Corey Minor Smith
Renowned attorney, author, and mental health advocate Corey Minor Smith was appointed Senior Counsel for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the Office of General Counsel earlier this year.
Minor Smith has been an attorney for over 20 years, honing her skills and experience in multiple venues, including the Stark County Prosecutor's Office and the Summit County Court of Common Pleas.
"She brings a wealth of experience and a sterling record of social justice advocacy, especially for those faced with mental health challenges,” said Rev. Al Sharpton on Minor Smith's appointment.
Throughout her life, Minor Smith has battled with understanding and finding ways to assist her mother – who was diagnosed with schizophrenia – with her mental health, ultimately leading to Corey moving 21 times before attending college. Presently she and her mother share a relationship full of support and love due to Corey and her family's unwavering commitment to helping those who experience mental health conditions and the families that support them. In addition, Minor Smith has used her life experience to channel empathy and passion for people through her background as a former public and subsidized housing resident, as a tester for fair housing cases in law school, and now in her current role at HUD.
Minor Smith sat for an interview with me to discuss the importance of mental health, her advocacy for those afflicted with mental illness, housing, and solutions to the growing mental health crisis. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
For(bes) The Culture: How can people learn more about mental illness and what resources are available to them?
Corey Minor Smith: I would say not to be scared or ashamed, to ask questions, to reach out for help, and to look at different resources that are available. Nowadays, there is so much help available online. We need to know that mental illness, and mental health conditions, are not cases of a person acting out because they want attention. It's essential for us to take a step to acknowledge mental health conditions and then take it a step further to seek and offer help. I also started thinking about our culture and how it impacted my growth and development and inspired me to learn more and more about mental health conditions. Ultimately, that led me to my advocacy of helping people to understand and know that mental illness is real and that there are resources available. I have put together what I call “My Go-To Mental Health Resources," which is available on my Instagram page. Among the resources are podcasts, books, organizations, and international organizations, all focused on providing information about treatment and services related to mental health conditions, from the mildest to the most severe.
Forbes The Culture: How do you address mental health with your children?
Corey Minor Smith: I am a mother to two sons who have to navigate the world as young Black men with all the racial and social terror they have confronted throughout their lives. By growing every day, I have learned to welcome them to be open with how they feel and what they're thinking. You have to be receptive, even if you don't agree with what they're saying, even if you don't agree with how they feel. So to directly answer your question: be open and receptive to what they are willing to share.
For(bes)The Culture: What is a crucial piece of information the Black community should know regarding mental health treatment?
Corey Minor Smith: As a community, we often don't know the significance of mental health, such as the different factors that cause mental illness, for instance if it's hereditary, and so on. There are so many things we just don’t know. The Black community relies heavily on the church for guidance, unity, and spirituality. It's important to know that it's okay to go beyond the altar and beyond prayer and
use other tools to cope with mental illness, such as medication, yoga, or whatever helps you treat your symptoms. Doing these things does not make you less of a Christian or a believer in whatever denomination you choose. Beyond statistics, mental illness is a reality of life and does not discriminate. We need to be prepared to address it in our households and help those in our communities by using our voices as avenues to make sure that funding is brought to our communities to help.
For(bes) The Culture: Is there a way to be preventative regarding mental health?
Corey Minor Smith: I first think of media personality and mental health advocate Charlamagne tha God, and his movement of physical and mental wealth. To be preventative is about the decisions that we make, whether dietary, breaking generational curses, etc. We have to decide to stop whatever social abuse that may have plagued our families for generations. There's a lot of research on being descendants of enslaved people, all the trauma that took place during slavery, and how that affects our mental health today. That doesn't just go away because there's no more slavery. There were generations after the end of slavery trying to rebuild during the Reconstruction period – just trying to build our lives and to build a culture because we were removed from our culture. So, I think it's important as we move forward and try to have healthier lives for our children and their children that we stay in touch with history to make better decisions for our future.
For(bes) The Culture: How important is housing stability concerning mental health?
