By Joy Moses
Table of Contents
> Workers of Color and Economic Hardship | > Job Roles and Economic Hardship | > Education Levels and Economic Hardship | > Differences in Workplace Treatment | > Workers of Color are Least Likely to Want to Leave the Profession | > Conclusion
Pressures on the homeless services workforce are widespread. The Alliance’s 2023 survey of the field shed further light on employees navigating challenging environments marked by understaffing and high turnover, feelings of being overworked, and personal sacrifices significantly tied to low salaries and financial hardship. There is no doubt that these issues affect workers of all types. However, the survey revealed notable differences rooted in race and ethnicity. The current brief focuses on the three largest respondent groups (White, Black, and Latinx workers).
The Alliance’s survey findings indicate that workers of color experience greater financial hardships (a status that co-exists with their role types and education) and some differences in treatment. Despite these challenges, Black workers are particularly likely to express a desire to continue serving people experiencing homelessness. Reducing the hardships and supporting the advancement of these dedicated workers would likely help to improve employee retention in homeless services. Ultimately, such efforts would enhance the nation’s efforts to finally end the homelessness crisis, as clients experiencing homelessness benefit from the consistency and longer-term talent development of a stable workforce.
The 2023 survey was not primarily aimed at understanding issues of race and ethnicity in the workforce. Thus, further exploration of these issues is warranted.
Workers of Color are More Likely to Show Signs of Economic Hardship
Few workers in the homelessness sector say they “live well” on their salaries (i.e., having enough for many wants beyond basic needs). However, the greatest hardships disproportionately land on workers of color. Latinx and Black workers are far more likely to say that they don’t earn enough to cover their basic needs. In this area, there is a 14 to 15 percentage point gap between White workers and these two groups.
Respondents were asked how they were making ends meet on their salaries. Black and Latinx workers were more likely to share responses that point to severe financial hardship—including working an additional job(s), relying on food pantries/charities, and relying on credit cards to pay bills.
Latinx workers were more likely to worry about paying essential expenses. Notably, most Latinx workers (53 percent) and nearly half of Black workers (49 percent) worry about paying for housing, even as they contribute to systems that help others find housing. Further, non-necessities may seem so out of reach that they don’t register as a concern—a person who is worried about keeping their housing may not be overly focused on whether they can afford vacations or retirement savings.
Job Roles Contribute to Differences in Economic Hardship
Differences in economic hardship may be partly rooted in the types of jobs workers hold. Among the survey respondents, Black and Latinx workers were more likely to be in frontline jobs (working directly with people experiencing homelessness). Additionally, these groups were less likely than White workers to be managers of frontline workers.
Focusing on Latinx workers offers useful insights. Latinx workers were least likely to be managers of frontline workers—there was a 9-percentage point gap between Latinx and White workers indicating they held these positions. Further, Latinx respondents were also significantly represented within office jobs but not within the related management positions.
The Alliance survey did not examine variations in pay within roles. For example, there may or may not be racial disparities in pay among managers of frontline workers. Such questions are worthy of further study.
Education Levels Also Contribute to Differences in Economic Hardship
Since the 20th century, volumes of research materials and legal filings have been written about racial disparities in American education. And, within the Alliance survey, White workers are more likely than workers of color to have higher education degrees.
However, the educational attainment story is somewhat more complex than that fact. At the level of master’s degree or higher, Black workers have fairly similar educational levels as White ones. Similarly, when it comes to bachelor’s degree attainment, only one percentage point separates Latinx and White workers. Finally, while Latinx and Black workers may be less likely to have certain higher education degrees, many indicated completing some college or an associate’s degree.
While education levels may help explain differences in economic hardship, it is unclear whether they should. Separate efforts should explore the degree to which these differences in educational attainment are meaningful to the various types of roles held by workers in the homeless services field.
Finally, workers of color were more likely to say they needed (and presumably wanted) more opportunities to continue their formal education and participate in training. Ensuring access to such offerings would help narrow existing educational attainment gaps.
Differences in Workplace Treatment
Some differences emerged in how respondents say they are treated in the workplace. Black workers were most likely to express concerns about discrimination, limited professional opportunities, and limited respect. However, to some degree, workers of every racial/ethnic background shared such responses, likely negatively impacting efforts to reach organizational goals and employee retention.
Since the Alliance survey didn’t focus on these issues, they should be explored more fully.
Workers of Color are Least Likely to Want to Leave the Profession
Despite expressed challenges related to financial hardships and workplace treatment, workers of color are less likely than their White counterparts to want to leave the homeless services sector. This is especially true for Black workers.
To the extent that some workers have less educational attainment, they may have fewer opportunities in the broader job market. Other factors (e.g., personal networks or hiring manager biases) may also impact options and how people perceive them.
However, Black workers may simply be more likely to feel a sense of connection to jobs within the homelessness sector—perhaps, at least in part, because Black people are overrepresented within homelessness and other forms of housing instability. Methods of supporting workers who want to persist in the field should be explored.
Conclusion
Low wages partly define the homeless services sector. Previous Alliance calculations indicate that many workers don’t even earn enough to afford their own housing. The Alliance’s nationwide workforce survey found an overwhelming majority saying that their salaries were either “just enough” or “not enough” to meet their basic needs. However, the circumstances for workers of color appear more dire, with group members showing signs of desperation in their efforts to make ends meet.
Moving forward, the field should:
1) Raise Salaries for Everyone.
A rising tide lifts all boats. And, given their greater hardships, workers of color stand to benefit from broad-based salary increases. Policymakers at all levels of government, government agencies directly hiring or contracting work out to non-profit organizations, and foundations can all contribute to increases in sector salaries. In pursuing such efforts, they should account for the group-specific barriers and strengths related to obtaining appropriate compensation.
2) Raise Awareness About the Needs of Workers of Color.
Workers of color have more reasons to be relatively more economically insecure for reasons beyond their current salaries. For example, these groups tend to have more student loan debt, less generational wealth, and weaker personal safety nets when compared to their white peers. The importance of income from work can vary depending on the presence of such factors.
Raising awareness about the disproportionate impacts of current pay scales on workers of color could contribute to advocacy efforts for sector-wide salary increases while informing other creative responses to this challenge.
3) Ensure the Inclusion of Workers of Color in Management and Other Relatively Better Paying Roles.
This could include (but isn’t limited to):
- Examining and adjusting the educational requirements for positions (where appropriate).
- Requiring anti-bias trainings for hiring managers
- Instituting targeted recruitment strategies for underrepresented groups.
4) Fund Greater Opportunities for Training and Education.
Many homeless services workers say they need more training and educational opportunities. Policymakers at all levels of government, foundations, and other funders should provide those opportunities. They can award new funds to Continuums of Care and service providers, offer greater technical assistance through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, improve loan repayment assistance programs, or create/expand direct grant programs for students committed to working in public service. Working alongside employers, they should also ensure that workers have the time and capacity to further their education.
Such shifts could improve the services offered to clients while improving employee retention. Further, when the field reaches its goal of ending homelessness, its employees will be even better equipped to pursue other forms of service and other types of employment.
5) Pursue Additional Research.
The Alliance’s survey was not focused on understanding the environment that creates racial disparities within the homeless services workforce or any differences in treatment-experienced within the homeless services workforce. These issues are worthy of further study. For example, 1) for workers who say they have experienced racial discrimination, what forms does it take, how does it impact clients, and how does it impact workers?; and 2) What role does uplifting and supporting people with lived expertise have in alleviating racial disparities?
Many different types of people work in the homeless services field. Disparities and uneven hardships hurt the team’s ability to do its best work. Collective effort toward equality can help get the job of ending homelessness done.