[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 634 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 634
Expressing that the United States is obligated to permanently end the
unhoused crisis by 2027 and uphold, protect, and enforce the civil and
human rights of unhoused individuals, including the human rights to
housing, universal health care, livable wages, education, employment
opportunities, access to public facilities, free movement in public
spaces, privacy, confidentiality, internet access, vote, freedom from
harassment by law enforcement, private businesses, property owners, and
housed residents, and equal rights to health care, legal
representation, and social services without discrimination based on
housing status.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 28, 2023
Ms. Bush (for herself, Ms. Tlaib, Ms. Norton, Ms. Lee of California,
Ms. Jayapal, Mr. Bowman, Mrs. Watson Coleman, Ms. Clarke of New York,
Mr. Carson, Mr. Davis of Illinois, Mr. Blumenauer, Mr. Casar, Ms.
Velazquez, Mr. McGovern, Ms. Williams of Georgia, Ms. Pressley, and Ms.
Ocasio-Cortez) submitted the following resolution; which was referred
to the Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to the
Committees on Energy and Commerce, Education and the Workforce, the
Judiciary, Agriculture, and Ways and Means, for a period to be
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee
concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing that the United States is obligated to permanently end the
unhoused crisis by 2027 and uphold, protect, and enforce the civil and
human rights of unhoused individuals, including the human rights to
housing, universal health care, livable wages, education, employment
opportunities, access to public facilities, free movement in public
spaces, privacy, confidentiality, internet access, vote, freedom from
harassment by law enforcement, private businesses, property owners, and
housed residents, and equal rights to health care, legal
representation, and social services without discrimination based on
housing status.
Whereas there are currently between 582,000 and 1,500,000 unhoused individuals
residing in the United States;
Whereas the population of unhoused individuals in the United States is
disproportionately comprised of Black, brown, and Indigenous people,
women, children, veterans, undocumented immigrants, people with mental,
developmental, and physical disabilities and substance use disorders,
and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender
nonconforming, and queer community;
Whereas older adults are the largest growing segment of the homeless population
and nearly 40 percent of older Americans rely only on Social Security
income in retirement, leaving housing stability out of reach for most
older Americans;
Whereas Black Americans make up more than 40 percent of the unhoused population,
but represent 13 percent of the general population, and Indigenous
people are similarly disproportionately overrepresented within the
unhoused population;
Whereas children under the age of 18 comprise almost 40 percent of the total
unhoused population in the United States;
Whereas 4,200,000 children and youth experience homelessness each year in the
United States;
Whereas 420,000 children are not connected with a school system because of
homelessness each year in the United States;
Whereas lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender nonconforming, and queer
individuals, including children, are forced to accept inappropriate or
unsafe accommodations to access publicly funded emergency shelters;
Whereas survivors of domestic violence, partner violence, sexual assault, and
stalking are faced with the impossible choice of living with an abusive
person or becoming unhoused due to a lack of an adequate housing safety
net;
Whereas the root causes contributing to the unhoused crisis are poverty, a lack
of affordable housing options, systemic racism, chronically low wages,
underemployment and unemployment, gentrification, housing
discrimination, mass incarceration, immigration status, criminalization
of poverty, domestic violence, discrimination against lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender, gender nonconforming, and queer individuals,
trauma, disabilities, personal and medical debt, a lack of affordable
childcare, natural disasters, institutionalization, and unexpected loss
of household income;
Whereas in the wake of a deadly global pandemic and a compounding economic
crisis that resulted in massive job loss, rates of housing insecurity
have skyrocketed as millions of people across the Nation faced financial
instability;
Whereas the pandemic significantly increased the number of unhoused children and
youth due to high unemployment, unstable living conditions, and job
insecurity, leaving millions of children and youth vulnerable to
criminalization, exposure to extreme weather, disease, malnutrition,
mental and physical disorders, substance use disorders, sex trafficking,
kidnapping, physical and sexual assault, and premature death;
Whereas the Emergency Rental Assistance Program provided $46,000,000,000 to keep
countless tenants housed during the COVID-19 pandemic, along with
stimulus checks, expanded unemployment benefits, child tax credits, and
increased Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program allocations;
