Twenty years ago, the U.S. Congress called homelessness a "national crisis" and a bi-partisan majority passed legislation to address it. On July 22, 1987, President Ronald Reagan signed the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act into law. The McKinney Act was the first major federal legislation to address homelessness and its passage was a landmark.

Until then, homelessness was not perceived to be a national problem that required a federal response. Prior to the McKinney Act, President Reagan called homelessness a "lifestyle" preference that should be addressed by charities or, at most, local governments. The new act provided critical emergency aid to homeless people nationwide. Since then, much has changed - including the McKinney Act itself. Now known as the McKinney-Vento Act, its programs have been refocused on long-term solutions and its funding has increased. But it is still not nearly enough to solve the crisis of homelessness

In passing the original McKinney Act, members of Congress explicitly said that it was only a first step, and they promised additional aid to solve the crisis. But they did not make good on that promise. While funding for homeless assistance programs has gone up, funding for low-income housing and services for poor people has been cut. Cutting funding and support for poor Americans only creates the circumstances that lead to homelessness.

The current Administration has set a goal of ending "chronic" homelessness. This is a rhetorical step forward from Reagan's denial of federal responsibility. But in practice, the Administration has only focused on persuading local governments to develop plans to address the problem.

In this anniversary year, 16 national homeless assistance organizations have come together to request a hearing in Congress about the current state of homelessness in the U.S. and to present solutions for the crisis. The organizations have also developed a consensus statement of principles that we believe should guide national policy on homelessness.

They include: reauthorizing the McKinney-Vento Act; ensuring access to and increasing funding for housing and social services; protecting the civil rights of homeless people; and recognizing our commitment to basic human rights.

In short, we want Congress to keep its twenty- year-old promise to end homelessness. For NLCHP, that is a critical part of our Campaign for Justice.

To read a short introduction with a link to a PDF document of the complete consensus statement from the 16 national organizations working to end homelessness, please click here. To sign on to the statement and join our campaign, contact Laurel Weir or Lucy Martin.

Maria Foscarinis
Executive Director

To help support our Campaign for Justice we have launched a new NLCHP website.

The improved NLCHP.org will allow us to better communicate with advocates nationwide and make our resources more accessible. In addition, up-to-date news about homelessness will be available on our homepage. Our new website will be a valuable tool in the nationwide movement to end homelessness.

Please visit our new website and feel free to e-mail us any feedback, comments, or questions that you may have.

In a move to address the growing number of hate crimes and violence against homeless people, Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) recently introduced the "Hate Crimes Against the Homeless Enforcement Act of 2007" and the "Hate Crimes Against the Homeless Statistics Act of 2007."

The "Hate Crimes Against the Homeless Enforcement Act of 2007" would add homeless people to the list of protected classes under the federal hate crimes statute. The "Hate Crimes Against the Homeless Statistics Act of 2007" would include hate crimes against homeless people in the statistics collected by the FBI.

"Hate crimes against homeless people have become an epidemic," said Maria Foscarinis, Executive Director of the NLCHP. "Over the past 7 years, there were more homeless people killed because of their status than the total number of deaths currently counted in the other classes of the hate crimes statute."

Between 1999 and 2005 there were 82 homicides classified as hate crimes under the current federal hate crimes statute. During that same period there were 169 deaths as a result of violent attacks against homeless people. Over the past eight years, there have been 614 recorded violent acts committed against homeless people in 200 cities throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.

Some of the attacks include homeless people being beaten with tire irons, baseball bats, and golf clubs. Others include homeless people being set on fire and homeless women being raped.

"It's as though homeless people are viewed as less than human," added Tulin Ozdeger, NLCHP Civil Rights Staff Attorney. "When local governments pass laws targeting homeless people they send a message that homeless people are not as valuable as everyone else"

Co-sponsors of the "Hate Crimes Against the Homeless Enforcement Act of 2007" include Representatives John Lewis (D-GA), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Robert Wexler (D-FL), and William Jefferson (D-LA). Co-sponsors of the "Hate Crimes Against the Homeless Statistics Act of 2007" include Representatives John Lewis (D-GA), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), and Robert Wexler (D-FL).

