Homelessness Law Blog

Earlier this month, Florida became the fourth jurisdiction in the United States to add homeless people as a protected class to its hate crimes statute.  In prior years, Maine, Maryland, and the District of Columbia have all added homeless people as a protected class to their hate crimes statutes.  Each of these statutes imposes enhanced penalties upon perpetrators who attack a person because he or she is homeless.  Other states, such as Rhode Island and Ohio are considering similar measures, while California is considering a bill that would allow homeless victims to sue their attackers for additional damages.

This growing effort to provide protection for homeless individuals has been spurred by the increasing number of attacks against them over the past decade.  In its 2008 hate crimes report, the National Coalition for the Homeless documented 106 attacks against homeless people, 27 of which resulted in death.  The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty has worked closely with the National Coalition for the Homeless on the state and federal level to bring attention to the issue and provide protection for homeless people.  We are glad to see our efforts are starting to pay off.

The attacks that have been documented have been truly horrendous, including homeless people being set on fire.  While it is somewhat baffling — and quite frankly deeply disturbing — to think why and how some members of our society can be so violently cruel against another group of people, it may not be that surprising.  The message that homeless people are not to be viewed as fully human is frequently sent out to the public, not just by private citizens but by our own governments.  Cities around the country routinely target homeless people through laws that essentially make it a crime to be homeless.  These laws include anti-camping, anti-panhandling, anti-sitting, and even laws that make it difficult to share food with homeless people.  Many times, the purpose of these measures is to move homeless neighbors out of sight, as though they are second or third class citizens.  It is no wonder that private actors feel emboldened in expressing their bias against homeless individuals.  If the government is treating homeless people so badly, why can’t they?

That is why these steps that states are taking to include homeless people as a protected class are so important.  They can serve as countermeasures to the constant assaults on homeless people.  When our state legislators pass these laws they are sending a message to the public that homeless people are not second class citizens, and attacks against them will not be tolerated.  It is our hope and goal at the Law Center that this message is heard loud and clear.

-Tulin Ozdeger, Civil Rights Program Director

Today the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness has announced a delay in the release of the Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness. Though we don’t know for sure when the plan will be officially released, my anticipation will continue to build. Here are 5 reasons the Federal Plan matters to me:

1. Change – Under the Bush Administration, state and local governments were largely responsible for addressing homelessness. But states can’t do it alone. An issue this big requires federal leadership, and federal resources. The plan signals a shift in responsibility, and we hope it will make necessary reforms to the federal systems that allow homelessness to continue.
2. Accountability – In March 2009, President Obama said, “I’m heartbroken that any child in America is homeless…it is not acceptable for children and families to be without a roof over their heads in a country as wealthy as ours.” We couldn’t agree more, but acknowledging the problem is not the same as solving it. It is our hope that the plan contains specific, measurable goals against which we can measure federal progress on homelessness. The Law Center, and other advocates across the country, will work to hold the government accountable to those goals.
3. Human Rights ­ – The Law Center is dedicated to the internationally recognized understanding that adequate housing is a human right. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan has acknowledged his belief in this right, and we’re leading a campaign to see the human right to housing realized in the United States. We don’t know yet whether the Plan will contain human rights language – we hope it will – but either way our belief that adequate housing is a right, not a privilege, pushes us to try to find nationwide solutions to this country’s housing problems.
4. Progress­ – Homelessness has been a major issue in the United States for more than 20 years. Many people, myself included, don’t remember a time when shelters weren’t full and people didn’t have to sleep on sidewalks or park benches. At the Law Center, we talk about ending homelessness because we believe we can do it. If homelessness hasn’t always existed, we don’t have to regard it as an inevitability. It is my hope that the plan will be a good one, that it’ll be effectively implemented, and that we will see tremendous progress toward our goal of making homelessness history.
5. Jacob­ – I know a man whose life led him to the streets. He is a veteran, and disabled. His son, who struggles with mental illness, often accompanies him. They sleep on church steps at night and find meals at the local day shelter during the day. Jacob plays his harmonica to pass the time, and volunteers at the shelter. About six months ago, thanks to the tireless efforts of advocates, Jacob and his son found stable housing for the first time in nearly half a decade. I look forward to the Federal Plan because it’s hard to see my homeless friends and neighbors struggle simply to survive.

