Service providers across the country are reporting record increases. In some communities, tent cities are going up as shelters overflow beyond capacity. NLCHP is tracking news reports docu menting the increases on our new WIKI and in a new fact sheet. It's a document that I'm afraid we'll be updating very often.

But while the banking industry has been the center of public attention and funds, with the auto industry clamoring for the same support, the needs of poor Americans have been largely neglected. It is imperative that President-elect Obama address the growing crisis as soon as he takes office. His nomination of NYC Housing Commissioner Shaun Donovan-who in the 1980s worked with me on homelessness advocacy as an unpaid intern--is a good start.

NLCHP has come together with other advocates to press the new Administration and Congress for policies and funds to end and prevent homelessness. We've presented our joint agenda to the Obama transition team and received a positive response. But we need to do much more-and we need your involvement.

Please join our advocacy to help us build a powerful movement to ensure that the needs and voices of those Americans who are now suffering the most on the streets and in shelters are heard. To get involved, contact Laurel Weir at lweir@nlchp.org.

And we need your support. Please help us carry out our crucial advocacy by donating as generously as you can. Any level of support is important and helps us make a difference!

As we look to the future in our work with the incoming Administration, we also reflect on our work this past year. This issue of In Just Times includes highlights of the work we accomplished in the past year with your help. Thank you for your ongoing support of NLCHP.

Maria Foscarinis
Executive Director

This year the Children & Youth Program provided essential technical legal assistance, training, and policy advocacy on implementing the education provisions of the McKinney-Vento Act, which allows homeless children and youths to have stable schooling throughout the duration of their homelessness.

NLCHP provided extensive legal support in numerous administrative hearings resulting in beneficial action for homeless students. For example, one child, whose family had lost its housing due to high heating costs last winter, had moved in with his aunt in a neighboring town. This child had been successfully attending a special school due to his autism, but upon his move was un-enrolled and not allowed to attend school for over 5 months. Though even the State Board of Education was telling the school this child needed to be re-enrolled, the school refused to comply until NLCHP sent a letter threatening legal action. Within days, the child was re-enrolled and attending school.

To prevent such situations from occurring in the first place, NLCHP conducted numerous trainings on the law, educating hundreds of attorneys, advocates, and school personnel. NLCHP's training of Maryland school homeless liaisons, for example, resulted in our know-your-rights brochure for victims of foreclosure being distributed in every school district in the state, potentially reaching hundreds of thousands of families.

NLCHP also continued its policy advocacy at the federal level, drafting comments on regulations and guidance affecting homeless children and youth. Among these was federal guidance on the overlap of the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act and the McKinney-Vento Act, which adopted language in many cases word-for-word from our draft.

NLCHP also advocated for a federal response to the education needs of children affected by the foreclosure crisis, resulting in the creation of know- your-rights posters and brochures and their distribution to all 50 states.

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

NLCHP's Civil Rights program made major strides in the past year. In April, NLCHP released its joint report with the National Coalition for the Homeless on violence against homeless people, which received significant national attention and raised awareness throughout the country about this pressing issue.

In July, NLCHP released its Voting Rights Report, which contained important information about voting rights laws and their effect on homeless people in all 50 states. Using this information, NLCHP also co- sponsored National Homeless and Low Income Voter Registration Week in September with over 50 groups in 20 states. NLCHP and the National Coalition for the Homeless also collaborated with Georgetown law students to register homeless D.C. residents. The efforts resulted in the registration of over 350 homeless individuals in D.C., increasing their participation in the political process.

There was a major victory on behalf of homeless persons in Orlando in September, when a federal district court overturned Orlando's food sharing restrictions in a case filed by the ACLU on behalf of First Vagabonds Church of God and Orlando Food Not Bombs. NLCHP had filed an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs in this case.

NLCHP also partnered with a coalition of groups and successfully opposed an anti-camping ordinance that had been proposed in April in New Orleans. As a result of such efforts, homeless persons in these cities are able to carry out their lives without fear of arrest for eating or sleeping in public places.

NLCHP thanks the Herb Block Foundation for its support of the Civil Rights program.

NLCHP's Human Rights Program brought advocacy for homeless Americans' human rights to new heights in 2008.

At the international level, NLCHP coordinated presentation of a shadow report on housing and homelessness to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which was reviewing the U.S.'s performance under its treaty obligations. This report brought dozens of activists to a new level of involvement with the human rights system, and over 60 national and local organizations signed on. NLCHP's advocacy in Geneva directly contributed to language adopted by the Committee in its final report on the U.S., which NLCHP highlighted in an op-ed in the Miami Herald, co- authored with Cong. Alcee Hastings.

While in Geneva, NLCHP issued daily video blog updates to connect local advocates with the activities there. These videos have been viewed over 6,000 times, and this method of video advocacy has been cited as a national model.

NLCHP also coordinated a meeting in Geneva during which survivors of Hurricane Katrina were able to speak directly to two UN experts on housing and minority issues. Moved by their testimony, the experts issued a joint press release calling for a halt to the destruction of public housing in New Orleans, which received widespread national and international media coverage.

NLCHP also gave testimony to the UN Special Rapporteur on Racism and helped to coordinate housing and homeless organizations in hosting his visit to places like L.A.'s Skid Row and public housing in Chicago.

While in Geneva and in numerous other venues, NLCHP continued its leadership in the domestic implementation of human rights, conducting trainings and giving technical assistance to organizations working to implement the right to housing on the local level.

NLCHP thanks the U.S. Human Rights Fund and the Butler Family Fund for their support of the Human Rights program.

