HOMELESS PERSON
An individual who lacks housing, including one
whose primary residence during the night is a
supervised public or private facility that provides
temporary living accommodations; an individual
who is a resident in transitional housing; or an
individual who has as a primary residence a pub-
lic or private place not designed for, or ordinarily
used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for
human beings.
The number of homeless persons in the
United States is estimated to be between 250,000
and three million. Unemployment, cutbacks in
social service programs, a lack of affordable
housing, and the deinstitutionalization of men-
tally ill patients are some of the circumstances
that have led to people living in shelters or on
the streets. There is no fair stereotype of home-
less persons: they include the young and old,
individuals and entire families, and all races and
ethnicities. According to 2000 statistics pub-
lished by the National Coalition for the Home-
less in 2002, best estimates indicate that
approximately 1 percent of the U.S. population
(3.5 million persons) experience homelessness
each year—more than one third of them chil-
dren. The rights of these persons have become
important societal and legal issues.
Shelter
Although federal law provides for emer-
gency shelter for homeless families in most
states, there is no federal or constitutional right
to shelter. In 1987, the Stewart B. McKinney
Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C.A. § 11301)
was passed to provide public resources and pro-
grams to assist the homeless population. Under
the act, the federal government is required to
provide underutilized public buildings for use
by people who are homeless. In National Law
Center v. United States Department of Veterans
Affairs, 964 F.2d 1210 (D.C. Cir. 1992), a home-
less rights group sought to enforce compliance
with the MCKINNEY ACT. The court agreed with
the plaintiffs and held that the government
must comply with the McKinney Act by allow-
ing homeless people access to underused federal
property.
Because the federal courts have refused to
recognize a federal constitutional right to shel-
ter, several states have enacted their own laws to
recognize such a right. Many of these statutes
require that cities provide shelter for people who
are homeless, but they do not outline enforce-
ment procedures.Although statutes require state
agencies to provide shelter, the agencies often
cannot keep up with the demand, citing expense
and overcrowding. In Atchison v. District of
Columbia, 585 A.2d 150 (D.C. App. 1991), a
court imposed daily fines on a shelter for failure
to provide services. The level of fines combined
with the cost of litigation stimulated the adop-
tion of an emergency act that allowed the agency
to provide a shelter program based on the avail-
ability of funds.
Economic Assistance
By the late 1990s, public assistance was a
prominent political issue. As the government
began cutting WELFARE programs, people who
were homeless found it increasingly difficult to
rise above the poverty level. In addition, sub-
stantial cuts to welfare programs created the
possibility that more people would be forced
into homelessness.
Existing public assistance programs often
fail to help those who are homeless. Some pro-
grams require that recipients have temporary or
permanent addresses, effectively eliminating
otherwise eligible recipients. In some instances,
money that could be spent providing perma-
nent, affordable housing for people who are
homeless is used to provide temporary housing
in “welfare hotels.”A welfare hotel is inexpensive
housing that is used for temporary shelter by
low-income or homeless persons. In 1995, legis-
lation was introduced to control welfare spend-
ing and to reduce welfare dependence. (H.R.
1157, 104th Cong., 1st Sess.). The features of this
legislation included discontinuing welfare bene-
fits to certain groups and creating state demon-
stration projects to reduce the number of
homeless families in welfare hotels.
Education
One alarming aspect of the growth of the
homeless population is the increasing numbers
of families and children who have nowhere to
live. Children are more strongly affected by
homelessness than are adults because they are
less able to overcome a lack of food, shelter,
HEALTH CARE, and education. Many children in
homeless families lack the transportation, docu-
mentation, and even clothing needed to attend
public schools.
State residency guidelines typically require
children to attend school within the district in
which their parent or guardian lives. Homeless
children cannot meet these residency require-
ments. Because education is often critical to
overcoming poverty and homelessness, the
McKinney Act specifically addresses the issue
of education for children who are homeless.
The act ensures that these children have every
opportunity for a public school education. It
requires states to revise their residency require-
ments in order to give such children a free
education.
Another barrier to the education rights of
children without a home is the inability to track
education and medical records. Students can be
refused enrollment if they have no documenta-
tion of previous schooling. The McKinney Act
requires local education agencies to maintain
records that can be readily available when a
student moves to a new school district. Under
the act, children must also have equal access
to special-education programs in the public
school system.
Voting
The right to vote is expressly stated in the
U.S. Constitution. Because most states require
that a citizen have a permanent residence in
order to vote, the right to vote is often denied to
people who are homeless. The right to vote pro-
vides a way for a person who is homeless to be
heard—by electing public officials who are sym-
pathetic to the concerns of people who are with-
out a home—and thus is an important right to
protect.
New Jersey was one of the first states to allow
people who are homeless the right to vote. The
only requirement is that they meet the age and
residency requirement of the state’s constitu-
tion. They can satisfy the residency requirement
by specifying a place they regard as home and
providing the name of at least one contact who
can verify their residence in that place.
By 1994, 13 states had legislation protecting
the VOTING RIGHTS of people who are homeless.
In Collier v.Menzel, 176 Cal.App. 3d 24, 221 Cal.
Rptr. 110 (1985), three persons who were home-
less listed a local park as their address on a voter-
registration card. The court held that they had
satisfied the residency requirement because they
had indicated a fixed habitation in which they
intended to remain for an extended period. In
addition, even though a city ordinance prohib-
ited camping and sleeping overnight in the park,
the court held that denying the voter registra-
tion would violate EQUAL PROTECTION.
Antihomeless Legislation
With an increased homeless population
comes increased concern on the part of members
