Human Rights Day

December 10 was Human Rights Day, a global event marking human rights of all kinds. It is a basic tenet of human rights law that all rights are interdependent. For example, it's hard to fully exercise your right to freedom of speech when you're trying to figure out your next meal or where to sleep. While recognizing that basic principle, at the Law Center we pay special attention to economic and social human rights-especially the human right to housing.

So on Human Rights Day, we remembered one homeless man, whom I'll call Victor, who is missing part of one leg. He usually gets around in a wheelchair, and has become a friend and frequent visitor to our office. Now middle aged, he lost his leg when he was hit by a car as a young man. Without good legal representation, he received little compensation despite having lost his ability to work in construction, which had been his trade. With our help, and the help of other friends, he now has a part-time job and a temporary place to stay-but he is still waiting for a permanent place to live.

As the holidays approach, many of us are invited to celebrations of all kinds. I was honored to be invited to one of the White House parties. The pomp and generous surroundings at these parties stand in stark contrast to the life of Victor and the millions more like him who suffer so greatly, and so needlessly, in the midst of what is still the richest nation on earth.

But there is also opportunity. Those of us who are not homeless, or hungry, or poor, can be emissaries for those who are. Those of us who have access to those in power must use that access to make the case: No one should be poor or homeless in America. All human beings have a right to housing.

Please join us this holiday season in doing our part to uphold the human rights we marked on December 10. Please join us in honoring Victor and all those who suffer and struggle because of injustice in our midst. To support our work, click here.

Despite a federal law that could improve access to the major federal welfare program for the poor (Temporary Aid to Needy Families, or TANF) for domestic violence survivors, many survivors are being denied this potentially life-saving aid. A new report released today by the Law Center shows how poor state and local implementation of an important federal waiver can leave survivors in severe economic distress.

Access to TANF benefits is especially crucial for these families right now. During the recession, instances of domestic violence have risen at alarming rates.

Domestic violence survivors often find themselves facing severe financial challenges when they leave their abusive relationships. In order to afford living apart from their abusers and to obtain adequate housing, many try to obtain TANF assistance. However, TANF's requirements to seek employment and child support can be major challenges for these women. As they work to rebuild their lives, domestic violence survivors often must attend court dates, medical appointments, and therapy, but these can complicate the search for employment. Additionally, seeking child support from an abuser may require a victim to face the abuser even when it is not safe to do so.

To assist these women, Congress authorized the Family Violence Option waiver as a part of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (also known as "welfare reform"), which provides an exemption for survivors from certain TANF requirements. However, implementation of the waiver by local governments has often proven to be ineffective and inadequate.

The Law Center's report offers case studies of three cities: New York, Washington, DC and San Francisco, which illustrate the significant problems or shortcomings in the way the waiver is being implemented. It also provides recommendations to federal, state, and local governments to improve abused women's access to the TANF benefits, as well as recommendations to local TANF offices, advocates and service providers.

To read the report, "Shortchanging Survivors: Family Violence Options for TANF benefits," click here.

On November 19, U.S. Senators Patty Murray and Al Franken introduced the "Educational Success for Children and Youth Without Homes Act of 2009," S. 2800, and the "Fostering Success in Education Act of 2009," S. 2801.

Both bills are based in large part on recommendations developed through a broad consultation process with schools, service providers, and homeless individuals by the Law Center and our partners at the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children & Youth (NAEHCY).

The "Educational Success for Children and Youth Without Homes Act of 2009" reauthorizes and amends the McKinney-Vento Act's Education for Homeless Children and Youth program and related laws. The amendments reinforce and expand the McKinney-Vento Act's protections of homeless childrens' right to attend school, and crucially expands funding to meet transportation needs. A summary of the legislation is available here.

The status of foster children under present education law may be ambiguous, but their need is not. Thus, the "Fostering Success in Education Act of 2009" establishes a new education program to ensure that all children and youth in foster care have school stability, immediate school access, and support for academic success similar to homeless students, but not competing with them for resources.

NLCHP thanks Senators Murray and Franken for their attention to the needs of homeless children and youth, and encourages its readers to call their Senators and ask them to co-sponsor these important pieces of legislation.

The U.S. government is planning to conduct regional meetings to solicit input for its report to the UN Human Rights Council under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process.

They will be visiting New Orleans, LA; Birmingham, AL; New York City, NY; Dearborn, MI; Phoenix, AZ; and San Francisco, CA, as well as a to-be-determined Indian reservation between January and March 2010. Specific dates have not yet been determined, but the first will likely be New Orleans in mid-to-late January.

Each site will likely have a full day of panels and individual testimony, with a variety of federal agencies, including the Department of Housing & Urban Development, represented.

The Law Center is encouraging housing and homeless advocates to participate in these meetings. This will be an excellent opportunity to reiterate concerns raised during the visit of the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing and UN Advisory Group on Forced Evictions, as well as raise new issues.

NLCHP will also be facilitating a "shadow report" for the Human Rights Council on housing and homelessness issues, which is due in April 2010.

If you have any questions or are interested in participating in the site visits or contributing to the report, please contact Human Rights Program Director Eric Tars. For more information about the UPR process as a whole, contact Laura Baum to be added to the UPR coordinating listserv.

On Tuesday, December 15, Maria Foscarinis participated in a panel discussion entitled "The Tattered Safety Net: Anti-Poverty Policies in the Current Recession" at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

The panel also included: Peter Edelman - Georgetown University Law School, Barbara Ehrenreich - Journalist and author of such books as Nickel and Dimed, Alice O'Connor - University of California - Santa Barbara, Margaret Simms - Urban Institute.

The discussion examined the recession's impact on poverty rates, questioned whether current anti-policy poverty is sufficient to address the need, and assessed the Obama administration's plans to alleviate joblessness and poverty.

You can view a video of the panel discussion here.

• A recent class action lawsuit settlement requires the Social Security Administration (SSA) to stop suspending benefits based on the existence of an outstanding arrest warrant. The SSA must also pay back all benefits they did not pay or that they collected as overpayments. For more information, click here.
• A new report released by the UCLA Civil Rights Project demonstrates how policy regarding the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program, the government's largest program for building subsidized housing, tends to place these homes in areas with low performing schools.

Working this fall at the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty was an amazing experience for me. As a third year law student at Northeastern Law School, in the Program for Human Rights and the Global Economy, I have had the opportunity to study human rights law and housing in Geneva, Switzerland and participate in Europe in state reporting mechanisms, and regional human rights cases. However, I loved my time working at the Law Center, not just because of the great staff, but also because I had the opportunity to apply these standards in the United States.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing made her first official visit to the United States during my fellowship, and I was able to help coordinate testimony from around the country. I learned about campaigns across the country to fight the criminalization of homelessness, and to obtain fair and affordable housing. It was an honor to meet these people, learn about their work, and be a part of a growing national movement for the human right to housing.

The work I did at the Law Center involved a lot of education and outreach, from helping people to apply human rights standards to their own community, to interpreting federal legislation to assist service providers. Every day was interesting and exciting, and I would recommend this experience to anyone who is passionate about issues of poverty and human rights.

Please remember the Law Center as you make decisions about your year-end charitable giving. Your gifts help us work to end and prevent homelessness for millions of Americans each year. And your gifts, when paired with the approximately $2 million in pro bono support we leveraged this year, will have triple the impact. Please give today.

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

Please visit our website at http://www.nlchp.org