Reform Efforts
Reform Efforts
Policymakers, advocates, legal experts, and some state and local public systems have implemented reforms to prevent the criminalization of homelessness, reduce harm, and create legal backstops to ensure that no one is left to experience homelessness in the first place. Although many reform efforts are mitigating harm, these efforts alone cannot lead to transformation and healing.
Examples of Reform Efforts:
Eight states have or are working to enshrine the rights of people experiencing homelessness into statewide policy. Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Illinois have passed such legislation and there is voting scheduled or under consideration in California, Oregon, Vermont, and Missouri.
Legal reform efforts, such as those led by the National Homelessness Law Center in partnership with local advocates, establish positive legal precedents to defend the Constitutional and human rights of people experiencing homelessness against criminalization through litigation at all jurisdictional levels across the United States. Recent cases include:
Martin v. Boise: A Ninth Circuit Court landmark decision resolved that the Eighth Amendment prohibits cities from criminalizing the status of homelessness itself by punishing individuals for sleeping or sheltering themselves outside in public spaces when they have no safe, practical, legal alternative place to be.
Norton v. Springfield: A Seventh Circuit decision affirmed that asking for donations is protected speech under the First Amendment. Since this case in 2015, every panhandling ordinance challenged in federal or state court has been struck down, more than 25 decisions to date. The Law Center’s #IaskForHelpBecause Campaign used this precedent to encourage another 70+ communities to repeal their panhandling ordinances without the need for litigation.
Big Hart Ministries v. Dallas: In addition to laws directly criminalizing people experiencing homelessness, some communities also target those providing assistance to homeless persons. This case affirmed the First Amendment right of religious groups to provide food to homeless people living outdoors. Subsequent decisions have split on the rights of non-religious groups to provide assistance.
Other efforts are underway to protect the rights of individuals to sleep in their vehicles, or to have their belongings stored rather than thrown away in the course of sweeps of homeless encampments.
The State Index on Youth Homelessnessmeasures and reports on the systems, environment, and laws of all states as they relate to preventing and ending youth homelessness, and makes numerous recommendations on areas for reform. Recommendations include measures to make it easier for youth to consent to shelter and services, and for service providers or “Good Samaritans” to offer shelter and services without being threatened with enforcement themselves for “harboring a runaway” or the like.