Whereas low-income renters face increasingly high rents and rising housing
instability, and without the supports provided by pandemic-era benefit
programs, safe, stable, and affordable housing remains out of reach;
Whereas, since July 2009, Federal minimum wage has remained stagnant at an
abysmal $7.25, forcing low-wage workers to work two to three jobs to
afford housing and basic needs;
Whereas, from 2009 to 2021, the median rent across the United States increased
42 percent, from $817 a month to $1,163;
Whereas, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, in 2023 the
housing wage, defined as an annual estimate of the hourly wage full-time
workers must earn to afford a rental home at fair market rent without
spending more than 30 percent of their incomes, was $28.58 per hour for
a modest two-bedroom rental home and $23.67 per hour for a modest one-
bedroom rental home;
Whereas, in no State, metropolitan area, or county can a full-time minimum-wage
worker afford a modest two-bedroom rental home, and a full-time minimum-
wage worker cannot afford a modest one-bedroom rental home in more than
92 percent of United States counties;
Whereas the gap between wages and housing costs is largest for people of color,
and particularly women of color, as a result of decades of racist
housing policies that have led to people of color facing
disproportionate challenges accessing decent and affordable homes;
Whereas lack of access to public restrooms, handwashing facilities, laundry
facilities, showers, and garbage removal services severely deteriorates
overall quality of life and greatly increases the chance of unhoused
individuals contracting communicable diseases, impacting both housed and
unhoused communities and threatening public health;
Whereas health disparities significantly contribute to a broken social system
that creates and maintains poverty, and the unhoused crisis is a public
health crisis, resulting in unhoused persons suffering from
significantly higher rates of chronic health conditions and premature
death than housed persons, and vastly increasing the spread of
communicable diseases throughout unhoused and housed communities;
Whereas unhoused persons exhibit higher rates of depression, anxiety,
psychological distress, physical health problems, substance use
disorders, and mental trauma than housed persons, combined with
increased difficulties in accessing health services due to a lack of
stable living environment, functioning communication devices, physical
distance, and knowledge of programs and procedures, among other
structural barriers, thereby exacerbating the public health crisis;
Whereas inadequate access to healthy, affordable, and fresh food options, and
severe restrictions on the usage of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and
Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children
(WIC) benefits foster conditions of chronic malnutrition and food
insecurity for unhoused persons, particularly youth, significantly
weakening their ability to stave off infections and diseases and
contributing to compounding public health crises;
Whereas unhoused people lack the necessary stable, safe, and supportive
environment to comply with treatment plans and heal from illnesses and
are often prematurely discharged from medical facilities, thereby
exacerbating existing medical conditions and hindering the recovery and
treatment processes;
Whereas, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless, human
immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and the
unhoused crisis are intricately related--as many as 50 percent of people
living with human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency
syndrome in the United States are at risk of becoming unhoused due to
high medical costs and health-related job loss, and since human
immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome targets the
immune system, unhoused people living with human immunodeficiency virus/
acquired immunodeficiency syndrome do not have the ability to fight off
disease due to factors related to malnutrition, access to hygiene
facilities, and exposure to extreme weather conditions;
Whereas the compounding physical and psychological trauma stemming from lack of
access to housing, health care, safety, food, water, restrooms, showers,
laundry facilities, electricity, internet, technology, property storage,
and leisure, combined with exposure to extreme weather conditions, and
higher rates of personal violence, including physical and sexual
assaults endured by unhoused individuals, inevitably worsens the mental
health of individuals and makes it more difficult to access permanent
housing and employment, as well as social, medical, and mental health
services;
Whereas the criminalization of unhoused individuals and communities through the
creation of State and local ordinances that ban panhandling, loitering,
sleeping in tents or vehicles, eating in public, and third parties
distributing food to unhoused people violates the basic human and civil
rights of unhoused individuals to exist in public without fear of law
enforcement surveillance, harassment, violence, destruction of property,
fines, vehicle impoundment, or arrest;
Whereas the vicious cycle of mass incarceration forces people to lose
