Shifting the organization’s culture to create more alignment between values, shared beliefs can change staff’s perception of LAHSA’s commitment to advancing racial justice. (1) The agency’s intention must be authentic and in alignment with their working community to lead to impact.
To grow and create a better impact in LA county, it is essential for LAHSA to have institutional accountability mechanisms where every action is specific, timely, and attainable. (2)
There is an urgent need for a culture shift that results in greater alignment of values, creating shared beliefs, and changed organizational behavior.
Equity, as one of LAHSA’s organizational values, reflects the organization’s stated commitment “to racial, social, and economic justice”and “appreciating culture, experience, and values of all people” while “working to eliminate disparities within the system.” (3)
I have been working here for over 2 years and have not heard anything about equity, racism till the George Floyd incident. It’s a mixed bag, a top-down approach, management sent an email and one staff meeting to say sorry about the way the world is. It felt artificial, doesn’t feel like actual progress to me.
LAHSA Staff Member
01
Lack of Theory of Change to Drive Goals, Resources and Accountability
Staff across the organization expressed the lack of capacity, quality time and decision-making power as barriers to focusing on racially explicit goals. Shared experiences of pivoting from one competing priority to another, and the lack of stated goals and accountability made it more common to not center the engagement, collaboration, decision-making processes and learning to support advancement of racial justice as an organization. In literature, these behaviors and cultural practices are defined as a scarcity mindset where decisions are rooted in the belief that there is not enough and the reality of uneven distribution of time, resources, and support is justified. To be clear, LAHSA is operating in an environment where there is a scarcity of resources needed to address the complex and complicated issue of homeelessness. Additionally, the staff were able to reflect that while they were operating in an environment with limited resources, they were also operating internally with a limited bandwidth imposed onto themselves. Maintaining the status quo, and in action, will continue to actively cause harm to staff and people experiencing the system.
02
Lack of Representation of Black Senior and Executive Level Leadership
Staff pointed to the need for more Black leadership within programmatic departments in the organization, given their responsibility for policy making and program design decisions that directly impact individuals experiencing homelessness who are black and are overrepresented. For example; at the time of this report Black staff made up about 25% of the programmatic functions of the organization and 12% across the related Directors, Associate Directors and Executive Suite positions. On the operations side of the house, Black staff represented about 27% of all assigned staff and 31% at the Associate Director and Director Level. This concern was highlighted across survey responses, interviews and through the co-design sessions as a critical indicator of racial equity at LAHSA.
03
There is a need for a shared language and process
Discussions during the co-design sessions illuminated the desire and hopefulness staff hold for the organization but also a fear and hesitancy to “do the work” well related to (1) experiences of ownership and accountability projected downward in the organization structure and/or siloed to specific individuals or groups, as opposed to being held as a responsibility from the very top of the organization and (2) the tendency to avoid discussions about race and racial equity due to lack of shared language, agreements and process to address implicit bias, white fragility and trauma.
Through survey responses, interviews and co-design sessions, staff expressed that the organization is focused more on its image in relation to equity than action and impact. The materials audit produced several examples of incomplete processes aimed at setting racial equity goals internally and incidents of staff of color offering feedback and solutions with no follow through or follow up.
The controversial response to staff proposals to end contractual relationships with law enforcement during the summer of George Floyd’s murder was pointed to by staff as a missed opportunity to take action, and continues to be a source of tension in conversation about what it means for LAHSA to live into it’s values of racial justice. The lack of meaningful change in relationship with law enforcement as an organizational response to the social justice uprising following George Floyd’s murder has compounded the feelings and perceptions by staff of LAHSA taking a performative posture.
When we come together to talk about racial equity – people feel uncomfortable because they are feeling judged; for us to have a useful conversation moving forward we need to have the ability to have the conversation.
LAHSA Staff Member
When we talk about community engagement/listening sessions- we miss the mark sometimes. We are very responsive to the elected but less responsive to the constituents/people receiving the work.
LAHSA Staff Member
Shifting the organization’s culture to create more alignment between values, shared beliefs can change staff’s perception of LAHSA’s commitment to advancing racial justice. (4) The agency’s intention must be authentic and in alignment with their working community to lead to impact.
To grow and create a better impact in LA county, it is essential for LAHSA to have institutional accountability mechanisms where every action is specific, timely, and attainable. (5)
01
Develop a theory of change for LAHSA that explicitly names and operationalizes its antiracist intentions.
The theory of change is meant to provide possible direction and scaffolding for the forthcoming strategic design and implementation process in the next phase of this work LAHSA has ahead of itself. It is recommended that the theory of change include an organizational point of view for why it is critical that LAHSA live into its value. This may include, but is not limited to:
- Acknowledging historical impacts of structural racism and white supremacy
- Acknowledging LAHSA’s role and responsibility in actively accessing and dismantling white supremacy and systemic oppression
- Opportunity to bold about making more space to make this a priority by practicing saying no and taking new risks
- Asserting what it means to be a white led organization doing this work
- Making a commitment to making the time to do the work
- Sharing a narrative around what it aspires to promote and believes is possible
- Affirming that it needed relationships and partnerships to continue the work and its commitment to partner engagement (ex: co-design)
- Naming its intentions around accountability
02
Establish shared language and a commitment to building ongoing knowledge, skills, and confidence to talk about racism and white supremacy and strategies to operationalize racial justice for every staff member at LAHSA and key stakeholders.
This may include:
- Establishing and supporting brave spaces
- Building a shared language on the historical and current-day impacts of white supremacy culture, systemic racism, anti-blackness, in community and in the workplace, as well as in the solutions designed to respond to people at risk of and/or experiencing homelessness
- Centering learning around first-hand knowledge of what is happening on the ground through the outreach team and the Access and Engagement Department, including what works and what does not; while creating opportunities for this voice to be elevated across and outside of the division.
- Leaning into the discomfort
- Addressing white fragility and accountability
03
Develop racial equity goals and annual action plans at the executive level of the organization, integrated into the organization’s strategy plans so that it drives additional goal-setting within the new organizational structure (Senior Advisors, System Level and Component Departments).
This may include:
- Goals related to onboarding all current staff and new hires to the theory of change and connecting it to individual team and personals goals, in order to ensure all staff are clear on how their role contributes to racial equity outcomes,
- Goals related to cultivating inclusion and belonging amongst teams and departments
- Goals that require providing consistent, transparent updates on progress towards goals to ensure there is a formal continuous improvement process to support pivots in strategy where relevant (emergence) (6), etc. to allow for accountability and flexibility, etc.
I am hopeful that by bringing a racial equity director we will have change, we will have safe space to speak to policies that effect participants and within the agency. You have a pool of people who believe. It’s just a matter of time.
LAHSA Staff Member