As HNH supporters know, enforcing anti-panhandling laws is harmful, unconstitutional, and a waste of resources.

Last year, working with our 2018 #IAskForHelpBecause Campaign partners, we sent letters to over 220 cities challenging them to repeal their harmful & unconstitutional anti-panhandling laws & move to constructive solutions. Since then, over 70 of these cities in 11 states across the country have repealed their laws or taken steps to stop their enforcement. On July 17th, the Law Center launched the second round of this campaign with 13 partner organizations across 11 states to again challenge cities across the nation to repeal their harmful anti-panhandling ordinances and replace them with more constructive solutions that eliminate the need for asking for help in the first place. Find out more about the campaign and tools to help fight these ordinances here. If you are interested in participating in a future round of the campaign, please be in touch!

 

In July, #HousingNotHandcuffs Justice Network member Carol Sobel settled with Orange County and dozens of southern California cities in Orange County Catholic Worker v. Orange County, a case which was bolstered by the Law Center’s victory in the Martin case. The Law Center also filed an amicus brief in the case, which successfully stops law enforcement from enforcing anti-camping and loitering ordinances against unhoused individuals who have nowhere safe to sleep. This settlement vindicates the right of people experiencing homelessness in southern California, ensuring they will be free from arrest and criminalization until the County can offer them adequate shelter. In a jurisdiction where there is far too little available housing or shelter, and where local officials have refused to build more, “this is a game-changer,” said the judge overseeing the lawsuit.

The settlement requires cities in the sprawling county to take “respective responsibility” for homelessness by not enforcing the laws until they build shelter, a model that Judge David Carter called “an exemplary document that the governor should know about.” Indeed, safety from criminalization is essential for people who lack a safe place to rest, and is an important first step in the movement to secure the human right to housing for all.

 

Two New York City Council Members who helped pass the city’s initial Right to Counsel in landlord tenant court legislation, Mark Levine and Vanessa Gibson, have introduced new bills to strengthen the existing law. While the existing law was a major step forward, these new bills would increase the income eligibility level, expand the types of eviction cases covered by the right to counsel, and require the city to support trusted tenant organizing groups to support collective action against landlord abuse. These are all important aspects of the overall struggle for housing and against unjust eviction, allowing a wider range of people to seek the help they need from counsel and from each other in order to stay in housing.

On June 28, the ACLU of Hawai‘i and the Law Center issued a joint open letter to the nearly 230 mayors gathered to attend the 2019 U.S. Conference of Mayors’ 87th Annual Meeting. The letter called attention to the shortcomings of Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s criminalizing approach to homelessness, which he was touting as a national model, and called on the attendees to reject policies which criminalize homelessness in their cities, and instead invest in constructive alternatives to benefit their most vulnerable constituents. HNH advocates can follow up on this by using the letter to prompt conversations with your own mayor and other city officials to express your support for housing, and not handcuffs, perhaps in coordination with your local ACLU.

 

HNH members Grassroots Leadership and other local advocates in Austin, Texas, supported by the Law Center, were successful in advocating for a full repeal of the city’s sit-lie ordinance and also got a revised camping ordinance to allow for non-obstructive self-sheltering and the anti-panhandling ordinance now only bars “aggressive confrontation”—not a complete win, but a good step forward by the city of Austin. This was followed by a strong op-ed from the mayor of Austin, entitled “Want to stop people sleeping in public places? House them.”

 

Following advocacy by local advocates, the Law Center, and Southern Poverty Law Center, the mayor of Montgomery, Alabama declined to sign an anti-panhandling law and put a moratorium on its enforcement while the city gatherings more information on the topic, citing pressure from advocates as a factor in his decision. We hope the city listens to experts on the topic and recognizes both the ineffectiveness and unconstitutionality of the ordinance.

 

On September 20 & 21, 2019, the Human Rights Clinic at the University of Miami School of Law, in collaboration with the University of Miami School of Communication, University of Miami Race and Social Justice Law Review, University of Miami Law Review, National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, and the Open Society Foundation’s Human Rights Initiative will host a Symposium on Petty Offenses: Challenging Criminalization of Poverty, Marginalization, and Gender Non-Conformity. The symposium will look at the criminalization of homelessness and poverty in the U.S. and abroad, and will be accompanied by an international photography exhibition. The conference is free and interested people can find out more and register here.

 HNH One Pager

This one pager provides an overview of the HNH Campaign and outlines concrete ways for people to get involved. It also includes a fact sheet on the criminalization of homelessness. This tool is useful to share with people who are already familiar with homelessness issues and are looking for more information about the HNH Campaign.

 

We encourage campaign endorsers to link relevant events to the national Housing Not Handcuffs campaign. Please see the guidelines for branding your materials here.