employment, homes, student loans, and financial assistance, and makes
access to housing, gainful employment, education, and public assistance
extraordinarily difficult for individuals reentering the community from
the criminal and juvenile justice systems or with criminal records,
thereby contributing to higher recidivism rates and exacerbating the
unhoused crisis;
Whereas unhoused individuals lack the resources necessary to obtain adequate
legal representation and are often denied relief or damages through
courts when they have been unfairly targeted by law enforcement
officers, private businesses, property owners, or housed residents and
have had their constitutional rights violated;
Whereas encampment sweeps, evictions, and cleanups, the removal of outdoor
living spaces, or impounding vehicles being used as residences
exacerbates the complex issues faced by unhoused individuals and fails
to address the lack of affordable and accessible housing options;
Whereas neighborhood protection orders criminalize people without homes and
needlessly bar individuals from accessing social services that will help
them transition to permanent supportive housing;
Whereas unhoused people are disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis
because chronic exposure to climate induced extreme weather and
disasters including hurricanes, wildfire, freezing temperatures, and
extreme heat conditions leaves unhoused persons susceptible to
hypothermia, hyperthermia, frostbite, sunburn, heat exhaustion, and
death;
Whereas hostile architecture and defensive urban design transform public spaces
into impractical and unwelcoming environments for both housed and
unhoused communities, by making benches thinner or with armrests to
prevent laying down, building bus stops with no seating or shelter,
deliberately placing gaps in awnings that allow in rain, adding rocks to
parks, trails, and highway underpasses, installing devices that prohibit
sitting, or adding spikes, rocks, or studs to flat surfaces to render
them dysfunctional;
Whereas the Department of Housing and Urban Development point-in-time method to
count the number of sheltered and unsheltered individuals in the United
States undercounts children, youth, older adults, and families by not
accounting for individuals who fall in and out of homelessness
throughout the year, people who are sheltered with family or friends, or
individuals temporarily residing in hotels, motels, medical facilities,
and jails, and is limited to a count one night per year during one of
the coldest months;
Whereas inadequate statistical methods for counting unhoused individuals
severely limit the capacity of policymakers to develop accurate, data-
driven legislation;
Whereas the long-term solution for ending the unhoused crisis is a housing first
approach that provides adequate, accessible, and affordable permanent
housing for unhoused individuals, without preconditions and low or no
barriers to entry, and permanently fosters conditions that prevent
persons from becoming unhoused;
Whereas rates of homelessness continue to rise, the overburdened repair backlog
for public housing units is estimated at over $70,000,000,000, and the
overburdened tenant-based ``section 8'' rental assistance program, also
known as a housing choice voucher, is not funded by Congress at the
level necessary to match the ever-increasing demand for housing
assistance;
Whereas emergency shelters, transitional housing programs, permanent supportive
housing initiatives, and rapid rehousing programs are inadequately
funded and unable to keep up with the constant demand to provide
adequate temporary, transitional, or permanent housing for unhoused
individuals;
Whereas the cost of maintaining an unhoused population places undue financial
burden on taxpayers of an amount between $30,000 and $50,000 each year
for each chronically unhoused person because of the costs of
incarceration, medical treatments, jails, detention centers, psychiatric
and rehabilitation institutions, congregate shelter that does not lead
to permanent housing, law enforcement costs of encampment cleanups and
evictions, and the criminalization of unhoused people;
Whereas there are nearly 16,000,000 vacant homes in the United States that are
available to house individuals and families, and the cost to end the
unhoused crisis is at least $20,000,000,000, nearly 2 percent of the
2024 fiscal year defense budget of $886,300,000,000;
Whereas a lack of political will at the Federal, State, and local levels of
government drastically restricts the amount of funding available for
States, counties, cities, and municipalities to provide services and
resources to unhoused communities; and
Whereas addressing the roots of the housing affordability crisis requires a
sustained commitment to investing in new affordable, accessible housing,
preserving affordable rental homes that already exist, bridging the gap
between incomes and rent through universal rental assistance, providing
emergency assistance to stabilize renters when they experience financial
shocks, and establishing strong renter protections: Now, therefore, be
it
Resolved,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This resolution may be cited as the ``Unhoused Persons Bill of
Rights''.
SEC. 2. ESTABLISHING PROTECTIONS FOR UNHOUSED INDIVIDUALS FROM
VIOLATIONS OF THEIR RIGHTS.
