How Los Angeles Created the Playbook for a Nationwide War on the Unhoused As politicians look to build public support for homeless encampment sweeps, they’re using tactics popularized in LA—the site of one of the nation’s most intense battles over the unhoused. Jonny Coleman May 26, 2022
A Coalition Led by Philly’s Homeless Youth Wants to Change How Cities Help the Unhoused Ras Stanford Mar 22, 2022
A Homeless Man Has Spent 800 Days At Rikers After Stealing Cold Medicine. Now His Prison Sentence May Be Beginning. Blind in one eye and at risk of losing vision in the other, 58-year-old Reginald Randolph is now on the verge of being sent to state prison to serve out a maximum of four years. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Nov 02, 2021
Los Angeles County Homeless Residents Say Sheriff’s Department Is Targeting Them The ACLU of Southern California is suing the city of Lancaster and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for excessively citing people living at desert homeless encampments in the Antelope Valley. Francisco Aviles Pino Jun 04, 2021
Maryland Could Be the First State to Provide Lawyers for Tenants Facing Eviction A bill passed by the state legislature, but yet to be enacted, would offer access to counsel for low-income renters. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Apr 16, 2021
What New York City’s Next Mayor Can Do to Solve the Homelessness Crisis Creating a commission and a new deputy mayor of housing will give directly impacted people a much-needed voice in government—and help ensure a right to housing for all. Shams DaBaron Apr 13, 2021
San Antonio’s Response to Homelessness Is Broken. It’s Time to Put Housing First Shelters are not meeting people’s needs, and the city is clearing encampments, says City Councilmember Roberto Treviño. Roberto Treviño Apr 09, 2021
Anchorage’s Anti-Homeless Movement May Elect the City’s Next Mayor One of the leading candidates for Anchorage’s mayoral race is backed by a far-right Facebook group tied to the U.S. Capitol riot. Jerry Iannelli Mar 23, 2021
This Election Could Decide St. Louis’s Future The four candidates vying to replace the mayor are each promising to build a better St. Louis, and in a little over a week, voters will decide which visions they endorse. Meg O'Connor Feb 22, 2021
San Antonio Bulldozed a Homeless Encampment. Then the Winter Storms Started. Now, advocacy groups are struggling to keep unhoused people safe. Jerry Iannelli Feb 19, 2021
Washington State’s Most Populous County Curbed Covid-19 Among The Homeless By Moving Them To Hotels. But One Local Government Fought Back. Seattle suburb Renton is battling an emergency homeless shelter through its zoning code. Rachel M. Cohen Feb 10, 2021
New York City Mayoral Candidates Blast de Blasio’s Housing Record In a forum with people experiencing homelessness, Democratic candidates criticized the mayor’s affordable housing plans, embraced a ‘right to housing,’ and rejected police intervention on homelessness calls. Chris Gelardi Feb 05, 2021
Carroll Fife’s Fight For Unhoused Mothers Sparked A Movement Across The Country. Now She’s On The Oakland City Council Ready To Transform The City. Fife has pledged to reinvest in the local community, aggressively combat the housing crisis, address income inequality, education, healthcare and more. Eoin Higgins Nov 09, 2020
Candace Valenzuela Is Running to Give All People a Chance at the American Dream If she’s successful in her bid to represent Texas’s 24th Congressional District, Valenzuela will flip the district to blue and become the first Black and Latinx member of Congress. Joshua Vaughn Oct 30, 2020
Philadelphia Housing Advocates Declare Victory After Monthslong Battle With City The city will give advocates 50 vacant homes to be used for permanent housing for low-income residents, according to a tentative agreement. Joshua Vaughn Sep 29, 2020
The Struggle Against A Stadium’s Construction Became A Battle for the Soul Of Los Angeles Sports venues like the new SoFi Stadium have been crushing poor communities around the country for over a century. Jonny Coleman Sep 10, 2020
Economic Insecurity Brought On By COVID-19 Threatens To Disenfranchise Millions Of Voters Between the global pandemic and a nationwide economic crisis, voting rights advocates see a ‘perfect storm of barriers’ ahead that could prevent millions of people from casting a ballot in November. Eoin Higgins Sep 03, 2020
Philadelphia Housing Authority Is Failing at Its Mission, Advocates Say Although the agency has vacant properties, public housing has been out of reach for nearly a decade for many who need it. Joshua Vaughn Aug 06, 2020
