The Covid-19 pandemic has created a set of dire public health and economic challenges for communities across the country. The crisis strikes our most vulnerable communities and communities of color even harder, magnifying existing racial disparities in health, housing, and economic security. This brief is designed to help local government leadership and staff design public processes that use this crisis as an opportunity to further racial equity and build community capacity.

This process guide:

• Outlines the reasons for pursuing an inclusive process (even in times of crisis)
• Describes a developmental path that moves from simple, but ineffective, public engagement to authentic and meaningful community partnership
• Provides real-world examples of steps that communities are taking to ensure that traditionally excluded communities have a real seat at the table when it comes to planning Covid-19 recovery efforts
• Illustrates specific strategies and tools (both online and off) that local government agencies are using to effectively facilitate public input in the absence of face-to-face public meetings

Our companion guide, Strategies to Advance Racial Equity in Housing Response and Recovery: A Guide for Cities during the Covid-19 Pandemic, outlines policy and program design actions that communities can take to support an equitable recovery and advance racial equity in housing during and after the coronavirus pandemic.

The Covid-19 pandemic has created a set of dire public health and economic challenges for communities across the country. The crisis strikes our most vulnerable communities and communities of color even harder, magnifying existing racial disparities in health, housing, and economic security.

This brief provides a set of recommendations to advance racial equity in housing through the implementation of Covid-19 relief and recovery strategies, organized into four areas of action:

1. Prevent evictions and protect tenants.
2. Address homelessness and advance housing as a human right.
3. Sustain and increase community ownership and permanently affordable housing.
4. Divest from the police and invest in racial equity.

Our companion guide, Inclusive Processes to Advance Racial Equity in Housing Recovery: A Guide for Cities during the Covid-19 Pandemic, outlines principles and steps local government leadership and staff can take during this time of crisis to design public processes that further racial equity and build community capacity.

In recent years, public space advocates and park conservationists have become increasingly vocal about the need for “park equity,” or the idea that all residents should have reasonably equal access to quality park space. Much of the emphasis on park equity focuses on access, funding, and the degree to which residents perceive public space to be welcoming and inclusive. Without  a critical analysis of power dynamics in the decision­-making process and how differing visions and concerns are considered, conversations about parks perpetuate and sometimes accelerate historic structural inequities in low-income communities of color. These dynamics can be observed in this case study of Philadelphia Chinatown and the Rail Park, an ambitious adaptive reuse project which recently completed its $11 million first phase of construction. This report offers guidance for the broader field of community development practitioners and planners working in gentrifying neighborhoods on this critical question: How can public spaces contribute to equitable development?

Download the report, the summary, and translated summary in Chinese.