Right to Housing Forum Schedule and Links

Hello and thank you for attending our Right to Housing Forum! This page will act as your virtual schedule and allow you to enter the breakout session of your choice with the zoom link provided if you are attending virtually, and will have room locations if you are attending in person.

We hope that you leave our forum with a deeper understanding of the issues and policies that contribute to homelessness and with a passion to fight for a human right to housing for all.

Remote attorneys seeking CLE credit must download and fill out the code boxes on the Nontraditional Format Form and Evaluation Form and return them to etars@homelesslaw.org within 1 week of the conference.

Wednesday November 16th | 11:30am-12pm

Forum Registration

Room: Lobby

Wednesday November 16th 12pm-1pm

Opening Lunch & Film Discussion 

Room: Strauss

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86073822221?pwd=SDZMbGtOdVJVSjlJdk9OajRvY1N5dz09

Zoom Password: r2hf2022

Speakers: Francine Friedman of Akin Gump, Antonia Fasanelli with the National Homelessness Law Center, Don Sawyer & Tim Hasko both with A Bigger Vision Films 

Wednesday November 16th | 1pm-1:20pm

Orientation

Room: Strauss

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86073822221?pwd=SDZMbGtOdVJVSjlJdk9OajRvY1N5dz09

Zoom Password: r2hf22

Speakers: Khadijah Williams of Rocketship Schools and member of the National Homelessness Law Center Board, Eric Tars with the National Homelessness Law Center 

Wednesday November 16th | 1:20pm-2pm

Opening Keynote

Room: Strauss

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86073822221?pwd=SDZMbGtOdVJVSjlJdk9OajRvY1N5dz09

Zoom Password: r2hf22

Marc Dones (They/Them) | CEO at King County Regional Homelessness Authority

Wednesday November 16th | 2pm-3:30pm

Plenary Session 1: Making Housing a Human Right

Room: Strauss

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86073822221?pwd=SDZMbGtOdVJVSjlJdk9OajRvY1N5dz09

Zoom Password: r2hf22

CLE Credit

Attended by all forum registrants

Housing is a human right! It’s a great rallying call, but it’s also a statement with legal impact. This plenary will explain some of the details of what making a human right would actually mean for people experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity in the U.S., why it’s so important, and share some of the exciting work going on across the country to put that right into policy. 

Speakers: Eric Tars with the National Homelessness Law Center, Sen. Saud Anwar of the Connecticut Senate, Rep. Nicole Macri from the Washington State House of Representatives, Kath Rogers of the ACLU of Southern California, Judith Samuels with The Samuels Group 

Wednesday November 16th | 3:30pm-3:45pm

Coffee Break

Stretch your legs, take a bio break, and grab some coffee!

Wednesday November 16th | 3:45pm-5pm

Plenary Session 2: Countering the Criminalization of Homelessness

Room: Strauss

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86073822221?pwd=SDZMbGtOdVJVSjlJdk9OajRvY1N5dz09

Zoom Password: r2hf22

CLE Credit

Attended by all forum registrants

Moderated discussion of the Cicero Institute model policy viewed through the lens of history, with discussion about the roots of anti-homeless laws (e.g. Ugly laws, Black codes/vagrancy) and how the Cicero Institute model policy is built on that history. 

Speakers: Tristia Bauman with the National Homelessness Law Center, Paul Boden of the Western Regional Advocacy Project, Earl J. Edwards from Boston College Lynch School, David Peery from Miami Coalition to Advance Racial Equity, Graham Pruss with UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations 

Wednesday November 16th | 5:30pm-7:30pm

Human Right to Housing Awards Reception

Room: 14th Floor

**This event will not be available to join over zoom BUT we will be livestreaming from our Facebook and Twitter accounts!

Law Center on Facebook

Law Center on Twitter

Thank you for a GREAT first day! See you for breakfast!

Thursday November 17th | 8am-9am

Forum Day Two Registration

Room: Lobby

Thursday November 17th | 8am-9am

Networking Breakfast

Room: Strauss

Thursday November 17th | 9am-9:15am

Reorientation

Room: Strauss

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82632081036?pwd=bDNwUnczMUF4blRsNk4vSS8zQUJkQT09

Zoom Password: 699425

Thursday November 17th | 9:15am-9:30am

Break for Room Change

Stretch your legs!

