People of color are dramatically more likely than White people to experience homelessness in the United States. This is no accident; it is the result of centuries of structural racism that have excluded historically oppressed people—particularly Black and Native Americans—from equal access to housing, community supports, and opportunities for economic mobility.
In September 2016, the Center for Social Innovation launched SPARC (Supporting Partnerships for AntiRacist Communities) to understand and respond to racial inequities in homelessness. Through a mixed-methods (quantitative and qualitative) study, the SPARC team documented high rates of homelessness among people of color and began to map their pathways into and barriers to exit from homelessness. This report presents key findings from this study.