I don’t believe the Federal Plan will solve all our problems. I hope it will be a step in the right direction. And I’ll wait, along with my fellow advocates, in anticipation – to see what the government’s going to do about ending homelessness.

-Whitney Gent, Development & Communications Director

Late last week, the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty joined other civil and human rights organizations in the Arizona boycott, pulling out of a major public interest law conference planned in Phoenix this week for which we had organized a panel. The theme of the conference  is “Equal Justice.” The Arizona law is anything but.

The law is about much more that immigrants rights, and the links to homelessness and poverty are pretty direct. To learn more, check out my blog on The Huffington Post today.

-Maria Foscarinis, Executive Director

Two weeks ago, I did a web training on human rights and homelessness for a small group of advocates in Salt Lake City, Utah at the request of Bill Tibbits, from Crossroads Urban Center.  The training focused on issues of the criminalization of homelessness, where homeless people are ticketed for actions that the rest us take for granted – like sleeping, sitting, or eating – because they are forced to do so in public places.

After the training, Bill and his allies decided to conduct a “sleep-in” in a public park.  They got great press coverage, emphasizing the human rights perspective that sleeping is a necessity of life, and when a person doesn’t have a private place to do that, to deny them the ability to sleep is to deny their right to live as a human being. Sleeping in the park is no one’s idea of a permanent solution, but until we have enough affordable housing available for all, cities should not violate the human rights of homeless persons just because they have nowhere else to go.

Bill sent me this email on Friday: “Today the Chief of Police invited me to a press conference where he thanked me for drawing his attention to this issue, stated that he intended to halt enforcement of the City’s anti-camping ordinance and that he planned to ask the Council to make some revisions to the ordinances.”

One couldn’t ask for a clearer example of the power of human rights as a tool to re-frame the public debate around issues of housing and homelessness: from training to stopping enforcement of a law that violates human rights in two weeks! While we won’t win most of our struggles quite as quickly, such victories emphasize the potential we can hope for, as well as the need to continue to share human rights tools with our allies.

Congratulations again to Bill and his colleagues. We look forward to helping you keep the momentum going forward!

-Eric Tars, Human Rights Program Director

At the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, inspiration is not hard to come by.

Each day, I watch lawyers devote their time, skills, and expertise—their very lives—to end homelessness.  They work with limitless energy and passion, inspiring me to continue the fight even on days when the scales seem to tip toward hopelessness.

But there is another group that inspires me equally, and sometimes even more: our donors.  While it’s easy for me as a Law Center staff member to stay focused on the issue of homelessness, our donors work in a variety of fields.  Their job duties do not necessarily compel them to consider the lives of homeless Americans.  They could choose to ignore the woman on the corner who has lost everything and is asking for help…

But they don’t.

Despite their responsibilities, obligations, and thousands of good causes demanding their attention, our donors choose to invest in the well-being of America’s homeless citizens.  They choose over and over again to listen and respond to injustice when many choose to tune it out.  They affirm that homelessness can be solved, and that the solution requires more than the passion and energy of public interest attorneys – it requires resources and the commitment of everyone who refuses to ignore what is so plainly evident: homelessness is a crisis and a tragedy, and it won’t solve itself.

During this appeal season, I want to extend my utmost gratitude to all our donors, present and past.  Thank you. Your gifts have impacted American homelessness law and policy and touched millions of lives, and your generosity and commitment to our society’s most vulnerable people are an inspiration to me everyday.

Click here to join the ranks of our awesome donors and stand up for the rights of homeless people.

-Jessica Libbey, Development Associate