Homelessness Law Blog

This past summer I served as a human rights fellow at the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty. The policy work I engaged in there will help spur change for countless Americans, but my interactions with a man named Jim reminded me of the very individual reasons this work is so important.

Jim sits on a bench at 15^th and K streets in Washington, D.C., across from a Cosi and one block from the Law Center. During the morning rush hour, his well-worn voice pleads with pedestrians, “Spare a dollar?” “I need to eat!” “Can you help me today?”

We usually say good morning and not much more as I pass by. But last Friday was a beautiful morning, sunny and warm without being oppressively hot. When I said hello, Jim declared that he was having a great day. He had found housing!

Jim is a D.C. native, born and bred. Education was a challenge for him here. His first grade teacher would turn on the television instead of teaching, and Jim was promoted each year without ever learning to read or write.

Jim enjoyed working in construction, but fell on hard times. After a back injury he was unable to work. When his mother passed away, the sale of her house left him a little money so he could rent his own room, but that apartment turned out to be the worst place for Jim. First, sheetrock from the ceiling fell down on him as he slept, re-injuring his back. Next, the old wires sparked and started a fire, destroying most of his belongings, and the rest of his money. In November, 2010, as D.C. prepared for winter, Jim moved out to the streets.

Jim has gotten funding from the Red Cross to stay in a hotel a few times, but generally he sleeps outside. He has diabetes and checks his blood sugar twice a day, subsisting on the kindness of strangers. Even though many people ignore him, he still jumps up mid-story to open the Cosi door for a woman pushing a stroller and toting a suitcase. He uses a cell phone to keep in touch with his sisters, his caseworker, and a lawyer helping him with the injuries from the sheetrock. Despite his illiteracy, Jim easily recites phone numbers and addresses off the top of his head.

Last week, his caseworker called to say that Jim would soon have a place to live, news he joyously shared with me. We both had the happiest of days.

My last day at the Law Center was bittersweet. This summer, I learned to fight homelessness on a larger scale, drafting resolutions for housing as a human right and editing a petition to the U.N. But as he shared his story with me, Jim brought into focus the reason for this all – no one should ever be without a place to call home.

-Julie Butner, former Human Rights Fellow

Each year, the Law Center recognizes outstanding contributions by individuals and organizations to the movement to end homelessness at its 13^th Annual McKinney-Vento Awards. This year’s event will be held tomorrow, Wednesday, Sept. 21 at the L’Enfant Plaza Hotel in Washington, D.C.

For Rob Robinson, homelessness isn’t an abstraction; he’s lived it.  For almost three years, Robinson survived on the streets and in shelters in Miami and New York.  And since resolving his homelessness in 2007, he’s become a powerful voice for all those still suffering its indignities.  Working with Take Back the Land, Picture the Homeless, and the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative, Robinson has been a fierce advocate for the human right to housing. He has also been a leader in the Campaign to Restore National Housing Rights.  G.W. Rolle, a former honoree and Law Center board member,  will present Robinson with this year’s Personal Achievement Award.

Robinson’s work has been made possible, in part, by the U.S. Human Rights Fund (USHRF), this year’s Stewart B. McKinney Award winner.  Since its founding in 2005, USHRF has provided more than $20 million to nonprofits fighting for human rights here at home.  Making the Law Center one of its core grantees right from the start, USHRF has helped us change the way policymakers view homelessness.  In March 2011, following years of advocacy by the Law Center, Robinson, and others, the U.S. acknowledged for the first time that homelessness implicates its human rights obligations. Human Rights expert Dorothy Q. Thomas, who helped start the fund, will present the award.

Congressman Barney Frank, this year’s Bruce F. Vento Award winner, has fought time and again for legislation addressing and preventing homelessness.  In 1987, he helped pass the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.  And in recent years, his leadership has been critical to helping enact the Homelessness Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act, Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program (HPRP), and Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act (PTFA).  He was also a primary sponsor of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program and the Dodd-Frank Act. Susan Vento, the Congressman’s widow, will present Rep. Frank with this award.