Thursday November 17th | 9:30am-10:45am

Workshop Breakout Sessions

Attendees may select one workshop per breakout session

Breakout Session 1

Room: Strauss B

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81244113854

Zoom Password: 184621

CLE Credit

Speakers: Sarah Fox with the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, Miranda Guedes from University of Miami Law School Human Rights Clinic, Katherine Murray University of Miami Law School Human Rights Clinic, Michael Santos from RESULTS, Eric Tars with the National Homelessness Law Center, Sarah Walters from University of Miami Law School Human Rights Clinic

Session Description: This workshop will provide advocates who want to push for local or state level legislation to implement housing as a human right an opportunity to discuss challenges and possible solutions. National and local advocates will share how they’ve been working to implement the human right to housing and offer extensive Q&A time with participants to workshop ideas.

Materials: Draft Human Right to Housing Report Card 2022 | Human Right To Housing

Room: Strauss C

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89910305133

Zoom Password: 399096

CLE Credit

Speakers: Tristia Bauman with the National Homelessness Law Center, Joseph Mead from Georgetown University Law Center’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, Kirsten Anderson and Ellen Degnan both with the Southern Poverty Law Center 

Session Description: The First Amendment provides some of the strongest legal argumentation for litigation challenging the criminalization of homelessness, particularly when criminalization comes in the form of legislative bans on sharing food or soliciting charitable donations. NHLC’s Litigation Manual Supplement found that since the seminal Reed v. Gilbert Supreme Court case in 2015, all cases challenging panhandling bans, for instance, have led to successful outcomes, with “successful outcomes” defined as court findings of unconstitutionality, repeals of the challenged law, overturning of convictions based on the challenged law, or settlement agreements.

The First Amendment is a powerful tool for our movement, but it is also rapidly changing and vastly complex. This session will discuss key precedent in First Amendment jurisprudence as it relates to the criminalization of homelessness, and strategies for litigators and attorneys as they craft legal arguments.

Room: Strauss A

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82202980723

Zoom Password: 678258

CLE Credit

Speaker: Lily Milwit with the National Homelessness Law Center, Diana Simpson from the Institute for Justice
Session Description: Our movement is quickly learning that the criminalization of homelessness comes in many forms. In addition to the most common forms of criminalization we see – legislative bans on outdoor sleeping, sitting, lying down, resting, asking for help, and living in vehicles – zoning law has become a more insidious, but incredibly harmful, way in which homelessness is being punished around the country. In cities and states around the country, municipal zoning laws are being used to attempt to legislate shelters and encampment sites out of existence.
This session will discuss trends in exclusionary zoning and how zoning laws have prevented homeless shelters, encampments, and services from opening in communities that need them, or have pushed out and shut down existing structures and services. Speakers will discuss litigation strategy for these types of cases, and share lessons learned from prior lawsuits.

Room: Strauss D

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82888841241

Zoom Password: 403685

CLE Credit

Speakers: Aleya Jones of True Colors United, Jeremy Penn with the National Homelessness Law Center

Session Description: The National Homelessness Law Center and True Colors United released the 2022 State Index on Youth Homelessness. This update measures and analyzes the systems, environment, and laws of all 50 states and D.C. as they relate to preventing and ending youth homelessness. The Index paints a broad picture of where states currently stand in these categories and how they can collectively and individually improve their efforts to end and prevent youth homelessness. This session will explain the methodology behind the State Index and do a deep dive into the data to help policymakers and advocates think about what changes they can make to existing policies, systems, and services towards ending and preventing youth homelessness at the state level.

Thursday November 17th | 10:45am-11am

Coffee Break

Stretch your legs, take a bio break, and grab some coffee!