Corey Minor Smith: Housing stability is so significant. And we may not fully understand unless we've been in that situation. As you noted, I moved at least 21 times. One time I had my mother write out all our old addresses. This was important because I had to show everywhere I had lived in the last fourteen years as a part of the bar application to practice law. That impacted my legal career as I had to explain all of this in front of a committee to sit for the bar. So stable housing doesn't just affect an adult with mental illness; it also takes a toll on the children involved.
Housing is an essential aspect of our lives in general. We must support organizations that help those who are in and out of shelters. To have stable housing is essential, especially since we are sometimes what I call a "first generation everything" – not just the first generation of college students, but you might be the first generation in your family to have stable housing and provide for your children. Many people are being negatively impacted due to housing insecurity or living in a food desert. This also impacts your housing quality when you are unreasonably far from a grocery store. For some people, that's no big deal. For other people, that is devastating. Housing insecurity has become a huge talking point due to rising rent and housing prices. This country is too rich in so many ways to allow some of our people to live in these deplorable conditions.
For(bes) The Culture: How has your passion for mental health advocacy catapulted you to your current position as Senior Counsel for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development?
Corey Minor Smith: My experience has come full circle. My life started in public housing. For the bulk of my career, I served as a general counsel for a public housing authority, and not just any public housing authority, but the very public housing authority that provided housing for my mother and me. While I was a law student, I also worked as a tester for what I now know is a fair housing organization. There were so many things that I did that were housing related that I didn't understand at the time. But I truly believe that in all my work, I have tried to help people with mental illness have high-quality housing opportunities.
For(bes) The Culture: In many Black communities, some members who are referred to as "Unc and Aunty" display signs of mental illness. They can often be seen outside of local food marts and businesses. These men and women are generally positively received by the community. Can we do anything to help them get proper care and housing?
Corey Minor Smith: Yes, we see these individuals in our communities on any given day in our cities throughout the country. But the thing [we must remember] is that a person has rights. And unless a certain threshold is met in terms of the law, a person can't be involuntarily committed to a mental health institution just because they're staying out in the street. What's unfortunate about it is that many times, jail becomes their shelter because they are arrested for vagrancy. For instance, specific local laws may prohibit a person from being on the park bench for a certain amount of time, or just sleeping outside, and they're arrested and taken to jail versus having mental health care treatment. So that is a severe issue in our country where people are incarcerated instead of being provided mental health care and treatment.
In terms of what we can do to help: honestly, there may be little that you can do other than learning more about mental health conditions and how you might be able to assist them if they're having a mental health crisis. For example, a lot of advocacy has centered around having a three-digit number, 988, specifically designated for a mental health crisis, instead of calling 911, which we know has led to Black people with a mental health crisis at the time being killed. In 2020 the FCC approved 988, providing a two-year implementation period that ends on July 16th of this year, after which the 988 number is active on all telephone carriers. Folk can call that number and they will be directly routed to the national suicide prevention hotline. So, if your loved one or a beloved community member may not be having such a good day, perhaps you can call 988 to get them appropriate assistance.
For(bes) The Culture: What changes have been implemented with law enforcement to combat fatalities when responding to mental health crisis calls?
Corey Minor Smith: Competent law enforcement aiding and assisting crisis intervention teams engagement are a part of effectively addressing mental health crises. It's just unfortunate that a lot of departments may not participate in Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training. Through my own experience of needing to reach out to law enforcement to assist in different circumstances over the years with my mother, I can offer praise for law enforcement being part of the process of helping. However, I know that many Black people have not had that same experience. I would love for all law enforcement to go to crisis intervention training to be able to deescalate these situations. It's very important. Everybody wants to live at the end of the day. We want our law enforcement officials to live at the end of the day and we want to feel safe when we call them for help. And we want people who call upon law enforcement to be assured that they’re receiving the best care and assistance and live at the end of the day too. So, we want law enforcement that is able to deescalate the situation. And I am speaking from experience because I was subject to violent behavior from my mother. There are many different communities that are creating crisis intervention models to effectively help address issues in the community.