Domestic violence is a leading cause of homelessness: survivors of domestic violence are often evicted from their homes or discriminated against in housing because of acts of violence by their abusers. Conversely, the lack of safe and affordable housing is often one of the principal reasons that survivors of domestic violence stay in abusive relationships. Throughout the year, NLCHP worked extensively to help domestic violence survivors secure safe and stable housing and avoid homelessness.

NLCHP worked with the D.C. Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the District Alliance for Safe Housing and the Equal Rights Center to ensure successful implementation of the D.C. law protecting the housing rights of survivors of family violence. The D.C. law provides the most comprehensive housing protections for survivors anywhere in the country, including: protections against discrimination in applications or evictions in all housing, rights to lease bifurcations or early lease terminations, the ability to change locks and protection from retaliation for calling the police. NLCHP trained numerous stakeholders on these laws throughout the year.

NLCHP is also working with national partners to raise awareness about the housing needs for domestic violence survivors. NLCHP, in conjunction with the ACLU Women's Rights Project and the Native American Indian Housing Council, submitted a joint statement urging the newly convened Violence Against Women in Indian Country Task Force to address the housing needs of domestic violence survivors on tribal land, as there are very limited emergency shelters or safe transitional housing options for those fleeing domestic violence on most tribal lands. The joint statement urges the task force to make recommendations with respect to improving safe housing options and protecting the housing rights of survivors on tribal land. For more information, click here.

NLCHP collaborated with organizations such as ACLU Women's Rights Project, Legal Momentum and with pro bono partners to ensure that the housing provisions of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) were being effectively implemented. In addition, NLCHP worked with the Campaign for Funding to End Domestic and Sexual Violence to advocate for increases in the program and to combat President Bush's efforts to cut VAWA funding by $120 million dollars and to limit the VOCA cap. These efforts resulted in increases in funding for the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and Family Violence Prevention Services Act (FVPSA) and a higher cap on the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funds by both the Senate and House Appropriations Committees. If the appropriation is successful, the increase in available funds will mean that shelters, transitional housing, and service providers will be able to serve more victims.

NLCHP thanks the Waitt Family Foundation and the Freddie Mac Foundation for support of its Domestic Violence Program.

In April 2007, NLCHP and a coalition of public interest organizations, together with pro bono support, filed a class action lawsuit against the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on behalf of low-income individuals driven from their homes by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Filed in federal court in New Orleans, the lawsuit alleged that FEMA unlawfully terminated rental assistance to the plaintiffs without proper notice or a fair opportunity to appeal the decision. The plaintiffs, a group of Hurricane Katrina survivors, claim that this practice violates their right to due process under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The suit also alleges that FEMA acted unlawfully when it cut off assistance to individuals that it claims were overpaid without explaining the basis for its determination, without informing them that they can request a hardship waiver, and without providing an opportunity to contest the overpayment determination.

In September, 2008, FEMA issued a notice rescinding all outstanding repayment demands regarding assistance money that the agency had previously claimed was improperly distributed. The agency has indicated that it will re-issue individual payment demands if appropriate, but only after reviewing each individual case. This action was a major victory for plaintiffs--and for NLCHP and its partners-and it has resolved most of the issues in the lawsuit. The parties are discussing a possible settlement.

With much attention this year focused on the national elections, NLCHP and other advocates launched the "Five Fundamentals Campaign." The campaign challenged candidates for public offices at all levels and branches of government to pledge to include, if elected, the prevention of and end to homelessness among their public policy priorities.

After the November elections, NLCHP and over a dozen other national homelessness advocacy groups called upon President-Elect Barack Obama to take steps immediately upon becoming President to address the urgent crisis of homelessness in the United States. NLCHP and our partner advocacy groups are now urging the Presidential Transition Team to commit to ending homelessness by accepting six key recommendations, including completing a specific federal plan to end homelessness and presenting it at a White House Conference.

Other policy priorities include increasing access to affordable housing; ensuring adequate incomes; expanding access to health services; ensuring access to education for homeless children and youth; and protecting homeless people from discrimination.

In November, NLCHP held its 10th annual McKinney- Vento Awards dinner to honor outstanding individuals and organizations for their work to end and prevent homelessness. More information about the event and honorees is available here, and photos from the reception, dinner and awards ceremony are posted on NLCHP's new flickr page.

NLCHP is proud to participate in the Combined Federal Campaign. To donate to NLCHP through this campaign, select charity # 11947.

NLCHP is now a cause on facebook! You can join our cause, donate through facebook and recruit new members.

Remember that you can support NLCHP when you order gifts!

Order items through iGive.com or GiveBackAmerica.org, choose NLCHP as your charity, and a percentage of the sale will go to NLCHP, at no additional cost to you! Hundreds of popular retailers participate through these sites.

NLCHP congratulates its colleagues at the Coalition to Protect Public Housing, based in Chicago, for recently receiving a 2008 Housing Rights Defender Award from the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions!

NLCHP and Goodwin Procter LLP will host a CLE seminar and reception on January 26, 2009 at the offices of Goodwin Procter LLP in New York City.

In this CLE seminar, learn about how you can help protect the rights of homeless individuals and families, and the current legal issues surrounding this fight. The CLE seminar begins at 4:30 pm, and the reception follows at 6:00 pm.

Speakers include Steve Banks, Attorney-in- Chief, Legal Aid Society; Thomas A. Bisdale, H.E.L.P. Coordinator, Feerick Center for Social Justice; Hon. Fern Fisher, Administrative Judge, Civil Court of the City of New York; Jeffrey Simes, Partner, Goodwin Procter; and Maria Foscarinis, Executive Director, National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty.

Registration is free; however, space is limited and we strongly recommend registering early. Please RSVP to Melanie Orhant at morhant@nlchp.org.

NLCHP thanks Sullivan & Cromwell LLP for its generous donation in honor of its new associates and summer associates that will join the firm in 2009.

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