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Using Privilege To Give Voice To The Vulnerable

Posted on January 31, 2013
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Editor’s note: The author composed this piece in mid-January, on one of the coldest days of the month.

With the wind chill, it’s about 15 degrees outside this morning.  This week is shaping up to be the coldest DC has seen in a long time; while all that means for me is an unpleasant wait for the bus, for others it’s a very real threat.  The man who sits on the corner of 16th and K every morning, wishing the speed-walking commuters a nice day, wasn’t there when I walked by and I am really hoping it’s because he’s still at a shelter, or at least some place warm.

Like most people attending law school, I come from a place of relative privilege.  I might not be part of the one percent (and the size of my student loans might terrify me), but I don’t have the first idea what it’s like to be homeless or without a safety net.  So sometimes I feel like the worst kind of elitist – the well-intentioned kind who speaks for people whose experiences they will never truly know.  As POOR Magazine’s cofounder Lisa Gray-Garcia pointed out, “…a privileged person’s distant, disconnected view of someone else’s daily struggle” is hardly a legitimate perspective of what it’s actually like to be homeless.  And yet, I know that the work we do here at the Law Center is truly important on a societal level.  We don’t see the people living on our street corners or park benches – they are human beings who have become part of our landscape.  Call it compassion fatigue or willful ignorance, but the dialogue happening about homelessness today is too often about personal choice, laziness, a feeling of entitlement.  As if not freezing to death was such a ridiculous thing to be entitled to.

In last week’s inaugural address, President Obama said, “A great nation must care for the vulnerable and protect its people from life’s worst hazards and misfortune.”  Too often, the vulnerable are also the most marginalized among us, those whose political voice has been silenced, who already experience daily brutality at the hands of the powerful.  While I can’t do anything about the fact that I was born with this privilege, I can use it to do something meaningful.  Working at the Law Center lets me use it to make a little more space for those folks without a voice to be heard, and to push those in power to follow through on President Obama’s words.

-KT Crossman, Fellow, Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy, Northeastern University School of Law

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The Compassion Deficit: Sidewalk Bans and Criminalizing America’s Homeless

Posted on December 3, 2012
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Over the last few years, policymakers across the country have cracked down on homeless Americans, introducing measures that make life an even greater struggle for some of our most vulnerable citizens.  These include laws that prohibit sleeping or storing belongings in public areas.  Out of 234 U.S. cities surveyed in 2011, one-third prohibited sitting/lying in certain public places.  These “sidewalk bans” are not only morally abhorrent, but highly ineffective at addressing homelessness.

This past November, Berkeley, CA came uncomfortably close to passing a sidewalk ban that would have fined homeless individuals $75 for sitting on sidewalks in commercial areas between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.  The Berkeley Sit-Lie Ordinance—“Measure S” on the Election Day ballot—was narrowly defeated 52.5 percent to 47.7 percent.

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First Read: Homeless Bill of Rights, Job Training for Homeless Vets, More

Posted on June 21, 2012
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Rhode Island’s Homeless Bill of Rights

Mother Jones has today’s first word on the civil rights of homeless people. Thanks to the combined efforts of the Law Center and the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, Governor Lincoln Chafee is expected to sign the Homeless Bill of Rights into law today. With cities across the country addressing homelessness and poverty by making them a crime, Rhode Island is sending a clear signal that there’s a better way forward.

To read the full article, click here.

Homeless Encampment Near Ann Arbor Clears Out

In contrast to the good news in Rhode Island, we have sad news for the residents of a homeless encampment near a highway just outside Ann Arbor. The state plans to put up an 8-foot-tall chain-link fence to block them from returning, and to cite anyone remaining at the camp for trespassing starting Friday. This is another in a long line of examples of cities wanting to push the homeless population out of sight instead of addressing their needs.

To read the full article from WWMT Grand Rapids, click here.

Labor Department to Provide Job Training to Almost 9,000 Homeless Veterans

The Washington Post has a bit of good news.  We all know that the rate of homelessness among veterans is disturbing and unacceptable. That’s why the announcement from the U.S. Department of Labor that it was appropriating $15 million to provide job training to 8,600 veterans was so heartening. But it’s important not to be satisfied with this investment, which is a drop in the bucket compared to what’s needed for homeless veterans and their families.

To read the full article, click here.

Homeless Remembrance Finds a Home in Seattle

The Homeless Remembrance Project, comprised of homeless women, faith community leaders, designers, artists, and homeless service providers has worked to make sure the lives of King County’s deceased homeless citizens are properly honored. After a decade-long fight with the local government, they’re finally being allowed to move forward with their plans to engrave the names of homeless persons who have passed away on the sidewalk, and to erect a “Tree of Life” that will stand as a monument to those our society has marginalized.

To read the full article from Crosscut, click here.

