Racial Equity Learning Series Session 3 Recap: White Privilege
NOTEWORTHY REMARKS FROM DR. ROBIN DIANGELO
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
A new partnership with Bank of America enables Howard University to provide testing and health care to DC’s most vulnerable and under-served neighborhoods. An excerpt from the press release reads:
Bank of America has awarded a $1M grant to the Howard University Faculty Practice Plan (HUFPP) to improve access to COVID-19 testing in the diverse Washington, D.C. communities located east of the river.
‘We’re excited to partner with Bank of America to get these critical resources to the areas that need them the most,” says Howard University President Wayne A. I. Frederick. “Many of our patients travel great distances to come to Howard University Hospital, which makes it challenging to seek medical attention at the first sign of illness. Our goal is to meet the community where they live so their access to care greatly improves and hopefully we can reduce the spread of the coronavirus significantly.’
Beginning on Tuesday, May 5, Howard University Faculty Practice Plan will host testing at the new Benning Road Center, located at 4414 Benning Road, N.E., Washington, D.C., Suite 2400. The free testing will be available on Tuesdays and Thursday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for the next three months. Residents can sign up by appointment by calling 202-865-2119, option 3. The team will see patients who are showing symptoms or who believe they are asymptomatic.
‘You will not need to have a doctor’s prescription in advance to get tested at our location,” says Dr. Hugh E. Mighty, Howard University vice president of clinical affairs. “We want to eliminate the obstacles so more people can be tested because we believe everyone should be tested. We want to screen our community neighbors in the areas where there are higher incidents of hypertension, heart disease and diabetes because those pre-existing conditions are linked to the higher incidents of coronavirus that we’ve seen in African American communities.’
As the need increases, the Howard team will look at expanding to include a mobile unit to provide testing options in a second area of the city. In addition to funding the tests and equipment, a portion of the grant will be used to enhance Howard University Hospital’s telehealth services. This will expand a doctor’s ability to see patients remotely and increase the patient’s access to care.
Montgomery County Council passed “The COVID-19 Renter Relief Act”, effective April 24, 2020, which prohibits landlords from increasing existing tenants’ rent by more than 2.6% after April 24 and during the COVID-19 catastrophic health emergency signed by the Governor of Maryland on March 5, 2020.
“This bill is an important step in helping our Montgomery County residents during this difficult time,” Councilmember Jawando said. “We have yet to know the full damage that will occur as a result of Covid-19 or what the actual recovery will be like for those who have lost jobs and their income. Our residents deserve the stability of knowing that their housing is protected. Today the Council has sent a strong message that our renters cannot be taken advantage of during this health crisis.”
Learn more on Montgomery County’s website.
Do you have questions about COVID-19 that you’d like to bounce off your peers? Has your organization developed best practices that may be useful to others in the field? Maybe you’re looking for an opportunity to share resources or brainstorm with fellow HAND members? If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, you’re in the right place!
HAND’s COVID-19 E-List is an online space for members to share resources, explore ideas, and most importantly – collectively act on solutions to serve our communities. Let’s connect. Let’s learn from each other. Why? Because we’re #AllInThisTogether.
But first things first – follow the below steps to subscribe. If you think you’d be interested in any of the additional topics listed (more details below), feel free to subscribe to those as well:
How to Subscribe
You can access more detailed instructions with screenshots here.
Members Only Mondays
Meet us on the E-List every week for Members Only Mondays! We encourage you to post your questions and comments every Monday, but feel free to keep the conversation going throughout the week.
More E-Lists
We know the value of peer-to-peer communication, so we want to ensure we can facilitate as many meaningful connections as possible. With that said, we’ve created additional E-lists to cater to various sectors of our membership below. If any of these peak your interest, go ahead and subscribe!
Think there should be additional topics listed? Let us know at info@handhousing.org.
This announcement was originally published by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.
