An Inspired Team
In 2022 and early 2023, the Law Center engaged in a strategic planning effort that obtained input from external national, state and local partners, persons with lived expertise, and our full board and staff. We are excited to share our plan with you and are dedicated to working towards these strategic goals over the next three years.
Our Vision
Cultivate a society where every person can live with dignity and enjoy their basic human rights, including the right to affordable, quality, and safe housing.
Our Mission
Fearlessly advance federal, state and local policies to prevent and end homelessness while fiercely defending the rights of all unhoused persons.
Our Values
Human-centered & People-first
We recognize the ways that every person’s humanity is undercut by systems of oppression. We build relationships with each other and our partners that authentically honor that humanity.
Collaborative
We take direction from impacted communities. We strengthen the capacity of our teammates and partners. We build relationships of trust.
Inclusive, Diverse, and Anti-racist
We reckon with the impact of power, inequality and oppression on people, and actively dismantle these systems internally and externally.
Trusted, Credible, and Rigorous
We are transparent, honest, and reliable. We are accountable to each other and our partners. We are up-front about our expertise and limitations.
Growth-minded
We listen, learn, and adapt to change, as informed by each other and our external relationships.
Empowered and Proactive
We support, are accountable, and shift power to impacted communities. We care for each other in a systemic way that builds capacity and honors our experiences.
Goal 1:
Champion Policies
We drive and support federal, state, and local policies that will prevent and solve homelessness – informed by currently and formerly unhoused persons.
Goal 2:
Fight for Rights
We pursue a national legal strategy to fight for the rights of all unhoused persons at the federal, state, and local levels by working in partnership with pro bono allies, coalition partners, and policy makers, as well as training attorneys and advocates.
Goal 3:
Mobilize Coalitions
By addressing structural conditions of oppression and fostering relationships rooted in trust, we empower current and formerly unhoused people to lead coalitions that work to prevent and solve homelessness.
Goal 4:
Evolve Internally
We cultivate a culture that encourages growing our skills and challenging white supremacy and all forms of structural oppression within our organization and our networks.
Strategy: How do we get there?
Our History
The National Homelessness Law Center was founded in 1989 as the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty by Maria Foscarinis, a lawyer who initially volunteered to represent homeless families on a pro bono basis. She was a principal architect of the 1987 McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, the first major federal legislation to address homelessness and founded the Law Center to help ensure the legislation would be properly implemented.