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Time to Finish the Job

Posted on April 16, 2012
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When I first came to Washington DC to organize a campaign for a federal response to homelessness, I never dreamt that, decades later, I’d still be fighting to end homelessness.

In 1986, when I started going to Capitol Hill to persuade Congress to take action, the response was often: “we’d like to help – good for you for taking this on – but we have an election coming up and homeless people don’t vote. Sorry.” And these were our “friends.”

But we persisted, working with a coalition of organizations and many grassroots groups from across the country. And in July 1987, we had a big victory: the first major federal law addressing homelessness – now known as the McKinney-Vento Act – was passed.

Now, 25 years later, the Act has grown and it’s accomplished much good. But the job remains unfinished. McKinney-Vento was always intended to be just a first step (it was to be followed by additional federal aid, mainly funding for permanent housing) to really end and prevent homelessness.

Now the need is again growing exponentially, just as it was in the early and mid-1980s. That’s why we’ve launched a new campaign to end and prevent homelessness. The “All-In to End Homelessness” campaign reminds us that our goal is a home for all – and that it will take all of us to win it.

We’ll also be reminding political candidates this election season that homelessness remains a crisis in their communities and in America broadly, and calling on them to commit to actions to end and prevent it. We’ll be challenging laws that prevent homeless people from voting.  Stay tuned in the coming months, also, as we work with a coalition of national advocates to develop a framework local groups can use and adapt for their own advocacy.

Please join us by taking the All-in Pledge today!

- Maria Foscarinis, Executive Director

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The Drifting Dark

Posted on February 2, 2012
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“I’ll be around. Somehow. I used to fall asleep thinking I wouldn’t wake up. Now I know better. Now I know, honey – it goes on and on and on.”

Last February, I wrote about a woman named “V.” She’s a homeless person who sat outside our K Street office for the better part of a year. I visited with her daily, and bought her lunch from time to time. She talked about the pain she was in, her addiction to alcohol, and the vicious love of her dead father. In between, she’d point out young women on the street and insist they were looking at me.

My visits weren’t noble. I can shamefully recall a few days when I took a different path to work because I didn’t have money for her. In shielding myself from her disappointment, I denied her the human contact she so dearly coveted.

I wrote before about a man she met at church. He was kind and gentle, giving her a place to stay while she got back on her feet. Her voice swelled with pride as she described looking for a job and scented shampoo. She was sober; there was such clarity to her thoughts.

But as the weeks passed, that clarity faded. The spark of life vanished from her eyes. There were bruises on her. She wouldn’t say where they came from, but I already knew. I pressed her for information about the man she was staying with.

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From the Lunch Counters to the Dining Room Table

Posted on July 1, 2011
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This week the New York Times caught on to a trend that’s sweeping the nation: as J.R. Fleming, co-founder of the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign who spoke earlier this month at our National Forum on the Human Right to Housing put it, “we…put homeless people into people-less housing.”

The article starts off with the scene of the Biggs family moving into their home, as supporters surround them and chant “fight, fight, fight, ‘cause housing is a human right.” While most families move on their own, or with the help of a few friends, the Biggs need the support of a group, the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign, because their move is not a traditional one – they don’t have a legal right to move in.

This forceful re-examination of the laws by which certain people are left out on the street even when there are countless empty homes in their communities is central to the notion of housing as a human right. During the civil rights struggle, people confronted the long-accepted laws of segregation and discrimination by challenging them in direct actions like sit-ins at lunch counters, as well as working through the courts and the legislatures. We are now engaged in the continuation of that struggle, as the Biggs and the Anti-Eviction Campaign take the first steps to say just because it’s the law, doesn’t mean the law is just.

The idea of housing as a human right doesn’t necessarily mean that every homeless family should be allowed to move into a vacant house and take that property away from its legal owner. But it does challenge us to look at the injustice of homelessness, and the laws that perpetuate it, in a new way. And there may be new models of community homeownership and renting that can co-exist with our present private ownership model that will provide the bridge to a more just future.

The Times article concludes with Ms. Biggs “showing off the freshly painted rooms and the used dining room set given to her by a neighbor,” and tonight, the Biggs will be enjoying dinner around their dining room table. I hope we will soon look back on this struggle to ensure that every family can share a dinner table in their own home the way we look back on the civil rights struggle to share lunch counters: a lesson for the history books, but no longer appropriate in an America that recognizes all its residents’ basic human rights.

-Eric Tars, Human Rights Program Director

Photo credit: Khell Center, Cornell University
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Arrested for Feeding Homeless People

Posted on June 2, 2011
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On June 1, three members of Orlando Food Not Bombs were arrested for sharing food with hungry people in a park in downtown Orlando.  Such news is almost incomprehensible.  People arrested for helping out people in need. Unfortunately, as shocking as this news is, it is not unfamiliar. Cities around the country have used laws to target and move homeless people out of downtown areas for decades.

