28 Years, 160 Arrests: What One Man’s Record Reveals About San Diego’s Broken Justice System Kelly Davis
After Years Locked up for Stealing Cold Medicine, Reginald Randolph Is Released Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
New York City Considers A Bold Idea To Keep People From Being Pushed Out Of Their Homes Abigail Savitch-Lew
San Antonio Bulldozed a Homeless Encampment. Then the Winter Storms Started. Now, advocacy groups are struggling to keep unhoused people safe. Jerry Iannelli
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
Austin To Buy Second Hotel That Will Become Permanent Supportive Housing The city will use funds diverted from its police budget to set up wraparound services for the people who will live at the hotel. Meg O'Connor
Austin Will Use Money Cut From Police Budget To Establish Supportive Housing The City Council voted to buy one hotel and use funds diverted from its police budget to set up wraparound services for the homeless people who will live there. Meg O'Connor
Austin May Use Money Cut From Police Budget To Establish Permanent Supportive Housing The City Council will decide whether to buy two hotels and use funds diverted from its police budget to set up wraparound services for the homeless people who will live there. Meg O'Connor
The Pandemic Hasn’t Stopped Landlords From Evicting Tenants—And It’s About To Get Much Worse Landlords have continued forcing renters out of their homes, despite a patchwork of protections from federal and local governments. Now, with the CDC moratorium set to expire on Dec. 31, millions of Americans could be evicted. Meg O'Connor
Why Los Angeles Activists Don’t Want Their Mayor In Biden’s Cabinet Eric Garcetti, who may be considered for a position in the administration, is out of touch with the city’s working class and poor people, activists say. And they fear he’ll bring that sensibility to national politics. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
Against CDC Guidance, Denver Displaces Hundreds Of Homeless People Amid COVID-19 Spike Cities across the country have continued to displace and criminalize homelessness during the pandemic, though the CDC cautions clearing encampments can heighten the potential for the spread of COVID-19. Meg O'Connor
California Needs A Community-Based Response To People In Crisis, Not Law Enforcement Governor Newsom should sign the CRISES Act into law this week and invest in community partners who support people in crisis situations. Asantewaa Boykin
The Trump Administration Is Pushing To Make It Harder For Trans People To Seek Shelter During The Pandemic The Trump administration mishandled COVID-19, creating conditions that left transgender people even more vulnerable to housing instability than before. Now it’s pushing for a rule change that would allow homeless shelters to discriminate against trans people. Gillian Branstetter, Sarah Saadian
Cities Must Stop Homeless Sweeps And Instead Provide People With Concrete Opportunities For Housing In order to get real about addressing homelessness in America, we need to get real about how we have demonized, dehumanized, and criminalized the presence of unhoused people in our local community. Paul Boden, Molly Beckhardt, Erin Goodling
Santa Cruz County Grand Jury Homelessness Report Calls for Defunding of Police A June report from the county’s independent judicial arm urges local government to reallocate law enforcement resources to social services. Ella Fassler
As Eviction Cliff Looms, Calls To Cancel Rent Grow Housing rights activists in California are pushing for taxation of rich residents to help the hundreds of thousands of people who may be at risk of losing housing after COVID-19 eviction restrictions end. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
Maricopa County Moved Homeless People to Sweltering Parking Lots in Response to COVID-19 Hundreds were forced from an encampment to fenced-in, asphalt parking lots with no shade in Phoenix’s triple-digit summer heat. At least three people have died. Meg O'Connor
10 Ways To Reduce Our Reliance On Policing And Make Our Communities Safer For Everyone Police should no longer occupy all of our vital support systems in our communities. Alex S. Vitale
People Are About To Be Pushed Into Homelessness On A Large Scale. Hotels Are Key To Keeping Them Off The Streets. Tens of thousands of people in Los Angeles County are at high risk for becoming homeless after the temporary halt on evictions is lifted—one of the largest mass displacements the region has ever seen. Ananya Roy, Jonny Coleman
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
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
The Pandemic Shows It’s Time for an Alternative to American Capitalism The nation has an opportunity to take advantage of this transformative event and pursue an alternative to the current system. David A. Love
Defund The Police – And Abolish Laws Used To Target Vulnerable People Making our communities safe requires not only the defunding of police departments, but also dismantling discriminatory laws that target survival activities such as sleeping, sitting, lying down, and eating in public space. Molly Beckhardt, Paul Boden, Erin Goodling
Cops, Climate, COVID: Why There Is Only One Crisis Although the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis are both provoked by natural phenomena, the dangers they present are just as political as the crisis of police violence. Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò
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
L.A. Mayor’s Reaction to Protests Proves He’s Unfit to Govern This weekend’s string of errors is just the latest in his career of cruelty. Jonny Coleman
Lack Of Access To Clean Water Is Putting Homeless People At Risk Even As Cities Reopen Amid COVID-19 Health officials say hand washing is key to avoiding the novel coronavirus, but millions of homeless people continue to have little or no access to hygiene stations. Elizabeth Brico
Honolulu Police Keep Putting Homeless People in Jail The city is flouting CDC guidance by continuing to dismantle homeless encampments during the COVID-19 pandemic, though it does not have nearly enough shelter space. Meg O'Connor
The Case For Universal Rental Assistance Expansion of an existing federal rental subsidy program, the Housing Choice Voucher, could stabilize housing for millions of households. Kirk McClure, Alex F. Schwartz
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, June LS
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
Rep. Rashida Tlaib: The Case For An Emergency Responder Corps As the coronavirus crisis continues to expand, it is clear that America needs a robust assistance program for the most vulnerable, such as the elderly and physically disabled, to ensure they have what they need to survive. The health, safety, and stability of all communities depend on it. Rashida Tlaib
Cities Fighting Coronavirus Must Provide Housing For The Homeless Taking emergency measures to protect homeless people from the pandemic is simply common sense. Jonathan Ben-Menachem
Transgender Sex Workers in New York City Struggle to Survive the Pandemic Advocates say the “progressive” city has left them to die. Rebecca Chowdhury
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
Under Pressure, San Francisco Shifts Plan For Mass Indoor Homeless Camps This is still a severely inadequate response to this deadly pandemic. The Mayor has both the power and the obligation to house every single person in hotels; failing to do so puts thousands of lives at risk. Quiver Watts
San Francisco Mayor Opts For Mass Indoor Homeless Camps To Further Concentrate Vulnerable People To leave hundreds of people in mass congregate shelters could be a death sentence for many of our vulnerable neighbors. Quiver Watts
