During the spring 2021 term, graduate students in the PPPM Public Management class worked on Lane County’s Policy Lab projects looking at issues to support the County and local nonprofits with issues surrounding the homelessness crisis and the implementation of the County’s Equity lense.

Homelessness Management Information System Projects:
Two out of four groups spent the term researching Lane County’s Homelessness Management Information System (HMIS). HMIS was developed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for collecting homeless data at the local level. This system can help cities and counties collaborate in collecting information on their homeless population. Many organizations serving those experiencing homelessness in Lane County currently use HMIS to varying degrees. Eugene is a leading city in the United States for homelessness per capita, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2020 data. Because of this pressing issue, staff at Lane County are seeking incentives and strategies to encourage more participation in HMIS from service providers in the community.
One of the groups focused on the nonprofit sector, researching Food for Lane County’s utilization of HMIS. Food for Lane County’s mission is to create access to food. Having accurate data on the homeless population is needed to identify where certain demographics are located to assist those populations and their needs better. This group researched other Oregon municipalities that use HMIS, foodbanks from other states, and local nonprofit organizations that have experience with the system. The research primarily used case studies and informational interviews.

Interviews revealed that other organizations and County staff workers also do not have access to HMIS or have knowledge of what data they track. Further, it was found that there are few experienced HMIS professionals in Lane County. A license is required to utilize HMIS, and getting a license can be difficult for many organizations. The teams recommended that the County improve data collection methods, hire professionals to collect and maintain the data, and create GIS heat maps that track demographics and location-specific data. GIS heat maps are able to visualize current trends, such as where people are experiencing homelessness the most. Because not all homeless service providers in Lane County contribute to HMIS, the data is limited and inaccurate.
Lane County makes significant efforts to serve the homeless population through various methods. Tracking data through HMIS, such as certain demographics and geographic location, are areas where the County can improve to better assist the homeless population. Improving HMIS use in Lane County will mean a commitment to invest more resources, tech support, training, and people to support service providers using HMIS. Working on this issue will ultimately help to support the County’s vulnerable citizens.

Lane County Equity Lens Projects:
Two other groups spent their time researching Lane County’s 2021-2022 Racial Equity Action Plan. This includes an Equity Lens for expanding competencies to achieve related goals and outcomes in organizations. A racial equity lens is a set of questions to ask when planning, developing, or evaluating County decisions/policy. An equity lens can help to identify potential impacts on under-served and marginalized individuals and groups. These groups were looking at how managers can take the ideas in the Lane County Equity Lens Toolkit and put them into action. They also looked at how to communicate these tools and their uses to stakeholders.

After engaging with professionals involved in Lane County governance, one of the groups was able to gain insight into how Lane County can strengthen the implementation of the Lens within the organization. Employees from Lane County agreed that the Equity Action Plan could unify departmental goals through an equity lens. Data collection on employee engagement with an equity lens was found to be of high importance. Collecting relevant data for measuring the success of the equity lens will be vital to implementing this tool in Lane County.

Based on the research and engagement with the Action Plan, four recommendations for Lane County were developed, which focus on how the Equity Lens tool implementation effectively across departments:

1. Development of an Equity, Access, and Inclusion Department;
2. Implementation of a system that would track employee engagement with the
   Equity Lens;
3. Encouragement throughout all departments to pursue further professional development related to diversity, equity, and inclusion; and,
4. Continuation of research on this topic by future students from the University of
   Oregon School of Planning, Public Policy, and Management, given this foundation.

The other group conducted numerous informational interviews to find ways to apply the equity lens without applying a cultural tax to black, indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) communities. A cultural tax is “a burden placed on people of color to do the work of building diversity. A cultural tax places demands on BIPOC individuals to educate about racism, discriminatory practices, and white supremacy.” Through the numerous interviews, it was clear that equity work was necessary and needed to be the foundation of all Lane County operations. The team teams made the following recommendations: ongoing equity training for managers and employees, equity implementation on a managerial level, collaboration between the office of equity and access, managers should ensure that employees of color are not forced into tokenizing positions, and plans should consistently be reviewed to ensure the best implementation.

These recommendations from both groups aim to guide the County to implement the Lens in a sustainable way, within and among departments. Through both groups research and interviews, it is clear that equity work is necessary and needed to be the foundation of all Lane County operations.