(a) Protected Rights of Unhoused Individuals.--It is the sense of
the House of Representatives that the United States must protect the
fundamental civil and human rights of unhoused individuals, including--
(1) the right to decent, affordable, and accessible
housing, livable wages, and universal health care;
(2) the right for persons reentering the community from the
criminal justice system to access public housing, voucher
programs, rental assistance programs, employment, higher
education grants, scholarships, and Federal student loans
without discrimination on the basis of their criminal record;
(3) the rights, privileges, or access of an individual to
public services, parks, sidewalks, transportation, buildings,
or facilities without discrimination on the basis of their
housing status;
(4) the right to uninhibited access to public parks,
transportation, facilities, sidewalks, buildings, and restrooms
without discrimination on the basis of their housing status;
(5) the right to access safe and clean restroom facilities,
safe and clean drinking water, public handwashing facilities,
and public electricity sources without discrimination on the
basis of their housing status;
(6) the right to access 24-hour and disaster emergency
shelters, transitional housing, social services, public
housing, and voucher programs without discrimination on the
basis of their housing status;
(7) the right not to be subject to penalties for standing,
walking, resting, or sleeping in a public place or vehicle in a
nonobstructive manner, including relying on tents, sleeping
bags, additional clothing, or other supplies intended to make
sleep comfortable and possible;
(8) the right to pray, meditate, or practice religion in
public spaces without being subject to criminal or civil
sanctions, harassment, or arrest;
(9) the right to solicit donations in public spaces without
being subject to criminal or civil sanctions, harassment, or
arrest in a manner that violates the right to free speech;
(10) the right to engage in lawful self-employment,
including the right to seek self-employment in junk removal and
recycling that requires the collection, possession, redemption,
and storage of goods for reuse and recycling, without being
subject to criminal or civil sanctions, harassment, or arrest;
(11) the right to not face discrimination while seeking
employment or public assistance due to a lack of permanent
mailing address, or the use of a mailing address from a
shelter, library, or social service provider;
(12) the right to internet access and technology that will
enable accessing the internet;
(13) the right to obtain copies of identification
documents, including social security cards, without difficulty
or discrimination based on housing status;
(14) the right to vote, register to vote, and receive
documentation necessary to prove identity for voting without
discrimination due to housing status or use of a shelter,
library, or social service provider for an address;
(15) the right to receive emergency and nonemergency
medical care without discrimination based on housing status;
(16) the right for unhoused children to access high-quality
education without discrimination due to their housing status;
(17) the right to confidentiality of personal and medical
records, documentation, and information;
(18) the right to a reasonable expectation of privacy in
personal property to the same extent as personal property in a
permanent residence; and
(19) the right to protest, gather in groups, and conduct
community outreach without harassment by law enforcement or
private citizens.
(b) Protections of Unhoused Individuals.--It is the sense of the
House of Representatives that the United States must establish
regulations and enforcement tools to protect unhoused individuals from
the violation of their fundamental civil and human rights, including
protections from--
(1) law enforcement against undue surveillance,
mistreatment, harassment, destruction of personal property,
vehicle impoundment, and unjustified detention, searches,
ticketing, and arrests; and
(2) private businesses, property owners, including business
improvement districts, and housed residents against
discrimination, harassment, mistreatment, assault, detention,
banishment, and destruction of private property.
(c) Protections for Third Parties Providing Services to Unhoused
Individuals.--It is the sense of the House of Representatives that the
United States must establish blanket legal protections for third
parties distributing food, beverages, clothing, or providing services
to unhoused individuals and communities.
(d) Civil Actions for a Violation of the Rights of Unhoused
Individuals.--It is the sense of the House of Representatives that the
United States must establish a process such that in any civil action
alleging a violation of rights described previously, a court may award
appropriate damages and all attorney's fees and costs to a prevailing
plaintiff, and the court may take into consideration housing status and
apply leniency while attempting to compile records, receipts, and
documentation from the plaintiff.
SEC. 3. ACTIONS IN PURSUIT OF PROTECTION OF THE RIGHTS OF UNHOUSED
INDIVIDUALS.
(a) Funding.--The House of Representatives shall strive to provide
funding for the following:
(1) The House of Representatives shall strive to allocate--
(A) not less than $20,000,000,000 from the defense
budget to permanently end and prevent the unhoused
crisis in the United States;
(B) $140,000,000,000 every 5 years in the Public
Housing Capital Fund to urge the Subcommittee on
Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and
Related Agencies of the Committee on Appropriations of
the House of Representatives to preserve public housing
units for future generations;
(C) full funding for the Public Housing Operating
Fund to better support this important source of
affordable housing until the United States has
permanently ended and prevented the unhoused crisis;
(D) $40,000,000,000 annually in the Department of
Housing and Urban Development National Housing Trust
Fund to build and preserve homes affordable to the
lowest-income and most marginalized households in the
United States;
(E) $3,000,000,000 annually for a permanent
Emergency Rental Assistance Program administered by the
Department of Housing and Urban Development;
(F) the highest level of funding possible for city,
county, State, Indian Tribal governments, and local
governments to build and maintain 24-hour public
restrooms, handwashing stations, showers, laundry
facilities, and water fountains in proportion to their
respective unhoused population; and
(G) robust funding for States, Indian Tribal
governments, cities, localities, and municipalities to
provide trash cans, recycling bins, sharps disposal
containers, and frequent garbage removal services to
unhoused camps and common areas in coordination with
local unhoused advocates and community-based
organizations.
