HOW NLCH&P JOINS WHITE HOUSE FOR DECRIMNALIZING HOMELESSNESS (2165 hits)
The Law Center is excited to join the new Data-Driven Justice Initiative (DDJI) launched by the White House on June 30.
Every year, more than 11 million people cycle through local jails, many on low-level, nonviolent crimes. Many are homeless, poor or mentally ill. They suffer significant harm as a result of incarceration, which makes it more difficult for them to access employment, housing and public benefits—and increases the likelihood that they will be incarcerated again.
The new White House Initiative will help local communities across the country use data to disrupt this destructive cycle, and its leaders invited the Law Center to join this effort as a partner organization. To date, sixty-seven local jurisdictions (cities, counties, and states) have signed up to participate.
The Law Center will help facilitate a national Data-Driven Justice Initiative Working Group on Housing, helping communities interested in implementing best practices in law enforcement and housing policy and ensuring full compliance with federal law and policy on homelessness.
This is an especially important time for this initiative. Across the country, as homelessness grows, many cities have been using expensive criminal justice resources to deal with social service failures, criminalizing homelessness by making it illegal for people to sit, sleep, and even eat in public places.
Laws and policies that criminalize homelessness and poverty violate constitutional rights, create barriers to exiting homelessness in the form of arrest records and fines and fees, and don’t work. The evidence is clear that homelessness, and its cost, are reduced in communities that focus on housing and services, and not those that focus on policing and incarceration as an attempted solution.
Federal guidance and policy increasingly call on communities to turn away from policies that criminalize poverty and homelessness, and the new DDJI initiative is an important complement to these new policies.
For information about DDJI and the Law Center’s new working group, contact our Senior Attorney Eric Tars at etars@nlchp.org. While the working group is aimed at local jurisdictions, we welcome input on this work from all our partners.
President Obama listens to inmates during a discussion at a federal prison in El Reno, OK Photo credit: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
Law Center Joins White House for Data-Driven Justice Initiative to Combat Criminalization of Homelessness
The White House announced on June 30 the launch of its Data-Driven Justice Initiative with a coalition of participants who have committed to using data-driven strategies to divert vulnerable people, including people experiencing homelessness and mental illness, out of the criminal-justice system and into supportive housing and other appropriate services. These innovative strategies, which have measurably reduced jail populations in several communities, help stabilize individuals and families, better serve communities, and often save money in the process.
In advance of the launch, Law Center Deputy Director Janet Hostetler and Senior Attorney Eric Tars participated in a national convening at the White House with representatives from many of the participating communities. At the invitation of the Domestic Policy Council, they served as key experts in criminalization of homelessness and constructive alternatives, offering thoughts and advice to participants as they join the Data-Driven effort. The Law Center will help offer ongoing consultation and training to participating communities through a working group on housing and homelessness issues to be developed in collaboration with the Corporation for Supportive Housing and other organizations.
HUD Increases Incentives for Decriminalizing Homelessness
The Department of Housing & Urban Development announced on June 29 its new grant application for homeless service Continuums of Care (CoC), a highly-competitive $1.9 billion grant stream, with new language offering maximum points to Continuums that “indicate specific strategies to ensure homelessness in not criminalized.” This year’s application strengthens the incentives by increasing the points assigned to anti-criminalization strategies: last year’s application gave two points for applicants who could indicate strategies for both anti-criminalization and affirmatively furthering fair housing; this year’s application gives two points solely to anti-criminalization. It also includes specific examples of activities CoCs can undertake, such as “engaging or educating local policy makers, engaging or educating law enforcement, implementing community plans, or engaging or educating businesses.” The Law Center provided a webinar last year to assist CoCs in developing and implementing plans to address criminalization, and will continue to provide assistance with this year’s application.
