Homelessness Law Blog

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…)

The National Forum on the Human Right to Housing, to be held June 7-8 at the Thurgood Marshall Center in Washington, D.C., couldn’t come at a better time.

There’s an obvious disconnect between Washington rhetoric and the American story.  As Congress debates tax breaks for its wealthiest constituents and major cuts to the social safety net, more than 44 million homeless and poor people are waiting to learn their fate.  That’s 14 out of every 100 Americans.  Will they have a roof over the heads?  Food to feed their children?

With the gap between rich and poor growing exponentially, it’s only common sense for our policies to reflect the increasing need.  But there’s something lost in all of this, an inconvenient truth policymakers have been ignoring for decades: housing is a human right.

The United States is obligated by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and other international agreements, to ensure its every citizen has access to adequate housing and a basic standard of healthy living.  And across the country, Americans agree.  Recent polling shows that 75 percent believe housing is a human right.

At the National Forum on the Human Right to Housing, the Law Center will bring together homeless and poor people, federal policymakers, grassroots advocates, service providers, lawyers, journalists, and academics from across the country to share information and work collaboratively to reframe the public debate about homelessness, poverty, and access to justice.

This year’s speakers are leading experts on these issues. Here’s  a small sample:

• Carol Anderson, Assoc. Professor of African American Studies, Emory University, and author of Eyes Off the Prize
• Peter Edelman, Professor of Law and Director of the Center on Poverty, Inequality, and Public Policy, Georgetown University School of Law
• Barbara Ehrenreich, best-selling author of Nickel & Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
• Pam Fessler, poverty & philanthropy correspondent, National Public Radio
• Bryan Greene, General Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing at HUD
• Jonathan Harwitz, Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy & Programs at HUD
• Gail Laster, Deputy Chief Counsel for the House Financial Services Committee
• Barbara Poppe, Executive Director, U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness

Click here for a full schedule of events.

The Forum comes on the heels of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s recent review of U.S. human rights policy.  In its official response to the Council’s recommendations, the federal government acknowledged for the first time in history that homelessness implicates its human rights obligations.

Now is the time to mobilize communities across the country to fight for the dignity and basic quality of life of every American.  The Forum will include workshops on applying the human rights framework to advocacy on issues like: preventing homelessness, criminalization, children’s education, state and local budgets, domestic violence, and veteran homelessness.

Forum participants will even receive training on how to communicate with legislators on these issues, and have the opportunity to meet with their elected representatives.

We hope you’ll join us on June 7-8 at the Thurgood Marshall Center in Washington, D.C.  The Forum is a chance for the U.S. human rights movement to chart a course for the future – one, we hope, in which the American Dream more closely reflects our daily reality.

For more information, click here. Early registration is discounted, but ends May 15, so act fast!

-Andy Beres, Grant Writer & Communications Assistant

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

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…)

Before joining the Law Center, I provided legal assistance and representation to low-income individuals fleeing domestic violence.  I helped them obtain protective orders against their abusers, win financial support for their mutual children, and fight for child custody when necessary.

Finding housing – even temporary housing – was the first concern of most of my clients.  It was typically the biggest hurdle too.  Most clients just didn’t have the financial resources.  This reality was compounded by the fact that most domestic violence and homeless shelters are perpetually full – and there’s a dearth of shelters that are able to accommodate children too.

These experiences lingered in my mind this month when Rashida Manjoo, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, carried out her two-week fact-finding mission to the United States.  (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.