Latest News
Updated State Index Report on Youth Homelessness Released
Updated State Index Report on Youth Homelessness Released Report to Provide State Rankings and Areas for Improvement for Further Decriminalization of Homelessness FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 10, 2022 Media Contact: Erika Lopez (202)638-2535 x110 | elopez@homelesslaw.org (March 10, 2022, Washington, DC) – The National Homelessness Law Center (Law Center) and True Colors United are excited to announce the release of [...]
Criminalization of Homelessness Case Summaries 2022
LITIGATION MANUAL SUPPLEMENT: Criminalization of Homelessness Case Summaries 2022 DOWNLOAD PDF Summary Despite a lack of affordable housing and shelter space, governments have chosen to threaten, arrest, and ticket homeless persons for performing life-sustaining activities – such as sleeping or sitting down - in outdoor public space. In addition to an increasing number of laws that civilly and criminally punish homelessness, governments also regularly displace people experiencing homelessness from [...]
Racial Injustice in Housing and Homelessness in the United States
Racial Injustice in Housing and Homelessness in the United States Racial Injustice in Housing and Homelessness in the United States: List of Themes Submission to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) For the United States Review This document was submitted to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to support the Committee in developing its list of themes for the upcoming review of the [...]
Testimony of Eric Tars to Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on the Situation of the Right to Housing in the U.S., Dec. 16, 2021
Testimony of Eric Tars, Legal Director National Homelessness Law Center Inter-American Commission on Human Rights December 16, 2021 Introduction Thanks to the Commissioners for granting this hearing and the U.S. Government for joining us. I am Eric Tars, the Legal Director at the National Homelessness Law Center (formerly the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty), which has advocated for more than three decades against the criminalization of homelessness and for housing [...]
First National Study of State Laws Criminalizing Homelessness Released
First National Study of State Laws Criminalizing Homelessness Released Widespread Criminalization of Sheltering, Camping, and Other Means of Survival FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Sam Scarrow 215-264-3252 scarrow@voicesforciviljustice.org (December 1, 2021, Washington, D.C.) – The National Homelessness Law Center (Law Center) today released the first national study on state laws criminalizing homelessness. Housing Not Handcuffs 2021: State Law Supplement shows that states are increasingly targeting homeless [...]
IJT – September 2021
September, 2021 SUBSCRIBE Dear Friends— On October 12, 2021, the Law Center will host our 23rd McKinney-Vento Awards. These Awards, named after Reps. Stewart B. McKinney and Bruce F. Vento--and the 1987 legislation that bears their names--gives us an opportunity to honor leaders and changemakers fighting to end homelessness, to celebrate the successes that we have all shared over [...]
Lawsuit Challenges Exclusionary Parking Laws Designed to Run Homeless Persons Out of Town
Lawsuit Challenges Exclusionary Parking Laws Designed to Run Homeless Persons Out of Town FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Karianna Barr Director of Development & Communications 202-638-2535 kbarr@homelesslaw.org (August 30, 2021, Washington, D.C.) – Last Friday, legal organizations in California and Washington joined to protect the constitutional rights of people living in vehicles by filing a brief as amici curiae with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Potter v. City [...]
IJT – August 2021
August, 2021 SUBSCRIBE Dear Friends— On July 31, 2021, the Federal Eviction Moratorium was allowed to expire, immediately allowing most evictions to proceed across the country. In anticipation of the moratorium's expiration, the National Coalition for Housing Justice, of which the Law Center is a member, released a joint letter encouraging the Biden administration, Congress, and state and local governments to take [...]