But, now our cities have stooped even lower, so that we can’t even allow members of our communities to help out one another. What kind of a message does this send to our community members?  What about our children?  Do we want them to grow up learning that serving those in need is not only not worthwhile, but something to be punished?

The ordinance that these three people violated is one that requires groups sharing food with 25 or more people in certain downtown parks to obtain a permit to do so. And groups are only allowed two  such permits per covered park per year. Given that certain central locations and regularly scheduled meals at those locations tend to reach the most people (due to visibility and predictability), these restrictions make it more likely that people in need will not be able to access safe, nutritious food.

The ordinance has been tested in court and the 11th Circuit recently issued an opinion upholding the law – although the district court overturned the law.  Clearly, the City of Orlando is taking its cue from the court to recommence enforcement of the law, but to what end?

The penalties for violating this ordinance are 60 days in jail, a $500 fine, or both. In a time when budgets are strapped and human services are being cut, city resources should be going to helping homeless people move beyond homelessness, instead of incarcerating those who want to help.  Jail costs are extraordinarily high, especially in comparison to the cost of housing and shelter.  It does not make any fiscal or practical sense to use police, jail, and court resources to address this issue.

Putting aside the fiscal aspects of enforcement of this ordinance, it is clear our communities need to do some soul searching. We need to do better than this.  We need to show future generations that it is poverty, hunger, and homelessness that should not be tolerated, not the acts of compassion to address them.

For more information about the criminalization of homelessness, check out the report card we released today on housing rights in the United States.

-Tulin Ozdeger, Civil Rights Program Director

Photo credit: Ed Yourdon
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Denying The Right To Vote

Posted on May 25, 2011
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Welcome to the 2012 election. In states across the country, Republican controlled legislatures are passing bills that would restrict the ability of homeless and low income Americans to vote. Rejecting an amendment to allow homeless persons to vote with an affidavit of identity from a service provider, Wisconsin will now require voters to provide ID in order to vote. And Florida’s new law will require anyone who has moved to update their address before going to the polls; if they seek to do so on election day they will be forced to vote by provisional ballot – a ballot unlikely to be counted.

Proponents of these laws assert that they will prevent voter fraud. However, they can hardly point to any actual examples. So why is this being done? Isn’t it obvious? No demographic group votes in a monolithic bloc. But we can make some generalizations – poor people tend to support candidates who promise to preserve the social safety net, who care about low wage workers, and who work to make sure that all Americans have safe, decent, affordable housing. The legislators passing these bills are not those candidates. We cannot allow these laws to stand or new laws to be passed. As we move closer to next year’s election, the Law Center will review and analyze these restrictions. We will challenge them when we can, and make policy arguments in opposition where that provides our best chance for success. And when new laws are enacted, we will make sure that homeless persons and service providers understand their rights.

Voting rights are fundamental civil and human rights – rights that people in this country died for not too many years ago. They should be continuously expanded, not eroded.

-Jeremy Rosen, Policy Director

Photo Credit: Vaguely Artistic
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Treated Like Trash

Posted on March 25, 2011
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This week the Los Angeles Times published an article discussing the settlements of several hospitals that have dumped homeless patients at shelters or on the streets without following proper discharge procedures.  Other news articles in the past have explored the same topic, describing, for instance, how a homeless woman was once discharged to Los Angeles’ Skid Row with nothing but a hospital gown and slippers on.

Even under ordinary discharge situations, homeless individuals face a larger set of obstacles in post-hospital recovery than non-homeless individuals.  Homeless people are more likely to face difficulty in obtaining adequate food and rest, and in finding shelter in sanitary and unexposed environments.  These factors make it difficult for homeless individuals to maintain good health under average circumstances, even more so under improper discharge situations.

Several of the patient dumping situations cited in the article have led to costly settlements for hospital groups, such as $125,000 in penalties and charitable contributions paid by Centinela Freeman Holdings, and $1.6 million paid by College Hospital.  Settlements like these may lead hospital groups to think twice before engaging in improper discharge procedures, and could potentially help protect the interests of homeless individuals in the future.

In the long run however, punishing hospitals for homeless patient dumping will not address the underlying factors that create the problem.  Our nation was founded on the concept that all human beings are born equal and deserving of the same right to basic human dignity, yet these practices show how far we have strayed from that ideal. Our nation will need to confront the formidable healthcare and housing barriers that low-income and homeless individuals face daily before we will truly see the situation improve.

Articles such as Malcolm Gladwell’s “Million-Dollar Murray” show how costly it can be not to provide adequate housing and healthcare for homeless individuals.  Certainly, it is in our best interest economically to help homeless individuals attain a higher level of security and health. But equally as important, no human being deserves to be treated like trash, and we all need to take responsibility to re-humanize homeless persons so incidents like these never happen again.

-Stefani Cox, Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellow

Photo credit: Jose Gulao
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When There’s No Alternative (Part II)

Posted on March 8, 2011
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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
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