As the country gears up for elections this November, advocates are focusing on strategies to bring attention to homelessness and poverty in national, state and local campaigns.

National advocates have come together to draft a consensus statement on five fundamentals to end and prevent homelessness. Aimed at the next national administration, as well as Congress, the statement describes the current dimensions of the national crisis of homelessness. It outlines the five fundamentals that must be addressed to end and prevent it:

1. All of the McKinney-Vento programs must be reauthorized and strengthened.
2. The supply of affordable housing must be dramatically increased.
3. Health care, education, and social services must be provided to all who need them.
4. Personal incomes must be sufficient to pay for the necessities of life.
5. Discrimination against homeless persons must be prevented.

Perhaps most important, the statement emphasizes that "a renewed, concerted effort to eradicate mass homelessness is required by our commitment to basic human rights and by our responsibilities to our neighbors."

To read the full statement, click here.

To endorse it, click here.

Maria Foscarinis
Executive Director

On April 28, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in William Crawford et al. v. Marion County Election Board et al., and Indiana Democratic Party et al. v. Todd Rokita, Indiana Secretary of State et al. that could severely burden homeless persons' right to vote.

The ruling upheld Indiana's requirement that voters present a government-issued photo ID in order to vote. This requirement is particularly burdensome for homeless persons, who frequently have difficulty maintaining and obtaining identification cards. Although the law allows an indigent person to vote without an ID, those individuals must follow up voting on Election Day with a trip to the county seat in order for their vote to be counted.

Along with six other national homeless advocacy groups, NLCHP filed an amicus brief in support of the Petitioners arguing that Indiana's photo identification requirement imposes a substantial and unnecessary burden on homeless people's right to vote.

To learn more about homeless voting rights, click here.

To read the full Supreme Court opinion, click here.

NLCHP would like to thank the Herb Block Foundation for its support of our programs.

This month, NLCHP Domestic Violence staff attorney Kathy Zeisel participated in the Native American Indian Housing Council's (NAIHC) annual conference and trade show in Seattle. NAIHC had invited NLCHP to discuss policies and best practices to address the incidence of domestic violence in the American Indian community and its relation to stable housing.

The American Indian community experiences the highest rates of domestic violence among any distinct ethnic community in the United States. According the CDC, almost 40% of Native women and 12% of Native men experience physical or sexual assault by an intimate partner.

In addition to significant cultural challenges to combating the problem, there are legal obstacles when the violence occurs on tribal lands. The Department of Justice estimates that 75% of sexual assaults against Native women on tribal lands are perpetrated by non-Native men who are not subject to the jurisdiction of the tribe. As a result, complicated partnerships with the US Attorneys' offices are required to prosecute these cases.

There are very few domestic violence shelters for victims who are part of the American Indian community, and so victims who want to remain within their culture are often faced with few options to escape the violence. At the NAIHC conference, NLCHP presented to tribal leaders and housing authority officials about this problem and discussed best practices to form policies to address these issues. The presentation is available here.

NLCHP looks forward to working with the NAIHC and other groups to develop policy to protect the housing rights and ensure safe and affordable housing for victims of domestic violence in the American Indian community.

NLCHP would like to thank the Waitt Family Foundation and the Freddie Mac Foundation for their support of our Domestic Violence Program.

In April, the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services of the U.S. Department of Education issued a Question and Answer document for guidance on implementing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in conjunction with the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act to serve homeless children with disabilities.

This document included significant language suggested by NLCHP and its partners, the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children & Youth and the National Center on Homeless Education.

The guidance provides questions and answers relating to homeless children and the general requirements to educate children with disabilities, the "child find" requirements of IDEA, evaluations for special education services, eligibility and individual education plans, schools of origin for homeless students, unaccompanied youth and surrogate parents, early intervention services for infants and toddlers, and coordination between McKinney-Vento and special education services.

NLCHP and its partners are continuing to work with the Department to ensure that all students receive the services to which they are entitled. Groups interested in collaborating on comments should contact NLCHP Children & Youth attorney Eric Tars, or can send comments directly to OSERSguidancecomments@ed.gov (put the word "Homelessness" in the subject line of your e-mail).

NLCHP thanks the Freddie Mac Foundation for support of its Children & Youth Program.

This article was written by Caitlin Egleson, who just completed her internship with NLCHP. Thank you Caitlin for all of your work with us!

This spring, NLCHP worked with advocates nationwide to coordinate a visit from the UN Special Rapporteur on Racism, Mr. Doudou Diene. Mr. Diene was invited by the US government to visit eight cities and meet with governmental officials. NLCHP has been part of coordinated effort to make sure he also hears from community organizations and advocates in each city.

I attend Northeastern University School of Law, which is unique among law programs in its emphasis on experiential learning. For this semester, I have had the pleasure of interning as a Human Rights Fellow at NLCHP.

One of my final tasks with NLCHP was to help plan a meeting between Mr. Diene and national homelessness and housing advocates in Washington, DC. I cannot imagine a more appropriate way to end my fellowship here. The opportunity to sit around a table with the leaders of national advocates discussing the consequences of racism in our society reflected both the amount I have learned and the possibility that this kind of work affords.

NLCHP coordinated a dinner meeting with the Special Rapporteur and advocates from the National Fair Housing Association (NFHA); the Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC); the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law; the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH); and the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH).

NLCHP human rights attorney Eric Tars linked presentations by NFHA, NAEH, and NCH to the concerns of local partners who will meet with Mr. Diene in each city, for example relating housing discrimination to that faced by victims of Hurricane Katrina, the lack of affordable housing and gentrification in Chicago, violence against homeless persons in Miami, and criminalization of homelessness in Minneapolis and Los Angeles.

NLCHP executive director Maria Foscarinis also urged Mr. Diene to take note of the increasing gap between the rich and poor throughout the country and its racial breakdown. Kathy Zeisel connected gender, housing, and racism, discussing how the lack of emergency shelters and the discrimination people of color face when seeking new housing often forces survivors to make a choice between being homeless or staying in an abusive relationship.

This final experience was a chance for me to see how my work over the past three months - understanding the international human rights framework, community activism and outreach, domestic law and policy, and above all collaboration - connects and is put into practice.

NLCHP would like to thank the Butler Family Foundation and the U.S. Human Rights Network for their support of our Human Rights Program and Northeastern Law School's Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy for making us part of their fellowship program.

NLCHP is pleased to add Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP to the Lawyers' Executive Advisory Partners (LEAP) community. Katten joined LEAP in April 2008 and LEAP representative Bruce Casino serves as a member of the NLCHP Board of Directors. Katten has a long-standing commitment to helping the poor, the powerless and the disenfranchised obtain first-rate representation without charge.

The firm's pro bono work includes assisting a non-profit development corporation in developing affordable housing opportunities in Washington, DC. Katten's program has been honored by the American Bar Association Section of Business Law with its National Public Service Award, as well as by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in Chicago, the Lawyers Alliance for New York, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and numerous other groups.

NLCHP is a 501(c)(3) organization. Visit our website at www.nlchp.org! Contact us at (202) 638-2535 or email us at nlchp@nlchp.org