The article “Clark County homelessness up 9% from 2022 tally, according to Point in Time Count” (The Columbian, June 6) stated that 36 percent of those counted were from minority communities. I was rather surprised that no mention was made by race of the 64 percent majority. Certainly one can assume this group is white, but why didn’t your reporter state this?
Houseless members of minority communities in Clark County are certainly overrepresented from within their small communities. This reflects the systemic bias and racism endemic in our greater community. According to the Employment Security Department of Washington, wages for people of color are 80 percent of those of whites in Clark County, a statistic relatively unchanged since the 1990s.
Homelessness, the most visible evidence of deep poverty, demonstrates a community’s lack of commitment to its most vulnerable people whatever their race. It is time for the fourth branch of government to step up and tell the whole story. If we continue to pretend that abolishing poverty is not our shared community responsibility, even though it affects all of us, real solutions will continue to elude us.
