VA Homeless Programs
Setting the Foundation for Racial Equity Across all HPO Programs and Services
Since 2015, advocates for people experiencing homelessness across the country have recognized the need to look at homeless services from a racial equity lens due to the disproportionate rates of homelessness experienced by some racial and ethnic groups. That awareness, coupled with the homicide of George Floyd, as determined by the coroner in May 2020, and ongoing police violence, gave HPO the deep will and desire to create action plans and build an infrastructure for promoting racial equity among all HPO programs. This led to the formation of the VHA HPO Racial Equity and Racial Justice Workgroup.
To learn more about what the workgroup is doing, we interviewed several workgroup members:
- Karen Fuller, LCSW, Homeless Programs Manager, VA New York Harbor Healthcare System
- Omar Bryce, LCSW, HUD-VASH Coordinator, VA New York Harbor Healthcare System
- Dr. Matthew Stimmel, National Training Director, Veterans Justice Programs, HPO
- Anthony Love, Senior Advisor and Director of Community Engagement, HPO
- Shawn Liu, LCSW, Community Engagement Coordinator, HPO
When was the Racial Equity and Racial Justice Workgroup established and why?
After the homicide of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, emotions ran raw among VA's New York Harbor Medical Center staff and the Veterans they served. Everyone had the same question: How long will events like this continue? In a call with nearly 60 New York Harbor homeless program staff members, staff expressed their feelings of helplessness and the desire for VA to help them move through the trauma of racial inequity. Discussions among other team members also revealed the painful impact of these events on many of the staff. This precipitated the creation of a small workgroup composed of New York Harbor, Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 2, and HPO staff to try and make sense of current events and identify opportunities to enact positive change. As members, we all recognized the urgency to help VA become a more racially equitable organization.
What are the workgroup's priorities?
When we first formed the workgroup, we recognized many of the issues were interconnected and multiple levels of intervention were needed. We formed subcommittees that looked at the different issues and established three focus areas: 1) Staff, where we sort out the impact of racial inequality on field staff; 2) Veterans, where we provide training and tools for ensuring equitable treatment; and 3) Organization, which involves taking a broader look at policies to determine if they are inherently discriminatory or contain barriers that are unintentionally detrimental to the Veterans VA is trying to help.
To do this right, we felt we needed to harness the insights and expertise from significantly more VA homeless program staffers across the country. So, this past fall, we added new members, tripling the size of our workgroup, to carry out our goals.
What is the workgroup doing now to raise awareness of racial inequality among staff and Veterans?
In line with our Veteran focus, we conducted the webinar Analyzing Racial Disparities in the Homelessness System: What You Should Know in July 2020. Then we held the two-part webinar Let's Talk about Racism: Effectively Navigating Difficult Dialogues about Racism in August and September, respectively. These webinars were attended by thousands of VA staff, case managers, and others in the homeless service sector.
Our organizational focus includes disaggregating access and outcomes data found in VA's Homeless Operations Management and Evaluation System (HOMES) database by race and ethnicity. It is important to determine how race factors into Veterans' access to VA's homeless programs, the lengths of their care episode, and if they exit to permanent housing to ensure that VA homeless programs are being administered fairly, equitably, and with cultural competence to highly vulnerable Veterans. We want to ensure every Veteran is evaluated based on need factors, acuity, and resources, and that each Veteran obtains Veteran-centric, culturally informed, and collaborative care. We are working with VA data analysts to develop an internal dashboard that program managers can use to assess their entry and exit data based on race, compare data across facilities, and identify and remove barriers from their facility's program operations and policies to achieve racial equity.
What are some examples of the types of barriers to racial equity Veterans may experience?
Discrimination comes in many different forms. Anecdotally, some Black Veterans have said they were not well heard and felt misunderstood by the HUD-VASH screening committees that determined their entry into the program. Also, for our justice-involved Veterans, there are reports of Veteran diversionary courts composed only of white Veterans in locations with a large Black population. These reports highlight the need to disaggregate the data we have available by race, so that we can accurately quantify the barriers Veterans face and take steps to improve their experiences.
Veterans who believe that they have experienced racial or ethnic bias or discrimination in the delivery of services can contact their local VA medical center's Patient Advocate's Office to share their story and file a complaint.
What are some of the workgroup's goals and is there a specific timeline for achieving them?
Our primary goal is to create more tools and strategies that will help HPO identify and address racial inequity and injustice among our priority areas (staff, Veterans, and organization). This may include additional trainings that touch on topics such as how to reach out and talk to Black, justice-involved Veterans about the difference in treatment they experience by probation officers. In the short term, the workgroup is working to develop tools like the internal dashboard that can further identify areas where improvements are needed. We also are taking the long view to set up HPO for future success. This includes working on ways to incorporate racial equity data into local staff orientations and to proactively advise Veterans of their rights and what to expect when they apply for a program.
As a group, we must do a better job of communicating how we are promoting just and culturally/racially aware services to Veterans. We also must ensure VA staff and our partners understand how different races experience the world and the trauma that people of color experience because of inequality and unjust policies. This is a top-down initiative, so we are taking an informed approach and will reach out to Veterans to elicit their opinions and feedback to drive fundamental change within VA.
What resources can people access to learn more about achieving racial equity and racial justice?
The following racial diversity trainings are available to VA staff and partners. We will provide updates as more resources are added.
Analyzing Racial Disparities in the Homelessness System: What You Should Know. The Presenters for the session are Chan L. Crawford, Ph.D. Director, Individual Homeless Adults, National Alliance to End Homelessness, Va Lecia Adams Kellum, Ph.D., President & CEO, St. Joseph Center, and Regina Cannon, MS, Chief Equity and Impact Officer C4 Innovations.
Let's Talk about Racism: Effectively Navigating Difficult Dialogues about Racism (Part 1). The Presenter for the session is Karima A. Clayton, Ph.D., Licensed Clinical Psychologist, VA-NY Harbor Healthcare System, Manhattan, NY.
Let's Talk about Racism: Effectively Navigating Difficult Dialogues about Racism (Part 2). The Presenters for the session are Karima A. Clayton, Ph.D., Licensed Clinical Psychologist, VA-NY Harbor Healthcare System, Manhattan, NY and Karen Fuller, LCSW, Homeless Programs Manager, VA-NY Harbor Healthcare System, Manhattan, NY, Ani Ali, LCSW, HUD-VASH Team Coordinator, VA-NY Harbor Healthcare System, Manhattan, NY, Siobhan Dannacker, LCSW, Veterans Justice Outreach Coordinator, VA-NY Harbor Healthcare System, Manhattan, NY and Sharon McIntyre, LMSW, HUD-VASH Social Worker, VA-NY Harbor Healthcare System, Manhattan, NY.
Racial Equity and Racial Justice. This two-part podcast is moderated by Roger Casey, PhD, LCSW, Director, Education & Dissemination, NCHV.
More Information
- For information and updates on VA's programs and supportive services for Veterans who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, subscribe to receive HPO's monthly newsletter.
- Veterans who are homeless or at risk of homelessness should contact the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans at 877-4AID-VET (877-424-3838).