(2) The House of Representatives shall strive to provide
the highest possible funding level for Federal housing and
supportive services programs, including--
(A) the Department of Housing and Urban Development
Continuum of Care (CoC) program;
(B) the Department of Housing and Urban Development
Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) program;
(C) the Department of Housing and Urban
Development-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-
VASH) program;
(D) the Department of Housing and Urban Development
Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) program;
(E) the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)
transitional housing assistance grants program for
survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual
assault, and stalking;
(F) the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration (SAMHSA) Grants for the Benefit of
Homeless Individuals (GBHI) program;
(G) the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration Treatment for Individuals Experiencing
Homelessness (TIEH) program;
(H) the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration Projects for Assistance in Transition
from Homelessness (PATH) program;
(I) Health Resources and Services Administration
health center programs, particularly the Health Care
for the Homeless program;
(J) the Health Resources and Services
Administration Primary Care Human Immunodeficiency
Virus Prevention (PCHP) program; and
(K) the Department of Education McKinney-Vento
Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) Act
program.
(3) The House of Representatives shall strive to provide
the highest level of funding to--
(A) permanently provide nutritious, healthy, and
expansive universal school meals for K-12 students;
(B) drastically expand eligibility, income
thresholds, and time limitations and remove all
purchase restrictions for the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families (TANF) program, and Special Supplemental
Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children
(WIC); and
(C) remove food assistance restrictions on the
purchase of hot foods and ready-to-eat foods at
retailers that accept the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP).
(4) The House of Representatives shall strive to provide
robust Federal funding and resources to aggressively enforce
fair housing and civil rights laws.
(b) Low-Income Housing.--The House of Representatives shall strive
to increase the availability of low-income housing by--
(1) funding the construction of permanent low-income
housing to replenish all of the units that have been removed
from the stock since 1978;
(2) fully funding subsidies to operate additional units to
meet demand; and
(3) repealing the Faircloth Amendment to allow a net
increase in the number of public housing units.
(c) Housing Choice Vouchers.--The House of Representatives shall
strive to provide universal housing choice vouchers to all eligible
households through the tenant-based ``section 8'' rental assistance
program.
(d) Runaway and Homeless Youth and Trafficking Prevention Act
Consolidated Programs.--The House of Representatives shall strive to
reauthorize and provide at least $300,000,000 to the Runaway and
Homeless Youth and Trafficking Prevention Act consolidated programs,
including the street outreach program.
(e) Fair Housing Act Protections.--The House of Representatives
shall strive to--
(1) bolster and enforce tenant protections against
discrimination as described in the Fair Housing Act; and
(2) expand the Fair Housing Act to ban discrimination based
on previous housing status, adverse effects of domestic
violence, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status,
and source of income, particularly in shelters, transitional
housing programs, permanent supportive housing initiatives, and
rapid rehousing programs.