‘It’s Feudalism, Pure Exploitation’ The Doe Fund says it pays homeless and formerly incarcerated people New York City’s minimum wage of $15 per hour. But the nonprofit charges weekly fees that can drive their wages below the federal minimum of $7.25. Jonathan Ben-Menachem Jul 29, 2020
How The Largest Known Homeless Encampment In Minneapolis History Came To Be The frustrations of residents in the Powderhorn neighborhood, not far from where George Floyd was killed, have gotten some national coverage. But the homelessness crisis in the city isn’t new, and it could soon get worse. Rachel M. Cohen Jul 15, 2020
Extreme Summer Heat Is Endangering Homeless People Amid COVID-19 Pandemic As a ‘heat dome’ descends on much of the country and local governments scramble to provide safe refuges, concern grows over the effect of a disease that has ‘totally demolished the homeless people.’ Daniel Moritz-Rabson Jul 13, 2020
COVID-19 Hit New York City Homeless Shelters Hard, But Some Are Forced to Stay There Many city residents who’ve served time for sexual crimes have families who want them back, but a 19-year-old law keeps them away. Steven Yoder Jul 08, 2020
The Toll That Curfews Have Taken On Homeless Americans The country’s homeless population was already struggling to access services during the pandemic. Kira Lerner Jun 10, 2020
The L.A. Mayor’s ‘Unacceptable’ Budget Would Deprive Those In Need And Accelerate The City’s Slide Toward A Police State The City Council must not let Mayor Eric Garcetti’s unconscionable priorities dictate how Los Angeles responds to the COVID-19 crisis. May 21, 2020
Housing the Formerly Incarcerated Should Be A Fundamental Right, Especially in a Pandemic States must fund stable housing for all formerly incarcerated people to neutralize the spread of COVID-19 and create equitable opportunities for social reintegration. Demar F. Lewis IV May 18, 2020
COVID-19 Exposes Stark Inequalities Across U.S. As Thousands Struggle Daily To Find Food ‘It’s not only poor people standing in food lines, or going to food pantries and soup kitchens. Now you have the middle class and businesses that are suffering, too,’ one organizer said. Elizabeth Brico May 07, 2020
Despite Coronavirus Warnings, Miami Area Police Are Still Arresting Hundreds of Homeless People As of April 30, one in three unsheltered people have been arrested in Miami-Dade County since a local state of emergency was declared in March. Jerry Iannelli
Housing Is A Human Right. It Should Not Be Predicated On The Money In One’s Pocket. There are certain universal human needs that any governing structure — from local to federal — is responsible for. Among these are housing, healthcare, education, public parks, clean water, and clean air — the things that make life beautiful. These needs touch every single living being and as such, are non-negotiable. They do not belong on the open market. Molly Beckhardt, Paul Boden and June LS Apr 24, 2020
The Battle to Convert California Hotels into Housing Has Begun Elected officials need to stop making excuses for not getting unhoused people into hotel rooms. Jonny Coleman
Closure of D.C.’s Only Men’s Halfway House Leaves Residents Scrambling For A Safe Place To Live The Bureau of Prisons could send those without homes to alternative halfway houses far from D.C. or back to prison at the end of the month. Kira Lerner Apr 23, 2020
New York City Must Take Action to Ensure the Most Vulnerable Survive the Pandemic The city has created the structural conditions that have engendered disproportionately high rates of infection and death among its Black and Latinx residents. TS Candii, Darializa Avila Chevalier Apr 22, 2020
Coronavirus Lays Bare The Staggering Class Inequalities That Divide America Neither the coronavirus nor anything else is a ‘great equalizer’ because we aren’t, actually, all in this together. Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò Apr 16, 2020
Transgender Sex Workers in New York City Struggle to Survive the Pandemic Advocates say the “progressive” city has left them to die. Rebecca Chowdhury Apr 14, 2020
Working-Class Tenants Are Seizing Vacant State-Owned Property in LA On the intersection of two public health crises: housing and COVID-19. Jonny Coleman Apr 09, 2020
Congress Failed to Make Cash Assistance Universal. Now Local Governments Must Step Up There’s still a chance to make sure some of the most vulnerable people can benefit from the federal stimulus bill. Yonah Freemark Mar 31, 2020
As the Coronavirus Pandemic Worsens, Olympia’s Homeless Community Scrambles for Support The COVID-19 crisis is shining a light on America’s worsening housing crisis and limited resources for response. Mara Kardas-Nelson Mar 27, 2020
