National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty

The National Homelessness Law Center aims to achieve a world where human beings have the right to a basic standard of living that includes safe, affordable housing, healthcare, and freedom from discrimination and cruelty. We work to expand access to affordable housing, meet the immediate and long-term needs of those who are homeless or at risk, and strengthen the social safety net. We envision an end to homelessness in America. A home for every family and individual will be the norm and not the exception---a right and not a privilege.

Through policy advocacy, public education, and impact litigation, the Law Center's national programs address the root causes of homelessness and meet the immediate and long-term needs of those who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. We use our legal expertise to help pass, implement, and enforce laws addressing the needs of people experiencing homelessness. Through training and technical support, the Law Center also enhances the capacity of local and national groups to become more effective voices for the needs and rights of homeless people.

The National Homelessness Law Center's staff is comprised primarily of attorneys, which is unique in the national homeless advocacy space and gives us a complete understanding of how laws are passed, what they mean, and what their impact will be on individual people. Law Center attorneys are experts on homelessness and poverty issues and include specialists in housing, civil rights, human rights, youth and education, and domestic violence. The Law Center also utilizes a large network of pro bono attorneys at major law firms and corporate legal departments to help carry out our work.

Since the organization's founding in 1989, the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty has accomplished numerous victories in the courts and in public policy on behalf of homeless Americans. The Law Center's founder, Maria Foscarinis, was a key architect of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, the first major federal legislation to address homelessness. In 2013, after three years of advocacy, we won a major victory that protects survivors of domestic violence when Congress reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act, extending housing protections for victims of domestic violence to some 4 million additional housing units nationally. In 2016 we won major improvements to the education rights of homeless children as part of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which reauthorized the McKinney-Vento Education Program that upholds and protects homeless kids' education rights so that children have the tools they need to break the cycle of homelessness and poverty. Also in 2016, a federal court ruled that voters in Wisconsin who have trouble obtaining identification---often a problem for people experiencing homelessness---can still vote. Throughout the years, the Law Center has issued reports on homelessness, which are covered widely in the media and used by social service organizations. In the coming year, the Law Center is focused on ending the "criminalization" of homelessness, an effort to make illegal activities such as resting, eating, and sleeping in public. In addition to launching our Housing Not Handcuffs Campaign, bringing together over 100 organizations committed to ending the criminalization of homelessness, the Law Center has three cases pending in federal court challenging laws that discriminate against homeless people.