The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) Board of Directors held a special virtual meeting on April 22 on COVID-19 coordination and approved principles for reopening the National Capital Region once it is safe to do so. To that end, the board approved a resolution and statement directing local city and county managers to work together to develop a coordinated, safe, and scientifically-informed strategy. The board also urged area residents to continue the social distancing actions that are slowing the spread of COVID-19.
Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chair Ann Wheeler noted the value of regional cooperation on COVID-19, saying it has contributed to procurement [of equipment], cooperation of residents staying home, and ”it will matter as we begin a slow and measured response to reopening.”
“I appreciate that while [the statement] tells our constituents that we are working together to plan the reopening of the region, it begins by stressing the time is not now and we continue to need the public to stay at home and practice social distancing, said Frederick County Executive Jan Gardner.
D.C. Council member Robert C. White, Jr. said the commitment to coordinate is essential given the region’s interconnectedness. “Our borders are porous… so in both addressing the public health aspect [of COVID-19] and tour recovery, we know that we operate, we function, we rise and fall as a region.”
This post was shared by HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research.
HUD has released the median family incomes and income limits for Fiscal Year (FY) 2020. Median incomes are used as the basis for income limits in several HUD programs, including the Public Housing, Section 8 Housing Choice and Project-Based Voucher, Section 202 housing for the elderly, and Section 811 housing for persons with disabilities programs, as well as in programs run by agencies such as the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Agriculture, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Community planning and development programs, as well as HOME investments, also rely on HUD income limits in their administration.
FY 2020 median family incomes are calculated for all metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties in the U.S. and Puerto Rico using data from the 2017 American Community Survey and from the Puerto Rico Community Survey. Values are projected forward to the midpoint of FY 2020 using a Consumer Price Index (CPI) forecast. The very low-income limits (usually calculated as 50 percent of median incomes) are the basis for calculating all other income limits, as they are the most rigorously defined. Income limits are adjusted according to family size. The FY 2020 median family income estimates and income limits are based on metropolitan area definitions, defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) using community relationships from the 2010 Decennial Census, as updated through 2017.
Visit the FY 2020 Income Limits page on HUD User to access the data and documentation.
The coalition will produce thousands of individual standardized Supplemental Care Units (SCUs) a week to create much needed field hospital capacity across the country. After the crisis ends, these units will be modified as a long-term solution to help address homeless, veteran and affordable housing issues. MaGrann is providing MEP engineering and resilience consulting support on delivering safe and durable homes in responding to the medical crises of today and permanent housing needs of the future.
Interested in learning more about this work? Contact MMC today.
HAND joined Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers (WRAG) and nearly 30 philanthropic, business and nonprofit leaders in a public statement calling for fair and equitable treatment of the District of Columbia as part of federal stimulus legislation related to the COVID-19 crisis.
The statement outlined the gravity of losing $750 million needed to address racial and economic inequities and to support thousands of small businesses, nonprofits, and over 700,000 residents. It noted the District’s important role in the operation of national sites and museums, and the federal government, its contribution to the nation’s tax base, and the established precedent of having treated DC as a state in other legislation.
An excerpt reads:
“The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, signed into law on March 27, 2020, treated Washington, DC differently than virtually all other federal legislation by funding it comparably to U.S. territories rather than states—which meant it lost some $750 million in essential financial support (the District of Columbia was allocated about $500 million compared to $1.25 billion for states). This break with Congressional precedent should matter to everyone. As representatives of philanthropic, business and nonprofit organizations in the Greater Washington region (DC, Suburban Maryland, and Virginia), we are adamant that it is both fair and appropriate that future COVID-19 legislation maintain decades of past practice by funding DC comparably to states.
DC’s population of 705,000 is higher than some states. Its residents pay the highest per-capita federal income taxes in the country and together pay more taxes than 22 states. A U.S. Senate report notes, ‘Congress already treats the District as if it were a state for the purpose of over 500 statutory purposes — from federal taxation to military conscription to highway funds, education funds, and national motor voter requirements. The Supreme Court has also deemed DC the equivalent of a state for certain constitutional purposes…'”
This blog post was originally posted by American Public Health Association.
