(February 13, 2023) On February 2, the DC government announced that the McPherson Square encampment community in downtown D.C. will be forcibly evicted on February 15, two months earlier than previously announced and in the midst of hypothermia season. The planned eviction of more than 70 unsheltered D.C. residents comes after the D.C. Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Wayne Turnage requested the National Park Service expedite the clearing. The planned eviction directly conflicts with the federal Plan to End Homelessness. The Law Center urges a halt to all encampment destruction plans and housing, which the DC Government has available, be provided to every encampment resident.

(May 5, 2023, Washington, DC) – The National Homelessness Law Center is outraged over the strangulation and murder of Jordan Neely Monday, May 1, 2023. The Law Center condemns the NYPD, Mayor Eric Adams, and Governor Kathy Hochul for their failure to hold Jordan’s vigilante killer responsible, and for their subsequent efforts to shield his murderer and smear a murder victim. But these government officials’ statements and actions are symptomatic of the broader problem that led to this tragedy—a toxic cultural obsession with anti-Blackness and dehumanization of the poor.

Washington, D.C. | August 23, 2023 – The National Coalition for Housing Justice (NCHJ) calls on the Biden-Harris administration to stop using federal police to respond to homelessness. In May of this year, undercover U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management police officers violently arrested Judy, Timber, and Brooks Roberts for living in a camper in the Payette National Forest north of Boise, Idaho. They were forced to live in the park after their landlord evicted them and they couldn’t find available space in shelters.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On October 5th, 2023, the National Homelessness Law Center (Law Center), in partnership with the University of Miami Law School Human Rights Clinic, issued the Human Right to Housing Report Card 2023. The report card condemns the U.S.government’s ongoing failure to stem the tide of homelessness by neglecting its responsibility to ensure adequate, affordable housing is available to all. The U.S. receives a failing grade in “affordability” and still has much room for improvement in other areas. Numerous areas of hope are also cited, drawn from federal interventions to protect vulnerable homeowners, renters, and unhoused persons during the pandemic.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – (November 3, 2023) Today, the United Nations Human Rights Committee highlighted serious and ongoing patterns of human rights abuses — including those against people experiencing homelessness and poverty — in the Concluding Observations from its recent convening that investigated the United States’ compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – (December 18, 2023) Last week, The US Department of Housing and Urban Development released the Annual Point in Time (PIT) Homeless count, showing a 70,650 person, or 12% increase in homelessness. Unfortunately, the PIT confirms what we have been saying for years: that the rent is too high for a growing number of Americans and that far too many people are just one missed paycheck or health crisis away from becoming homeless. It does not have to be this way. Homelessness is the result of policy and budget choices that impact everything from how many houses are built to minimum wages too low to cover rent. The Law Center remains resolute in knowing that everybody needs and deserves a safe and stable place to call home. We are driven by the truth that we can solve homelessness and that, when we do, everybody is better off.