Institutional Racism: Discriminatory policies and practices within organizations and institutions.
Black people, Indigenous people, and other people of color are overrepresented in homeless populations due to structural racism, historical measures, network impoverishment, and other racial disparities across systems.
Discrimination in housing contributes to the persistence of housing disparities across racial groups. Practices that require families facing eviction or homelessness to rely on their network for support overlook the financial strain that their networks are already likely facing.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made these problems worse. Record levels of job losses, tightening credit markets, and a growing risk of evictions and foreclosures threaten housing stability. We must understand the challenges today and then look at the policies that continue to perpetuate the problem. Even though some forms of discrimination are difficult to detect, Urban Institute and other policy researchers help us to understand how it affects outcomes today.