Homelessness Law Blog

My father immigrated to this country as a refugee following World War II, believing, as many did, and continue to do, that the awful conditions he experienced in refugee camps would be left behind in the Old World. The poem on the Statue of Liberty that welcomed my father and countless others to the U.S. reads, “Give me your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free… Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

In last week’s posting, I talked about another international visitor to our shores, the UN Independent Expert on the Human Right to Water and Sanitation, Ms. Catarina de Albuquerque, who was conducting a mission to the U.S., and going to visit a tent city in Sacramento, CA. The testimony she heard there, put together by our partners at Legal Services of Northern California and Safe Ground was compelling, and the Independent Expert was moved to strong words in discussing it in her preliminary report, issued on Friday:

As a part of the mission, I examined the situation of the homeless with regard to access to water and sanitation. Up to 3.5 million people experience homelessness in the United States every year. In some U.S. cities, homelessness is being increasingly criminalized. Local statutes prohibiting public urination and defecation, while facially constitutional are often discriminatory in their effects. Such discrimination often occurs because such statutes are enforced against homeless individuals, who often have no access to public restrooms and are given no alternatives.

In Sacramento, California I visited a community of homeless people. I met Tim, who called himself the “sanitation technician” for this community. He engineered a sanitation system that consists of a seat with a two-layered plastic bag underneath. Every week Tim collects the bags full of human waste, which vary in weight between 130 to 230 pounds, and hauls them on his bicycle a few miles to a local public restroom. Once a toilet becomes available, he empties the bags’ contents; packs the plastic bags with leftover residue inside a third plastic bag; ties it securely and disposes of them in the garbage; and then he sanitizes his hands with water and lemon. Tim has said that even though this job is difficult, he does it for the community, especially the women. The fact that Tim is left to do this is unacceptable, an affront to human dignity and a violation of human rights that may amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. An immediate, interim solution is to ensure access to restrooms facilities in public places, including during the night.

That these conditions persist in 2011, right here in our backyard, in camps like those visited by the Independent Expert, belies our ideal of an America lying beyond that “golden door” and should shame us. Our governments not only condone the existence of these conditions but, rather than doing something constructive to alleviate the problem, criminalize those who have no choice but to live with their dignity impaired. This should move every American to demand better.

-Eric Tars, Human Rights Program Director

Photo credit: Ludovic Bertron

For the past month, a spirit of revolution has gained force both abroad and at home.  Days after mounting popular protests culminated in the disintegration of authoritarian rule in the Middle East, a parallel uprising has emerged on our own shores, translating once distant demands for democracy and economic opportunity into a familiar tongue.  In Wisconsin, Ohio, and Indiana, thousands of workers continue to rally in defense of the very protections that their parents and grandparents wrested from their own employers during similarly shaky economic times almost a century ago.

Historic times demand historic measures.  As Martin Luther King, Jr. cautioned, “one of the great liabilities of life is that all too many people find themselves living amid a great period of social change, and yet they fail to develop the new attitudes, the new mental responses, that the new situation demands.”  Like Rip Van Winkle, “they end up sleeping through a revolution.”

While King issued this admonition over thirty years ago, his words reverberate with renewed urgency today.  Like FDR before him, he understood that even at moments of crisis, such long-cherished guarantees as free speech, free worship, and freedom from political tyranny are meaningless in the absence of economic security.  “If a man doesn’t have a job or an income,” King noted, “he has neither life nor liberty nor the possibility for the pursuit of happiness. He merely exists.”

Amid growing state efforts to weaken employment protections, this vision of interlocking civil and economic rights is more relevant than ever.  If true liberty lies in freedom from want, then economic security can be no more negotiable than free speech or free worship, a concept embedded in the human rights principle of “progressive realization.”  In other words, once we’ve advanced along the path of economic justice, we can’t retreat in the face of an altered political landscape, however rocky it may be.

A hundred years ago, another gilded age came to an abrupt end as rich and poor together foundered on a vessel that symbolized the growing gulf between them.  As the winds of political and economic change continue to batter the employed and unemployed alike, policymakers can either doze at the helm of a similarly troubled ship or plunge into rough waters to stem the tide for those at greatest risk.  If history fails to guide them, perhaps the fictional fate of Rip Van Winkle will succeed.

- Rachel Natelson, Staff Attorney

What’s something we do each day, but rarely think about, let alone discuss in public?

Going to the bathroom.

But when you’re homeless or poor, what most people take for granted can be a huge challenge, even a life-altering decision.

