CHT’s Board of Directors approved a resolution on June 3, 2020 over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and of the regular killing of and violence against Black and brown citizens. In this statement we dedicated ourselves to change internally and to call for change in our communities. CHT affirms and reaffirms its commitment to fight racism and to the principle of racial justice and equity in its policies, programs and employment in all aspects of its work. CHT is deeply committed to achieving racial equity, diversity and the highest level of inclusion and cultural humility in all our programs, services and in the workplace. CHT, its Board of Directors and staff, commits to the following goals:
In Our Programs
- We will work to affirmatively further Fair Housing and non-discrimination in all of our programs and marketing
- We will continue to ensure that the number of people served by our programs will meet and exceed the percentage of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in our community who are in need
- We will work to ensure access to homeownership for people of color (it is currently at 25%)
- We will work to ensure our apartments are housing people of color (it is currently at 25%)
- We will continually review internal policies and screen them for racial bias, including the use of criminal history and credit ratings
- We will continue to internally review actions that may cause people to lose their housing such as evictions that have been known to disproportionately impact BIPOC
- We will continue to explore Sharia-compliant lending
- We will explore procurement policies that will purchase more goods and services from minority owned businesses
- We will strengthen and improve our interpretation services and communication to residents and members in all languages
- We will provide alternatives to policing in our developments
- We will establish a process to address complaints of racist words or actions between residents as well as towards staff
- We will provide sufficient data, undertake a comprehensive review of our practices of collecting data and create data dashboards to enable management of progress
In Our Community
- We will commit to strengthening our partnerships with organizations serving BIPOC and other historically disadvantaged groups
- We will work to ensure that our housing, programs, and services reach and address the needs of BIPOC in our community
- We will continue to work toward desegregation by building affordable housing in wealthy, predominantly white communities while also pursuing projects that resist gentrification in low-income neighborhoods
- We will join in the call for review of use-of-force policies by law enforcement
- We will participate in the Racism is a Public Health Emergency Coalition.
In Our Staffing and Leadership
- We will ensure BIPOC representation on our Board of Directors and committees.
- We will continue to work toward having staff reflect not just the community, but the people we serve
- We will continue to educate all staff on fair housing issues and the specific needs of protected classes, including BIPOC
- We will expand upon our staff education program to increase focus and awareness of issues surrounding race and equity related topics
- We will review hiring, appointment and promotion processes through a racial equity lens