Author: Tia Taylor Williams, Director of APHA’s Center for Public Health Policy
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought more attention to the field of public health. Every day, people are seeing and hearing from epidemiologists, clinicians, laboratory scientists, researchers and more. While the spotlight is on the field, we should seize this moment to bring national attention to our greatest imperative: reducing health disparities and advancing health equity.
The public health field has an opportunity to shape the discourse about COVID-19 inequities to ensure that the root causes of the problem are acknowledged and addressed within, and well beyond, the pandemic.
As calls for race and ethnicity data in COVID-19 morbidity and mortality are heeded, we’re learning more about the communities and populations being disproportionately impacted. The prevalence of preexisting conditions — such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease — among people who are dying from COVID-19 is also being emphasized.
As public health professionals, we know these same chronic conditions plagued low-income and communities of color at alarmingly high rates for decades before the current pandemic. We also know that these health disparities are the result of years of intentional disinvestment in communities. Lack of access to basic services, living wage jobs and affordable quality housing, education and health care are all veiled by a system that assigns value and structures opportunity based on how a person looks, i.e., racism.
At the same time, we know that as a country we are reluctant to understand, acknowledge and address how America’s legacy of racism, discrimination and exploitation has created present-day conditions of racially segregated and under-resourced neighborhoods.
If history is a predictor, as the pandemic persists and more data are collected, our suspicions about who is being hit hardest will be further substantiated. We can also expect that there will be many different arguments used to downplay or detract from the real issues.
As health equity champions, we have to be ready to redirect those diversions. By applying an equity lens, we can shift the narrative to focus on the root causes of COVID-19 disparities:
At a time when family resources are dwindling and being spread even thinner, we must avoid finger-pointing and placing the blame on the behaviors of individuals in marginalized communities. We know racism is a driving force for the social, economic and environmental conditions, i.e., social determinants that influence health. For example, black and Hispanic communities have higher rates of exposure to air pollution, which has recently been associated with increased risk of COVID-19 death.
We are public health. Social justice is in our roots. We look upstream to identify the causes of the causes. It is critical, during the pandemic and after, that we bring attention and action to addressing systemic and structural factors that shape who has power, where and how people live and, ultimately, what access and opportunities they have for good health.
For more on health equity and COVID-19, visit APHA’s COVID-19 and Equity page.
[custom-facebook-feed]
Payments: Orders placed on the event registration page are not confirmed until payment is received. A confirmation email will be sent to the email address listed in your registration. If you paid by credit card, a receipt will be sent to the email address listed in your registration. If you mail a check, all payments must be received within seven days of completing your registration form. Checks should be remitted to: HAND, PO Box 48386, Washington, DC 20002
Guest List & Dietary Preference: If your registration includes a luncheon table or multiple guests, please submit guest names and menu choices by May 1, 2020. Submit guest names here.
Housing Expo: Plan to exhibit? Download the Housing Expo FAQs here.
Omni Shoreham Hotel Room Block: For attendees looking to secure overnight accommodations on May 25th, HAND has secured a rate starting at $189 for conference attendees. There are a limited amount of rooms available, so visit this link today to reserve your room. May 10th is the last day to secure a room at the discounted rate.
Ad Submission: The artwork for advertisements should be submitted to annualmeeting@handhousing.org. You can download the ad spec sheet here. Deadline for ad submission is April 13, 2020.
Cancellations & Changes: If you wish to cancel or change your registration for the Annual Meeting & Housing Expo, please send a request in writing to annualmeeting@handhousing.org. All cancellation requests made prior to April 27th will receive a 50% refund. For cancellation requests made after April 27th, no refund will be provided.
Door Prizes: Are you interested in donating a door prize to this year’s Annual Meeting? Email annualmeeting@handhousing.org to coordinate with our team.
Mailing Address:
HAND
1330 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Suite 124
Washington, DC 20036
info@handhousing.org
202.384.3764
Staff Directory
MEDIA INQUIRIES?
communications@handhousing.org
INTERESTED IN HAND UPDATES?
Sign up for the distribution list here.