NATION: Housing as a Human Right

Tim Waag's Report on the National Law Center 
on Homelessness & Poverty Webinar

Upon Laurel’s suggestion, I “attended” this free webinar today 4/24/2014 on “Human Right to Housing Symposium”. The webinar lasted 1 hour and featured multiple speakers. You can read more at www.nlchp.org (National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty) where there are some great articles. 

The bottom line is that we have a long way to go in the United States before the concept of “Homelessness as a Human Right” actually gives us a tool for creating housing for the homeless. Below I will summarize the state of affairs regarding “housing as a human right”, as presented at this webinar. 

Note that I pulled out all the relevant “nuggets” of thought, independent of whether it directly addressed the main topic - Homelessness as a human rights issue. Note also that I have not verified any of the "facts" contained therein - please don't shoot the messenger!

Above (click to enlarge): Thistle at sunrise, north Johnson Canyon, Panamint Mountains, Death Valley National Park. Photo by Tim Waag ("posts are boring without photos!").

1. Criminalizing homelessness is a popular strategy among government entities for dispersing the homeless.

2. Studies have suggested that “ending homelessness” is a more cost effective strategy for a municipality than criminalizing it. Costs compounded by homelessness include health care, law enforcement, and mental health care.

3. There is a desire to make civil cases related to “right to basic human needs” subject to receiving legal counsel at no cost, much as in criminal cases (“If you are unable to afford an attorney, you may qualify for a court-appointed lawyer that will represent you”). This seemed to have more to do with eviction issues than the legal right to live on public land or in government-supplied housing. In general, without qualified legal representation, a homeless person stands little chance of defending themselves in court - if they are even able to show up in the first place. Providing legal counsel when “basic human needs” issues are in question would be extremely expensive; indeed, opposition is based primarily or exclusively on this added cost.

4. Trend: Homelessness is growing (estimated at 3,000,000+ nationwide) as income inequality is growing.

5. Goal is to stop criminalization of homelessness while developing the human right to housing through government mandates and actions.

6. Most common pattern: Local law enforcement treats homelessness as a criminal activity ("making homelessness a crime"). Eventually, a case gets to court that forces the halt of criminal enforcement. The municipality goes back to the drawing board to create new laws to criminalize homelessness that are more likely to pass constitutional muster. In the meantime, criminalization of homelessness continues, as the homeless have few tools to combat overzealous law enforcement. The homeless are fined, ticketed and arrested until they have no resources left and all hope is lost. This pattern continues indefinitely. No right to being in a home ever materializes. This sounds very similar to what has played out not too long ago in the city of SLO.

7. In this country, the best court case outcomes have only resulted in halting enforcement of certain laws but have not created a space for the homeless to live. In Lakewood vs. Ocean County, the case concluded that the government has a responsibility to care for the poor, and in the absence of a shelter, must allow a homeless “tent city” on government land to continue to be used until a shelter or other facility is built. Read about it here: Huffington Post Article on New Jersey Tent City.

8. The webinar presenters hope that future court rulings will eventually require that housing opportunities be created for the homeless, whether as a basic right or not. In the meantime, the webinar drifted into international homeless housing standards and outcomes in other countries that didn’t seem to offer any immediate hope here in SLO.

9. “We will not fail until we quit”. [I liked this quote, so I put it in here. It's similar to my personal philosophy, because breakthroughs seem few and far between; I will not quit].

10. Publicly-owned housing units are disappearing at an alarming rate, with a loss of 300,000 units in the last few decades, and currently about 10,000 units per year. It is believed that public housing promotes crime, thus it is being bulldozed at an alarming rate.

11. Affordable housing needs to be located near quality education and jobs.

12. Engagement between the community leaders / decision-makers and the homeless themselves (“put a face to the homeless”) is needed. [I agree with this; coming face-to-face with the homeless].

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