All over the country, an organized effort is seeking to criminalize homelessness while attacking best practices like Housing First. Several states have already enacted bills along these lines, with more expected in the 2024 legislative session. This page contains resources and tools to ensure that every community understands this harmful trend.
Criminalization Video Series
Housing First Series
Blog Posts:
- How the Supreme Court Could Impact Homelessness
- Supreme Court and Homelessness: What the Grants Pass v. Johnson Case Could Do
- Take a Stand Against the Criminalization of Homelessness
In the News:
- Supreme Court to decide if ban on homeless encampments is ‘cruel and unusual’ (ABC News, April 2024)
- Criminalizing Homelessness Won’t Make It Go Away (New York Times and Invisible People, April 2024)
- The Supreme Court Takes Up Homelessness (New York Times, April 2024)
- How far can cities go to clear homeless camps? The U.S. Supreme Court will decide (NPR, February 2024)
- Can cities clear homeless camps without offering an alternative? (Route Fifty, January 2024)
- The right’s war on ‘housing first’ lands in Middle America (Washington Post, December 2023)
- Inside the push to criminalize homelessness (Marketplace, May 2023)
- A Palantir Co-Founder Is Pushing Laws to Criminalize Homeless Encampments Nationwide (Vice, March 2023)
- More cities and states make homeless encampments a crime, leaving low-income people with few options (USA Today, January 2023)
- Housing In Brief: Federal Report Decries Criminalization Of Homelessness (Next City, November 2022)
- New Missouri law makes sleeping on state land a crime for people experiencing homelessness (Missouri Independent, June 2022)
- Efforts to criminalize homelessness persist after state effort dies at end of 2022 Legislature (Georgia Recorder, April 2022)
- Homeless Camping Bans Are Spreading. This Group Shaped the Bills. (Stateline, April 2022)