Seattle Was Struggling To Care For Its Unhoused Population. Then Coronavirus Arrived. Advocates for the area’s homeless residents say the pandemic will worsen the crisis they have already been living through. Jay Willis Mar 26, 2020
The Coronavirus Pandemic Has Brought Out Society’s Alarming Disregard for People With Disabilities Politicians and the general public are ignoring the health and safety needs of those with disabilities and chronic conditions. Robyn Powell Mar 25, 2020
How Coronavirus Is Making the Fight for Homeless Communities in LA More Difficult Cascading crises have significantly increased the stakes for the city’s most vulnerable residents. Jonny Coleman Mar 19, 2020
As Coronavirus Spreads, the Crisis LA’s Homeless Community Is Facing Has Been Decades in the Making It should not take a global pandemic for our elected officials to acknowledge that we are all safer if everyone can shower and wash their hands. Sabrina Johnson
As the Coronavirus Pandemic Continues, Homeless Communities Are Particularly Vulnerable How California, which is home to more than half of the country’s unsheltered homeless population, is addressing the needs of the unhoused. Kira Lerner Mar 18, 2020
Coronavirus: We’re Urged To Wash Our Hands, But For Some It’s Not That Simple Vaidya Gullapalli Mar 11, 2020
In Los Angeles, Police-Backed Street Cleanings are Upending the Lives of Homeless People The city is ramping up a cleanup program that activists fear will worsen the criminalization of homelessness. Eliyahu Kamisher Mar 03, 2020
Singling Out Crime ‘Suspects’ As Homeless Is A Media Double Standard That Unjustly Penalizes The Poor Leading with housing status for homeless people is a common trope in the news reporting business and one in urgent need of re-examining. Adam H. Johnson Jan 31, 2020
‘Weird News,’ ‘Dumb Criminals’ and the Media’s Monetization of Human Misery There’s a cynical local-to-national news pipeline designed to mock the powerless under the guise of “odd” news stories. Adam H. Johnson Jan 16, 2020
It’s Time For LA’s District Attorney’s Office To Lead The Way On Decriminalizing Homelessness As a form of punishment, incarceration does not enhance public safety when it is not balanced against its tendency to make a person’s unfortunate situation worse. Alex Sherman Jan 03, 2020
Austin Braces As Texas Officials Plan Crackdown On Homeless Encampments Last week, the City Council reinstated a “no camping” ordinance meant to discourage people experiencing homelessness from sleeping on sidewalks and outside a shelter. Advocates say the city is criminalizing poverty. Aaron Morrison Oct 25, 2019
A California Sheriff And Prosecutor Want To Jail Homeless People. Their Plan Is Unlawful. Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood and District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer intend to openly defy a 1975 state Supreme Court precedent that says law enforcement cannot intentionally discriminate against a person or group of people. Kate Chatfield Oct 03, 2019
New Lawsuit Claims a Sacramento Deputy Unlawfully Arrested Activist Who Protested Clearing Of Homeless Encampment Advocates and homeless people are suing Sacramento County over its treatment of homeless—and the city responded by filing a lawsuit against seven men for being a ‘public nuisance.‘ Meg O'Connor Sep 04, 2019
Stoking Hostility Toward Homeless People Dozens of reports about an indigent man in Bradenton, Florida, showed the cruel excesses of local news’s homelessness coverage. Adam H. Johnson Jul 31, 2019
New York City’s Homeless Diversion Program is ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ Reform, Advocates Say A new effort to reduce arrests and summonses is criticized as continuing to criminalize homelessness. Raven Rakia Jul 26, 2019
Media Frame: Stop Quoting Bill Bratton For far too long, the press has leaned on wrong-headed tough-on-crime officials like the former NYPD commissioner when reporting on the criminal legal system. Jonathan Ben-Menachem Jul 22, 2019
Atlanta Bail Reform Is Leaving Behind Homeless and Mentally Ill People A number of people spent multiple days at the Atlanta City Detention Center for low-level offenses, including for driving while using a cell phone and for walking in the roadway. Aaron Morrison May 16, 2019
Miami Police Arrest Thousands of Homeless But Leave Rapes, Robberies Unsolved In 2017, over 2,000 homeless people were arrested on charges including drinking in public and panhandling. That same year, roughly 1,400 people were arrested in Miami-Dade County for rape, murder, and robbery. Meg O'Connor Mar 18, 2019