The U.S. State Department failed to address the fact that a disproportionate number of African Americans experience homelessness and difficulties finding affordable housing in its report to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), released on April 23. Instead, their report stated "The United States is a vibrant, multi-racial... democracy in which individuals have the right to be protected against discrimination based... on race in virtually every aspect of social and economic life."

The U.S. report is a routine procedure that is required every two years for countries that ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). The U.S. signed and ratified the treaty in 1994, but the report - its second - is more than four years late.

"The government report touts the benefits of HUD housing assistance to minority communities," said Eric Tars, Human Rights Staff Attorney at NLCHP. "But, they shirk any notion that they have an obligation to fund these programs. And they neglect to mention the cuts to housing assistance budgets over the past 25 years that leave waiting lists for housing miles long."

NLCHP will lead a working group of organizations concerned about housing and homelessness in preparing "shadow reports" and doing advocacy before the CERD. The CERD will conduct hearings on the U.S. report in March 2008, and issue recommendations for how the U.S. can better meet its obligations to protect and ensure equal rights for all. To get involved, e-mail Eric Tars.

NLCHP thanks the Mertz Gilmore Foundation and the US Human Rights Fund for their support of the organization's human rights program.

On May 7, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that would reauthorize the Head Start Act. Head Start is the largest federal program focused on the school readiness of preschool-aged children. The bill includes many recommendations proposed by NLCHP and its coalition partners, including provisions that would:

• Identify and prioritize homeless children for enrollment in Head Start;
• Allow homeless children to immediately enroll in Head Start even if they do not have the typically required documents;
• Improve outreach to homeless families so that they will be informed of available Head Start services;
• Meet the transportation needs of homeless family participants in Head Start;
• Improve collaborations between Head Start and homeless education programs; and
• Increase training and technical assistance initiatives that are sensitive to the needs of homeless and other high risk children.

The legislation was referred to the Senate for approval. Once both houses of Congress agree on its provisions, it will be signed by the president and become law. It is hoped that the process will be completed before the end of the year. Congress has been reconsidering Head Start since 2003.

By: Sam J. Miller, Picture the Homeless

For years, homeless people in New York City have been organizing to fight for changes in city policy to prevent landlords from keeping buildings empty. At Picture the Homeless, we believe that the property rights of landlords must be weighed against the human rights of homeless people forced to live on the streets and in the shelters (and doubled-up with friends and family in severely overcrowded conditions).

While the mayor kept saying that "abandonment is a thing of the past," we knew there were still huge pockets of boarded-up buildings throughout the city. Last year, we partnered with Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer to develop and execute a historic Vacant Property Count, and the findings of that count were startling even to us. Our report, "Homeless People Count," conclusively shows that there are enough potential apartments in vacant buildings and lots in Manhattan alone to house every single homeless person in the entire city.

To download a copy of the report, please check out the Picture the Homeless website.

Listen to an NPR story about the efforts of Las Vegas and other cities to pass ordinances that make it illegal to share food with homeless people that quotes NLCHP Executive Director Maria Foscarinis.

Read a Jackson Free Press story about NIMBY concerns that quotes NLCHP Legal Director Robert Nasdor.

LEAP is a national legal community philanthropic effort to help homeless and poor American achieve self-sufficiency. LEAP members provide financial support and pro bono legal services to help NLCHP prevent and end homelessness.

NLCHP would like to thank our current LEAP member firms:

Baker & Hostetler LLP; Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP; Goodwin Procter LLP; Hogan & Hartson LLP; Jenner & Block LLP; Jones Day; King & Spalding LLP; Morrison & Foerster Foundation; O'Melveny & Myers LLP; Sidley Austin LLP; Sullivan & Cromwell LLP; and WilmerHale

Visit our website at www.nlchp.org! Contact us at (202) 638-2535 or email us at network@nlchp.org