This year’s Pro Bono Counsel Award will go to DLA Piper, which has provided thousands of hours of pro bono support to the Law Center across a range of issues, most prominently access to education for homeless children.  DLA Piper is taking a national leadership role on the Law Center’s new Project LEARN (Lawyers’ Education Access Resource Network) initiative.  The firm will provide training and technical assistance on homeless children’s education rights to families and school officials across the country. Suzanne Turner, pro bono partner at Dechert LLP, who received this honor last year, will present the award.

U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, originally scheduled to provide the evening’s keynote address, is unexpectedly unable to join us. In her stead, Assistant Secretary for Policy William Spriggs will join us to honor the efforts of those working to end homelessness in America.  Laura Evans, of Washington’s Fox 5 News, will also join us as the event’s mistress of ceremonies.

Thank you to all who have helped make this event possible. We’re so excited for what is certain to be an inspirational evening.

Today’s guest post comes to us from Laurene Heybach, director of the Law Project at Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.

Each year the start of school brings smiles and excitement throughout our town. Kids love getting the new supplies and backpacks. The faces of the children reveal a readiness for the new year with hopes high.

Nowhere is this excitement more stirring or poignant than in the eyes of homeless children and youth. Often living in chaotic, dismal or unstable circumstances, frequently hungry, these children and youth look forward to the community provided by school, a caring teacher or coach, friends and fun, a regular meal or two, familiarity and routine.

Thanks to the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, homeless children and youth have the right to return to their home school and receive transportation to attend and participate in school activities, receive free breakfast, lunch and assistance with other needs. But none of this start-of-the-school-year excitement is realized if the first day of school arrives and there’s no transportation to get you there and no money to buy the train or bus pass. In Chicago, the free transit passes are distributed through the school. For some of our poorest families, getting to school in the first place to claim those free passes becomes a real obstacle so children and youth miss the first day or week or even a few weeks of school. This can leave a student feeling left out of things when he or she arrives late and can result in some kids starting out the school year behind their classmates. Fortunately, the McKinney-Vento Act also requires that school districts continuously identify “barriers” such as this faced by homeless students in enrolling, attending and succeeding in school.

This school year, finally, Chicago Public Schools listened to the long-time plea of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (“CCH”) see http://www.chicagonewscoop.org/advocates-claim-back-to-school-push-missing-key-piece/. Through a collaborative effort involving the Mayor’s office, too, the Chicago Transit Authority provided free rides to school-age kids –homeless or not– and for an accompanying adult to ensure attendance on the first day of school. Chicago Public Schools is reporting the highest first day attendance in four years! CCH had proposed that the CTA service involve widespread and early publicity casting the effort as “Catch A Ride to Your Future.” Though publicity was last minute and our suggested slogan was not adopted, the free first day rides mark an important step in removing one barrier faced by our young people in accessing school. We look forward to making this a tradition in Chicago just as the free transit rides on New Year’s Eve have become.

Chicago has the third largest school system in the nation with over 600 school sites. Among its almost 400,000 students –most of whom meet federal poverty guidelines– are more than 15,000 students without stable housing. A round trip transit ride (without the student pass) is $5.00.

Recently, the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty has joined a number of local and national groups to advocate for the expansion of the Restaurant Meals Program – a long-standing federal program that gives homeless, elderly, and disabled poor people access to restaurant meals via their SNAP (formerly known as “food stamp”) benefits.  Yesterday, we had the opportunity to share this work with hundreds of thousands of CNN viewers. Check out the video below to learn more.

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

One of the Law Center’s central tenets is to address not only the consequences of homelessness but also its underlying causes. Like many advocates, we proceed from the understanding that housing insecurity doesn’t arise in a vacuum but, rather, stems from conscious decisions, priorities, and prejudices on the part of policymakers. Under this premise, homelessness is less an inevitable social ill than the result of avoidable errors. One such error is the tendency, particularly pronounced at the moment, to erect barriers to economic support for low-income individuals as an immediate cost-saving strategy, without regard for the long-term costs of widespread poverty.