Forces beyond homeless persons’ control, such as lack of affordable housing and emergency shelter, compel them to live and take care of their basic human needs in public. When performed inside, these acts are unquestionably legal.  But cities are punishing homeless persons for the very same life-sustaining actions when they are forced to perform them in public spaces.

William Shumate, a 60 year-old veteran living in St. Petersburg, Florida, typifies the problems faced by many homeless persons. William has diabetes, which makes it difficult to control his urination, especially overnight when bathroom facilities are closed. St. Petersburg has local ordinances that prohibit public urination and defecation, but make no allowance for situations when public bathrooms are unavailable. On November 1, 2007, William was sleeping near City Hall when he woke up around 1:00 am with an uncontrollable need to urinate. Police followed him as he went around the side of the building, and arrested him.  William was sentenced to one day in jail and a fine of $300. (more…)

Today, Senator Dick Durbin, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, held the first hearing in eight years on the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW, or the Women’s Rights Treaty), and the first ever in the Judiciary Committee, as opposed to the Foreign Relations Committee.  Equally importantly, governmental testimony was offered not just by the State Department, but also by the Justice Department, discussing the importance of ensuring women’s rights not only abroad, but here at home.  These are important steps in emphasizing that ensuring human rights is about leading by example at home as much as taking strong positions abroad.

Much of the hearing was devoted to the importance of the latter – and indeed, the impact of ratification of the treaty on our ability to lead abroad on human rights should not be underestimated.  Unfortunately, the testimony from both Senator Durbin and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Samuel Bagenstos gave too much away on the domestic impact of the treaty.  Senator Durbin said, “we don’t need CEDAW to protect women here,” and AAG Bagenstos emphasized that the package of Reservations, Understandings, and Declarations submitted with the treaty for ratification would ensure no American law would have to be modified, and the recommendations of the CEDAW Committee would not bind us.

We do need CEDAW to help protect women in the U.S.  (more…)

“While our work in Geneva is done, our work here at home is just beginning.”

Eric Tars, human rights program director at the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty has just returned to the U.S. from the United Nations Universal Periodic Review. He brings back news of three key outcomes of the process:
1. Thousands of American advocates have now been better educated in human rights standards – which they can use to help make human rights a reality at home.
2. Dozens of government officials, many of them in high positions in the federal government, have been educated as well. They now have an increased awareness of human rights standards and understand they must play a role in implementation.
3. There has been a substantial change in dialogue around human rights in the United States through this process.

The next review won’t occur for another four years. In the meantime, we’ll be working hard to hold the government accountable to the Human Rights Council’s recommendations, so that the human right to housing can be realized in the United States.

An update from the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva -

Other countries are demanding that the United States take a rights-based approach to issues like housing and education. More than 3/4 of Americans believe that housing is a human right, but the U.S. government does not view these as enforceable rights, and State Department representatives did little to respond to the concerns of UN member nations at today’s review.

Eric Tars: “Neither the economic crisis nor the foreclosure crisis…were addressed at all by the U.S. presentation today. The government needs to do much more to ensure that it is taking these rights seriously.”

A more complete rundown on today’s events here:

This morning was the main event at the Universal Periodic Review at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, where the U.S. is being held accountable to its human rights obligations by the Human Rights Council. You can watch a webcast of the Review here.

Eric Tars, our human rights program director, participated in a side event yesterday on treaty ratification. To see what advocates from across the U.S. are saying about human rights, check out Eric’s video blog:

You can also find updates throughout the day on our Twitter feed: www.twitter.com/NLCHPhomeless.

The United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review (UPR) holds the U.S. accountable to its human rights obligations. Day 3 continued important testimony on human rights violations taking place right now in the U.S., and other countries are clearly taking notice – they’re submitting more and more questions on the issues mentioned in advocate testimonies.

Eric Tars, reporting from Geneva:

And see the full housing rights panel testimony, from Tuesday, here:

Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Part 5
Part 6
Part 7

The United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review (UPR) holds the U.S. accountable to its human rights obligations. Today was the main event for housing rights issues in the UPR process. The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty’s own Eric Tars presents testimony in today’s video blog update from Geneva.

This week, Human Rights Program Director Eric Tars is in Geneva, Switzerland for meetings of the United Nations Human Rights Council for the first ever Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the United States. The UPR holds the U.S. accountable to its human rights obligations. The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty has been an active part of the UPR process, working to draw attention to widespread violations of the human right to housing right here in America.

Each day this week, we’ll be posting Eric’s video blogs. Let us know what you think!