An Equitable Systems Transformation Framework for COVID-19
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to unfold we are unfortunately starting to see old patterns play themselves out again. Historically marginalized communities are once again being left behind in our responses and in our decision making.
As we prepare for billions of dollars to flow into the homelessness response system, NIS is offering a preliminary framework for our partners on how to navigate the COVID-19 response while centering lived experience and racial equity.
We hope you find this helpful and we are available to walk you through any of these in more detail.
1. Equity-based decisions can be fast if the right people are in the room.
*The room is in this instance metaphorical, and rather a digitally-based decision-making group.
Good emergency management decision making is typified by its speed. In an emergency we are better served by moving quickly than by moving perfectly. This often creates a tension between acting quickly and acting equitably. This is particularly true because of the guidance we have repeatedly given that equity-based decisions require slower processes. This is still true.
However, what’s not true is that when we have less time we stop trying to act equitably.
What’s critical for us to remember is that equity-based decisions can still be made quickly if the right people are already in the room. Now is the time to look around our decision-making tables. Is everyone at the table white? Is everyone cis-gendered? Are there any Native people at the table? Then now is the time to make changes quickly to diversify groups of decision makers. If we bring people into our decision making then there is the opportunity for them to be considered.
Key populations to include in our emergency management structures:
Black people
Latinx people
Asian people (particularly people who are being targeted with racist attacks right now)
Pacific Islanders
People who identify as LGBQ
Native people
Trans and gender-expansive people
Incarcerated people
Undocumented people
People living with disabilities
All of these groups are facing elevated risks that we still don’t fully understand and have community needs that must be accounted for. And, to be clear, these voices should not be relegated to specialized “equity” tables. They must be incorporated into the regular command structure of our emergency management centers so that they have the ability to accelerate solutions and, when necessary, prevent or stop harm to their communities.
Now is the time to reach out to the organizers and activists who work with these communities daily and pull them into decision making so that as we continue to make rapid-fire decisions, we know that critical voices are present in key roles.
2. Remember that a lot of populations have excellent reasons to be distrustful of the government and the medical system.
Many communities have every reason to distrust the government and its solutions. There have been too many Tuskegee Trials for that not to be true. These populations will likely not be rapidly engaging with some of the pop-up testing sites that have been stood up or other healthcare connection opportunities.
As a result we will have to figure out how to engage these communities and ensure that they have the proper access to testing and care. As with other pandemics, this will require the activation of specialized outreach teams. We must look to activate the community health workers and mobile medical units that have developed relationships in those communities and begin asking for guidance on how best to engage.
As we ramp up our available supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) these kinds of specialized outreach and engagement teams will be crucial to identifying communities that may be experiencing coronavirus transmission but avoiding connections to care. It’s important to understand that because of historical interactions that many people may be reluctant or unwilling to engage with systems that have traumatized their friends and family in the past, even when they have severe symptoms.
3. Focus. On. Housing.
Shelter systems are likely to be overwhelmed in waves over the coming months. System flow through is critical right now. As we see unprecedented amounts of money enter the homelessness system we have to remember that our goal can’t just be to pivot our crisis response system and shelter in response to the pandemic. Our goal must be to house people.
The only way to enable proper social distancing is to ensure that people are in homes of their own. As the economy continues to struggle over the course of the pandemic, we have to assume that there may in fact be a spike in need for our crisis response system. As a result new dollars should be used not only to redesign the current shelter system to accommodate non-congregate shelter and get desperately needed supplies and staffing but also to prioritize the creation of new permanent solutions.
Additionally, the best way to keep people from needing the crisis response system is to keep them housed to begin with. Communities should seize this opportunity to create or expand large-scale diversion programs that are easily accessible through 2-1-1 or web-based systems that do not require in-person visits to providers or government agencies.
4. Hold your standards. The Trump administration has already begun to waive standards meant to protect marginalized communities. But you don’t have to.
The Trump administration has already used the pandemic to eliminate regulatory standards at the Department of Labor and the Environmental Protection Agency. As the pandemic continues to unfold we must expect to see more and more abdication of the federal responsibility to hold standards around non-discrimination and other regulations like preventing and addressing toxic living environments for marginalized communities.
But that doesn’t mean you need to roll back your standards. Cities, counties, and states have the power to set their own standards around non-discrimination, around ensuring dollars get to businesses and providers owned and operated by folks from marginalized communities. Now is the time to ensure that those standards are strong, that they do not require federal support, and that you are prepared to enforce them.
5. Racial equity is still our priority. If equity is only your priority in times of ease and surplus then it was never really your priority.
Over the last several years we’ve seen a proliferation of funders and agencies talking about equity as a core part of their responses. The word equity appears in the mission statements and strategic plans of nonprofits, government agencies, and public policy firms across the country. The idea that we need to prioritize the needs of historically marginalized communities—to understand that those who are the most impacted should drive the responses to our societies social problems—has been slow to catch on but has been the vital missing ingredient in key advances we’ve made over the last several years in public health, housing, homelessness, and criminal justice.
But as COVID-19 hits the United States and we begin to marshal our responses We’re seeing something disturbing: equity initiatives are being shelved. Equity-based strategic planning, outreach to marginalized communities, and strong community engagement have all been downgraded in importance as we shift our attention towards crisis responses. The message is that equity, for the people who run our systems, is a luxury. It’s not something to be prioritized in times of crisis, in the lean times, it’s a time for the surplus for the good economy. As our country looks at a year or more of COVID-19 response, of a worsening economic climate, are we telling people that equity can wait? That justice is only an acceptable aim when the powerful have no skin in the game?
The idea that equity is a luxury good, something only a surplus economy can produce, is a dangerous and misguided concept. It would seem to me that the roots of this idea are that the racism, misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia we see are bugs or glitches rather than features of the American system. A bug is something that you could reasonably hope that maybe, this time, wouldn’t act up. That maybe this time we wouldn’t get the same incredibly racist results that we always do. The problem is that racism in America is a feature not a bug.
This is precisely why, in these moments of crisis, when the stakes are high, we must double down on equity and justice as the core elements of our approach. When we don’t respond to disasters with equity we get failed responses like those in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina; we get Puerto Rico.
But Katrina was the result of racist policy and choices. And we can choose differently.
6. Rest.
Remember, you can’t help anyone if you’re burned out. Now is the time for leaders from marginalized communities to remember that, even in times of crisis, there has to be a time when we turn off the work phone.
Your communities need you—so please take care of yourself.
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