to address racial inequities. The first study advances literature on the causes of homelessness by 1) examining how housing, economic, and other community-level structural conditions are associated with Black, White, and Latine homelessness rates across U.S. urban and suburban areas, and 2) investigating how Black to White disparities in these rates relate to other measures of inequity. I find that higher rental housing costs are associated with greater homelessness rates across racial groups. Income inequality is positively associated with Black homelessness, and for both White and Latine populations, employment rates are negatively associated with homelessness, but employment is not significant for Black rates. Between communities, racial disparities in homelessness are positively associated with a multidimensional measure of structural racism and specific measures of criminal justice, housing, and economic disparity. The second study extends this research by examining how community-level conditions relate to prevalence of doubled-up homelessness (staying with friends or family because of economic hardship or housing loss). Across metropolitan areas, rental costs are positively associated with doubled-up homelessness among White, Black, and Latine populations in or near poverty, while relationships between race-specific doubled-up rates and measures of employment and public assistance varied. The third study presents a qualitative account of efforts to advance racial equity in homelessness response. Through in-depth interviews with community leaders in Los Angeles and the Twin Cities area, I demonstrate how homelessness response systems are working to ensure that their own structures and practices are racially equitable, and this emerging work is affecting who is making decisions and how resources are distributed. Some leaders are trying to use their positions to enact broader change, but others view social change and homelessness prevention as beyond their scope. I discuss the studies in the context of racism across multiple systems and the challenges and contradictions urban governance systems face when managing the consequences of racialized exclusion and dispossession—particularly homelessness. | |