Thursday November 17th | 11am-12:30pm

Workshop Breakout Sessions

Attendees may select one workshop per breakout session

Breakout Session 2

Room: Strauss D

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87843503624

Zoom Password: 757185

CLE Credit

Speakers: Rachel Blake from Regional Housing Legal Services, Christine Kulumani and Darryl Maxwell both with the DC Bar Pro Bono Center, Joseph Jampel with Regional Housing Legal Services, Katie Meyer Scott with the National Homelessness Law Center  

Session Description: The National Homelessness Law Center is launching a nationwide effort to fill the gaps in pro bono representation for nonprofit and community organizations working to end homelessness called In-HOUSING Counsel. Our partners on the ground have expressed difficulty in finding legal assistance for organizations operating outside of major metropolitan areas regarding a wide variety of issues, including restrictive zoning/land use issues, navigating local ordinances, contracting & invoicing with municipal & county agencies, tax issues, developing employment and other policies, and governance issues. In this session, learn from a panel of experts who are running programs that represent nonprofit organizations in their communities about the legal issues they see over and over again, the benefits and challenges of representing an organizational client, and best practices in navigating conflicts and other ethical issues.

Room: Strauss B

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86780755374

Zoom Password: 184919

CLE Credit

Speakers: Eric Tars with the National Homelessness Law Center, Michelle Jackson and Matt Kelsey both with Alston & Bird, Marisol Bello from the Housing Narrative Lab 

Session Description: In the past legislative session, template legislation drafted by the Cicero Institute criminalizing camping statewide, taking resources from permanent housing and directing it toward high-barrier encampments and parking facilities, and making it easier to involuntarily commit people has been introduced in half a dozen states, passing in several. This session will help advocates across state lines discuss challenges, strategies, and needs.

Room: Strauss A

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82470483727

Zoom Password: 369932

Speaker: Graham Pruss with UCSF’s Center for Vulnerable Populations 

Session Description: This session reviews legal and economic constraints on people who inhabit vehicles in public parking. Point-in-time counts of unsheltered people across the Western United States show a growing population who inhabit vehicles, often parked for extended periods in public areas. Some of the largest Western US communities report that one-third to one-half of individuals and families who sleep in public spaces reside in a vehicle such as a car, van, commercial-sized truck, recreational vehicle (RV), detached trailer, or bus. People who live in vehicles as their primary accommodation, vehicle residents, are often on limited- or fixed-incomes and choose this form of shelter as an affordable long-term option to maintain a connection to familiar communities, employment, healthcare and social services. Though they may not self-identify as homeless, vehicle residents in urban spaces often live for over one year in public parking and report disabling conditions, meeting the federal definition of chronically homeless. With no access to private places to locate their home, vehicle residents experience persistent criminalization and banishment from public areas through ticketing, property seizure, and restrictive signs. Anti-vehicle residency legal policies, ordinances, and enforcement are forms of structural violence that shape and police public spaces. Such criminalization and banishment tends to operate with impunity because its harmful outcomes are presupposed as justified to maintain a status quo. This session examines why and how people use vehicle residency as an adaptive strategy to local conditions. It demonstrates how the criminalization and banishment of vehicle residency operate as forms of structural violence that exclude displaced people from their communities.

Room: Strauss C

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89915163087

Zoom Password: 682126

Speakers: Kirsten Anderson from the Southern Poverty Law Center, Tristia Bauman with the National Homelessness Law Center, Ed Johnson from Oregon Law Center, Jeff Preptit with the ACLU of Tennessee, India Pungarcher from Open Table Nashville, Maig Tinnin with the Fair Housing Council of Oregon 

Session Description: Join us for a fast-paced and interactive session where we will discuss what Martin v. Boise settled and what it did not, new precedent relying on Martin v. Boise inside and outside of the Ninth Circuit, and legal and organizing strategy tips to stop the criminalization of survival. 

Thursday November 17th | 12:30pm-12:45pm

Break for Room Change

Stretch your legs!

