Good afternoon Housing Not Handcuffs supporters,  Right now, the Supreme Court, Florida, Iowa, Nebraska, and Arizona are all debating if they can punish their way out of homelessness. Things like jail cells and tickets make homelessness worse, but sadly, too many people still think punishing people for being poor will end poverty. As the movement to arrest and ticket people sleeping outside grows, we need your help to shift conversations and policies away from harm, and towards the housing and services that actually end homelessness.  See below for state-level updates and ways to get involved [...]

PRESS RELEASE National Homelessness Law Center www.homelesslaw.org Contact Information Jesse Rabinowitz 757-619-8957 jrabinowitz@homelesslaw.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – January 12, 2023 PRESS RELEASE: SCOTUS takes up Johnson v. Grants Pass, most significant case about homelessness in 40+ years [Washington, DC] - Today, the Supreme Court of the United States announced that they would hear the case of Johnson v. Grants Pass. This sets the stage for the most significant Supreme Court case about the rights of homeless people in decades. At its core, this case will decide whether cities are allowed to punish people for things [...]

STATEMENT: SCOTUS takes up Johnson v. Grants Pass, the most significant case about homelessness in 40+ years WASHINGTON, D.C. – (January 12th, 2024) Today, the Supreme Court of the United States announced that they would hear the case of Johnson v. Grants Pass. This sets the stage for the most significant Supreme Court case about the rights of homeless people in decades. At its core, this case will decide whether cities are allowed to punish people for things like sleeping outside with a pillow or blanket, even when there are no safe shelter options.   The [...]

Law Center Statement on 12% Increase in Homelessness   Point in Time results must drive housing investments, not despair  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 [...]

Law Center Statement on Today’s United Nations Report Decrying Ongoing Human Rights Abuses Against Unhoused People 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.  The Concluding Observations devote an entire paragraph to the human rights abuses faced by people experiencing homelessness. It reads: The Committee is concerned about reports of an increase [...]

U.S. Receives Failing Grades on Human Right to Housing Report Card Limited Progress During Pandemic Offset By Inactions Since 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 [...]

Federal Police Use Violent Force Against Family Living in Park – Pattern of Violence Continues Forest Service Police Injured Disabled Family Members 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 [...]

National Homelessness Law Center Responds to Murder of Jordan Neely  (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.     As the national legal group dedicated to ending and preventing homelessness, we seek to elevate a reality already deeply understood by unhoused communities and their allies: that racialized, state-sanctioned brutality occurs with disproportionate force and frequency against both the [...]