Homelessness Law Blog

It’s a summer evening in Washington and I’m leaving a downtown reception, full of drink, food and people—a typical DC scene.

Walking through downtown at dusk, making my way towards home, I’m struck by a quieter scene on the street. Block by block, corner by corner, I see solitary figures, some with luggage or bedrolls by their sides, settling in to the evening, nowhere to go, nothing to do but remain where they are.

Meanwhile, others like me are also on the street, mostly walking by, some noticing or acknowledging, most just walking, getting into taxis, perhaps traveling to suburban homes. Those who are remaining sit on curbs, benches, or walk along themselves; some ask for spare change, some explain they are hungry. One man simply dives into the garbage, eating scraps of food discarded there by others.

I wonder how I can walk by, even though I am among those who acknowledge, sometimes offer spare change. The reception I’ve just left is to benefit work for a progressive America, and I believe in that so much. Every day at the Law Center that’s what we work for. But this walk tonight is still tough. (more…)

As I graduated from law school back in 2004, my women’s rights classes were abuzz with the preparations for the upcoming Supreme Court hearing of the Castle Rock v. Gonzales case. Little did I suspect that the case, which had been in the courts for five years already, would take another six years for some body of law to actually recognize the injustice that had been done to Jessica Lenahan (then Gonzales) and her family.

The case had its origins in Castle Rock, Colorado, in 1999, when Jessica Lenahan’s ex-husband abducted the couple’s three daughters, Leslie, Katheryn, and Rebecca. Despite a domestic violence restraining order limiting her husband’s access to her and her daughters, when Lenahan called the police repeatedly over several hours and went down to the police station, the police made no effort to locate the children or enforce Colorado’s mandatory arrest law. Shortly after midnight, Lenahan’s ex-husband got into a shoot out with the police, and after he was shot and killed, they found the three girls had been shot dead in the bed of his pickup truck. To this day, Lenahan has not been told definitively if it was her ex-husband or the police officer’s shots that killed them.

Lenahan sued the Castle Rock Police Department for failing to protect her daughters, particularly since she had a restraining order against her ex-husband that mandated the police to arrest him if he violated the order.  However, in 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Lenahan did not have a constitutional right to protection, and that the police’s failure to enforce her protection order was not unconstitutional. (more…)

I chose an interesting summer to intern at the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty. Each morning on my way to work, I’d pick up a newspaper and read about the debt ceiling and deficit reduction and the need for an era of austerity. It was, without a doubt, a summer of cuts in Washington.

Then I’d arrive at the office, and I’d delve into material about a whole different set of problems. Nearly 2.9 million properties received foreclosure filings last year. Family homelessness increased by 20 percent between 2007 and 2010. On a given night 107,000 homeless veterans are homeless. And as anyone who was in the audience for the “Voices of the Streets” panel at June’s Human Right to Housing Forum can attest, behind each number is a real person with a real story.

Still, these facts and stories aren’t in the national discourse, despite the millions of Americans who suffer from homelessness each year. Updating the Law Center’s social media pages with links to stories about developments in homelessness policy and news could be difficult, and not because it’s tricky to condense swaths of information into 140 characters. News outlets don’t cover it like the human rights crisis it is.

The drive to reduce our debt isn’t an inherently negative development; although we may disagree strongly with how Congress and the administration have set about the task, $14.3 trillion is a lot of money.

But as my time at the Law Center has reinforced, it’s misguided to treat that debt as the country’s biggest concern (although if cynical politicians bring us to within days of a default, it unfortunately becomes so) when so many Americans face such real economic and personal hardship. Those afflicted by homelessness and poverty are part of this country; as such, homelessness and poverty deserve to be part of its policy debates.

-Alex Knobel, Development & Communications Intern

The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty is grateful to all of its interns and fellows for their outstanding support this summer, including Heather Abraham, Julie Butner, Stefani Cox, Jeff Hill, Alex Knobel, and Kristen Tullos.

Photo credit: kbrookes

Houston, TX

Prince Leonard lost his job as a welder.

After shuttling his wife, Charlomane, and their six children from apartment to motel to shelter, he finally found maintenance work at a storage facility and moved his family into a new home.  Three years later, the children had Bs or better in school and shared two computers at home.  The family planted a garden out back each summer.  There was nary a trace of abuse or neglect in this home.

On June 18 – the day before Father’s Day – Child Protective Services came to the Leonard house and, acting on an anonymous tip, removed the children.

The Leonards were living in a 10,000 square foot storage unit.  It held beds, a fridge, a microwave, and a tub – and even had air conditioning and a wood stove for heat.  Prince built shelves and a loft, and every day he filled a 55-gallon drum with fresh water for cooking, bathing, and the compost toilet.

Charlomane claims her children had food, clothing, and shelter as required by the Texas Family Code, that the storage unit “overflow[ed] with love,” and that her family was split up because they don’t fit CPS’ vision of a typical home.  CPS placed the children with their maternal grandparents and scheduled a hearing for mid-August, allowing Prince and Charlomane just six hours of visitation a week until then.

According to pediatrician Abraham B. Bergman, CPS investigations of physical or sexual abuse have been cut in half, and neglect – often linked with poverty – was the impetus for almost 75 percent of investigations in 2008.  Indeed, the Leonards believe their children were taken away because the family is poor.

The Leonards’ case drew national attention.  A public outcry led to the involvement of activists, who helped the Leonards find a home to rent.  The court date was moved up to July 20, after which the children were immediately returned to their parents.

Charlomane disagreed with CPS’ ruling that the home they’d made in the storage unit was unfit for children.  Of moving, she said:  “That’s what they wanted us to do, so that’s what we did.”

This story has a happy ending, but there are countless other poor families who live in fear of their children being taken away.  This is all part of a disturbing trend toward criminalizing basic human acts like sleeping, eating, or raising a family.  This does nothing to solve the problem.  The real solution to the Leonards’ situation was to help them access affordable housing – not take their children away.

It’s time to move past platitudes and rhetoric, and make the human right to housing a reality in this country.

- Julie Butner, Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy Fellow

Photo credit: Billy Smith II