Defending Unhoused People: SPLC fights back against discriminatory
ordinances that punish individuals who do not have homes
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Kirsten Anderson, SPLC Deputy Legal Director for Economic Justice |
Read the full piece here
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Friend,

I am a homeless lawyer.

No, I have never personally experienced homelessness. But it is
fitting that the first thing you know about me is that I am a lawyer
who has spent nearly my entire legal career representing people who do
not have a safe place to call home.

It is, after all, the first thing we are told about a person -
that they are homeless. Most often it is the only thing we ever know,
without ever learning the person's name. It reads like a
credential, erasing any other identity such as parent, sibling,
neighbor or friend. So I wear my own credential - that of a
homeless lawyer - in solidarity with the people whose names I
know and whose stories I carry.

It is this work that brought me to the Southern Poverty Law Center in
2021, where I currently serve as the deputy legal director of the
Economic Justice Project. In this role, I lead a team of lawyers and
legal professionals working across the Deep South to advance the
SPLC's goal of eradicating poverty by expanding access to
opportunity and eliminating racial economic inequality.

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, states
across the country began issuing orders for people to stay at home to
prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. The ability to stay home
without severe economic consequences depended in large part on the
types of jobs people held. The pandemic instantly realigned our
society across a new driver of inequality: those who can choose to
stay home to protect their health, and those who cannot.

But for the more than 500,000 individuals experiencing homelessness in
our country, how do you stay home when you do not have a place to call
home?

The pandemic revealed again and again the safety and stability that
only housing provides, which is not available to all on equal terms.
Racism in our housing and economic systems has created a homelessness
crisis that disproportionately impacts Black and Brown communities

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. African Americans make up 13% of the general population but 40% of
the unhoused population.

Cities across the country, and in the Deep South where we work, have
responded to the visibility of people who are unhoused and unsheltered
in our communities with laws restricting sleeping or camping outdoors.
These laws are unconstitutional because they punish individuals for
being human beings who need sleep, a life-sustaining activity that
must occur at some time and some place. For most of us, that is our
homes. But for too many of our unhoused friends and neighbors, these
ordinances make their very existence a crime.

READ MORE
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In solidarity,

Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center

The SPLC is a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond,
working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy,
strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the human rights of
all people.

Friend, will you make a gift to help the SPLC fight for
justice and equity in courts and combat white supremacy?

DONATE

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