‘Right to Shelter’ Proposed in Bill for Homeless

Representatives of a nationwide coalition of homeless relief organizations will seek passage of a bill in Congress this year that would establish “a national right to shelter” and provide an additional $2 billion to care for the nation’s homeless, the group said Sunday.

Directors of the National Coalition for the Homeless, representing relief programs in more than 40 U.S. cities, said the group will begin a campaign to reverse what they call a “radical repudiation” of traditional support for the homeless. Coalition representatives, meeting in Los Angeles, have agreed to support increased federal spending through a proposed Homeless Persons’ Survival Act.

“We’re betting that when America understands homelessness honestly, there will be a consensus to stop relegating weaker people to city streets,” coalition founder Robert Hayes said. “The plight of the homeless, especially the children, is hard to stomach.”

Hayes, who has won similar battles in New York, said that a dramatic increase in the number of homeless people requires that the issue “be brought to the doorstep of national government.”

He said that the plight of the nation’s homeless--a number which has been hotly disputed but which the group puts at 3 million--has increased in part because of reductions in federal assistance.

The proposal would establish “a right to overnight shelter for all homeless persons.” Also included are provisions that would require states to administer the overnight shelters, ease requirements for the receipt of federal aid and increase the amount of new housing for the poor, Hayes said. The federal government would pay for most of the proposals, with state and local governments contributing 25% of the cost of overnight shelters.

Coalition attorney Maria Foscarinis said the proposal calls for more than $1 billion in new housing. “We’re not talking about creating new programs, we’re talking about restoring funds to programs that have been gutted in the last five years,” she said.