(f) Department of Housing and Urban Development Requirements.--The
House of Representatives shall strive to require the Department of
Housing and Urban Development to--
(1) develop policies, guidelines, and procedures for
permanently eradicating the unhoused crisis by 2027;
(2) work in coordination with tenant advocates community-
based organizations to develop, implement, and enforce
regulations that disrupt and reverse trends of neighborhood
displacement, gentrification, and redlining that
disproportionately impact communities of color, particularly
Black and brown communities;
(3) develop, implement, and enforce regulations to
immediately remove barriers which prevent people with criminal
backgrounds and undocumented immigrants from accessing public
housing, section 8 vouchers, and rental assistance programs;
(4) work in partnership with community-based organizations
and advocates to bolster criminal justice reentry programs and
wraparound services to prevent individuals from becoming
unhoused postrelease;
(5) develop, implement, and enforce performance standards
and regulations for immediately making all public shelters,
transitional housing programs, and supportive services
available 24 hours each day, and prohibit these programs from
profiling unhoused individuals, denying services, and
discriminating against individuals based on their medical
conditions and treatments, gender identity, criminal
background, immigration status, and other protected classes of
the Fair Housing Act;
(6) work in coordination with the Department of Health and
Human Services, the Health Resources and Services
Administration, and related health agencies to provide 24-hour
medical respite programs to cities, counties, Indian Tribal
Governments, and States to allow unhoused people to fully
recover from medical conditions or injuries without fear of
premature discharge;
(7) develop and implement processes to prioritize funding
allocations directly to grassroots and community-based
organizations, as well as organizations led by impacted
individuals who provide direct supportive and housing, medical,
and emergency services to unhoused persons;
(8) develop and implement more accurate methods of counting
unhoused individuals throughout the duration of the year,
accounting for individuals residing inside of housing
structures with family and friends, undocumented immigrants,
unhoused individuals in jails, medical, and rehabilitation
facilities, and those who experience temporary homelessness
throughout the year;
(9) make the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS)
more comprehensive by implementing biennial gaps analyses to
identify gaps in access to housing or services appropriate to
meet the needs of unhoused persons and make recommendations to
improve the system components that worsen the quality of life
for unhoused persons, including--
(A) the accessibility of information and barriers
to accessing existing housing resources and services;
(B) the geographic and physical location of
programs within the respective region;
(C) the quality of outreach in identifying and
targeting unhoused individuals and families for
services;
(D) the ability of prevention services to prevent
individuals from becoming unhoused in the first place;
and
(E) the quality of access to supportive services
and resources for unhoused persons in emergency
shelters, transitional housing programs, permanent
supportive housing, and rapid rehousing programs;
(10) develop policies and guidelines for implementing the
new method of unhoused population measurement and gaps analyses
and present a report to the Committee on Financial Services of
the House of Representatives within 6 months of the enacted
legislation;
(11) work in coordination with the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention to develop procedures to track and
report the number of deaths directly caused by persons being
unhoused in the United States;
(12) work in coordination with all Federal agencies that
service unhoused people to designate federally subsidized
shelters, libraries, social service providers, and other
institutions as fixed addresses to be used by multiple unhoused
people to receive mail, employment opportunities, and
documents, and to vote and conduct all business in a manner
similar to housed people;
(13) coordinate with the Department of Transportation and
the National Parks Service to restrict the use of Federal
funding on hostile architecture projects and to remove hostile
architecture from all privately owned public spaces, public
parks, trails, sidewalks, buildings, and transportation
facilities;
(14) work in coordination with the Social Security
Administration to develop guidance and regulations creating
hardship exemptions for individuals who have difficulty
obtaining social security documentation and benefits due to
their housing status; and
(15) coordinate with local community stakeholders, housing
advocates, shelters, churches, and transitional housing
programs to register and receive voting ballots for unhoused
persons, in coordination with the Department of Health and
Human Services and related social services.
(g) Public Health.--The House of Representatives shall strive to
require the Department of Health and Human Services to declare the
unhoused crisis a public health emergency and work in coordination with
the Health Resources and Services Administration to immediately provide
guidance to mitigate the compounding effects of the unhoused and public
health crises, particularly as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic,
human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome,
hepatitis, tuberculosis, and other communicable diseases.
(h) Federal Grant Programs.--The House of Representatives shall
strive to require Federal grant programs to establish guidelines for
measuring direct impact to communities and holding grant awardees to
the highest levels of community accountability, particularly in
relation to the impact of the programs on unhoused persons
disproportionately impacted by criminalization and discrimination.
(i) Law Enforcement Annual Statistics.--The House of
Representatives shall--
(1) encourage law enforcement agencies to compile annual
statistics showing the number of instances of physical violence
against unhoused individuals, as well as citations, arrests,
and other law enforcement activities, to track instances of
criminalizing unhoused populations, including camp cleanups,
vagrancy violations, sleeping in public, vehicle citations,
street sweeps, and panhandling citations, and provide these
annual statistics to the Department of Justice; and
(2) require the Department of Justice to compile the data
and statistics provided by law enforcement agencies as
incentivized in paragraph (1), and present an annual report to
Congress.
SEC. 4. REPORTS TO CONGRESS.
The House of Representatives shall strive to require the Department
of Justice, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the
Department of Health and Human Services to coordinate with community
advocates, policymakers, and unhoused people to develop guidelines,
policies, and procedures for decriminalizing unhoused individuals and
communities, and providing resources and direct services to unhoused
communities, and make available a report to Congress not later than 6
months of the enactment of the relevant legislation.
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