For many military veterans unable to maintain employment as a result of service-related injuries, disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) serves as a vital source of income security and a bulwark against poverty and homelessness, a condition that claims 107,000 veterans on any given night. Studies have long pointed to income support as among the most important distinguishing factors between domiciled and homeless veterans; an especially strong link has been found to exist between increased public benefits and successful housing outcomes for those with mental illness.

Despite this correlation, access to VA benefits has long been systematically obstructed for millions of veterans desperately in need of support. Under current law, veterans must prove by documentary evidence not only that they are disabled but also that their disabilities stem directly from military service, a labor-intensive process that routinely lasts for years. While this system imposes a toll on all claimants, its burden falls with particular weight on those with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Deeming its symptoms “relatively easy to fabricate,” the VA Clinician’s Guide directs examiners to marshal elaborate documentation of behavioral changes from pre- to post-service status.

In recent years, a number of advocacy groups have sued the VA in federal court, arguing that the agency’s failure to issue timely claims decisions violates the constitutional due process rights of veterans with PTSD. After failing to obtain relief at the trial level, the groups appealed to the 9^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where not long ago they achieved a stunning victory.

The decision is particularly remarkable for what it suggests about the government’s abdication of its duty to a population routinely invoked in political rhetoric. “There comes a time,” Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote for the majority, “when the political branches have so completely and chronically failed to respect the People’s constitutional rights that the courts must be willing to enforce them. We have reached that unfortunate point with respect to veterans who are suffering from the hidden, or not hidden, wounds of war.”

While the VA has petitioned the Court of Appeals for a rehearing of the case (previously argued before a three-judge panel) before the full bench, its outcome won’t alter the underlying fact that the government has an obligation to stem the tide of homelessness that threatens to engulf more and more men and women in uniform as they return home from serving their country. When it comes to honoring our veterans, parades and ribbons are simply not enough.

- Rachel Natelson, Staff Attorney

Photo credit: Punchup

Earlier this week, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (the Conference) sent a letter to the House of Representatives expressing their opposition to H.R. 2441, a bill which would eliminate the National Housing Trust Fund, which funds affordable housing programs.

The Conference’s opposition to this bill comes as no surprise, given their longstanding support for the Trust Fund, which originally passed in 2008. What may surprise some, however, is that the Conference frames this strong support for affordable housing in their affirmation that “Catholic tradition teaches that affordable and decent housing is a human right.”

Indeed, since at least 1975, the USCCB has explicitly addressed housing as a human right.  In “The Right to a Decent Home: A Pastoral Response to the Crisis in Housing,” the USCCB sets out their position, which is sadly equally relevant today as it was over 30 years ago. There, they state, “Since decent housing is a human right, its provision involves a public responsibility. The magnitude of our housing crisis requires a massive commitment of resources and energy.” As they then stated in their February 2011 brief on the Trust Fund, “Unfortunately, such a ‘massive commitment’ has not been forthcoming.”

The human rights framework is based on the premise that every human being is entitled to basic treatment to ensure their dignity. Whether that premise is grounded in religious, moral, or ethical terms, hopefully we can all agree that every person should have a safe, decent, affordable place to call home, and that where the market fails, the government should provide a structure to ensure that no one is left on the streets.

Unfortunately, this week the House subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises voted to pass H.R. 2441 eliminating the Trust Fund. Worse, they have shown no indication of proposing any policies that would replace it with a better system of ensuring that every American can enjoy their right to housing.

While religion is sometimes a divisive issue, the human right to housing is one of those shared values that can unite us.  We welcome the Conference’s support, and hope that Americans of all faiths will stand together to tell their congressional representatives that housing is a basic human right, and they need to take the steps to make that right a reality.

- Eric Tars, Human Rights Program Director

Photo credit: Catholic Church