When you support Mercy Housing, you are taking an active role in the notion that housing justice is social justice. Our organization has a longstanding commitment to foster racial equity, diversity, and inclusion (REDI).

Providing fair housing where anyone, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, or age is treated with respect, justice, and mercy is at the core of our work. Legacies of housing discrimination and systemic racism have left too many communities of color at a disadvantage. Mercy Housing uses a racial equity, diversity, and inclusion lens to evaluate all operations. Our REDI work is not part of what we do, it is what we do.

To ensure that we are always thinking, acting, and listening with a REDI lens requires an ongoing discussion. Here are some of the ways that we are continuing these conversations, while putting words into action:

• Held REDI workshops, required for all employees. Two-hour interactive workshops provide a foundational understanding around bias and focus on common language to talk about racial equity, diversity, and inclusion.
• Targeted donations to local, grassroots nonprofits whose mission is dedicated to advancing racial equity.
• Web Brown joined us in January as Mercy Housing’s first-ever Senior Vice President of Racial Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, to advance our REDI work.
• In 2020, we set out to register 2,020 residents to vote and surpassed this number. Many residents had never voted before, having formerly felt marginalized by the process.