Lunch & Discussion

12:45 pm – 2:00 pm

Room: Strauss

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82632081036?pwd=bDNwUnczMUF4blRsNk4vSS8zQUJkQT09

Zoom Password: 699425

Speakers: Mark Horvath of Invisible People, Pam Fessler with the National Homelessness Law Center’s Board and former NPR correspondent, Erika Lopez with the National Homelessness Law Center

Discussion Description: As media narratives demonizing and exploiting people experiencing homelessness proliferate, our panel will discuss messaging and narrative building around homelessness, with a key focus on the importance of elevating the voices of those with lived experience in media. Join us in learning how to effectively engage and leverage the stories of people impacted by homelessness, as a tool to shift public perceptions around its root causes and strengthen the arguments for effective solutions.   

Thursday November 17th | 2pm-2:15pm

Break for Room Change

Stretch your legs!

Thursday November 17th | 2:15pm-3:45pm

Workshop Breakout Sessions

Attendees may select one workshop per breakout session

Breakout Session 3

Room: Strauss B

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83986873521

Zoom Password: 323571

CLE Credit

Speakers: Eric Tars with the National Homelessness Law Center, Francine Friedman and Hans Rickhoff both with Akin & Gump 

Session Description: This session will continue the morning session, providing an opportunity for deeper discussion of the tools and opportunities of human rights advocacy from the international to local level, and helping advocates think about how to reframe the policy debate away from criminalization and toward a vision of housing as a human right. The afternoon session will include specific training on lobbying and legislative advocacy.

Room: Strauss A

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87048329779

Zoom Password: 960807

Speakers: Jade Arellano from the Western Regional Advocacy Project 

Session Description: Sanctioned encampments have been popping up all over the country as an “emergency response” to homelessness during, and after, the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that COVID-specific funding is running dry, many local governments have proposed making these encampments a formal tier of the shelter system. In this session, Jade Arellano, Organizing Director at the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) will discuss the implications of relying on these encampments as a “service.” Particularly, the session will interrogate how sanctioned encampments have been and will continue to be used to sweep and warehouse unhoused people living on the streets, and how they are part of a larger trend whereby local governments fabricate and formalize “service resistance” in order to continue the criminalization of homelessness under Martin v. Boise.

Room: Strauss C

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85691570043

Zoom Password: 308535

CLE Credit

Speaker: Tristia Bauman with the National Homelessness Law Center, Evlonodo Cooper from Media Matters, Denise Ghartey with Community Justice Project, Sean Kidd with the University of Toronto Department of Psychiatry, Noah Patton from the National Low Income Housing Coalition 

Session Description: As the climate changes rapidly, people experiencing housing insecurity, homelessness, and particularly unsheltered homelessness are often the most vulnerable to natural disasters and related displacement or forced migration. While there is a vast network of federal disaster relief funds and programs, these programs are not created or administered with unhoused communities in mind.  


Additionally, as communities get creative about implementing climate change-fighting infrastructure, effects like gentrification and displacement are seldom contemplated. This session will explore ways in which the federal disaster relief system can be reformed to account for and accommodate people experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity, as well as ways that city planners and climate change activists can adapt their communities’ infrastructure to withstand climate change in ways that do not force out unhoused and low-income residents.  

Room: Strauss D

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89812966752

Zoom Password: 423512

CLE Credit

Speaker: Katie Meyer-Scott with the National Homelessness Law Center

Session Description: It can be difficult for people who have never experienced housing instability to understand the choices that youth and young adults experiencing homelessness make each day to survive. Yet, often these choices are the best option given the legal climate in their state. Join us for an interactive presentation that will allow you to explore the reasons for the impossible choices that youth face and examine ways to improve the climate for youth in your state.

Thursday November 17th | 3:45pm-4pm

Break for Room Change

Stretch your legs!

Thursday November 17th | 4pm-5pm

Closing Plenary: Report Back & Next Steps

Room: Strauss

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82632081036?pwd=bDNwUnczMUF4blRsNk4vSS8zQUJkQT09

Zoom Password: 699425

Attended by all forum registrants

Thank you for attending the Right to Housing Forum 2022!

Please use #R2HForum22 and tag us @homeless_law in any social media posts you make about your experience!

Remote attorneys seeking CLE credit must download and fill out the code boxes on the Nontraditional Format Form and Evaluation Form and return them to etars@homelesslaw.org within 1 week of the conference.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email