Is the Downtown Area Plan of Berkeley-the area around downtown Shattuck-an attempt to develop office spaces, hotel rooms for corporate business and condos for the well to do at the expense of the lower income of our city who keep getting pushed out due to the rising rents caused by gentrification? Will DAPAC's plan be at the expense of the sense of community inclduing its progressive activist values that Berkeley is known before? Is it a way to disregard Berkeley General Plan's commitment to create 6,200 affordable housing units in Berkeley? How many jobs will be created for local lower-income /houseless indiviudals when the massive amount of construction called for under the plan commences? Will the downtown plan seek to drive the houseless and the struggling working class out of the public commons? Come to the workshop and ask these questions.
The workshop will be held this Saturday October 20th 10am-1pm at the Berkeley High School Library at Allston & Milvia.
Also on the same day this Saturday Oct. 20th from noon to 3pm in west Oakland there will be a discussion on gentrification at the West Oakland Senior Center at 1724 Adeline, near 18th with city councilmember Nancy Nadel and others.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Public Commons for Everyone public meeting
Now that the city council passed a revised version of the Public Commons for Everyone initiative proposed by Mayor Tom Bates back in June and a new outside public consultant-Lauren Lempert-has been hired to develop a more complete PCEI by November 20th she is now actively soliciting input from community stakeholders now she has called a public meeting for this coming Saturday September 29th from 10am to 1pm.
The initiative according to the city manager's plan seeks to ensure everyone feels welcome and safe in the city's common areas. Initially unveiled in March many homeless advocates and others concerned about those on streets were alarmed by its language. At the city council meeting then I successfully got several people from the streets including six street youths to show up concerned about the plan to ban sidewalk sitting on Telegraph and Shattuck who held up signs that got on the local tv news. A small but determined group of advocates were able to argue successfully against the more onerous parts of the initiative.
The mayor dropped the ban to sitting on the sidewalks which means on 3 different times I have been successful in organizing against that(the last times were in 1998 and under Measure O from 1994 to 1996). We also got the city council the need for public bathrooms particularly at night because the initiative called for laws against public urination and defecation which the council passed in June before those bathrooms were opened or their hours expanded to 24-7. Since the initiative was proposed police targeting of those without homes sleeping outside or those sitting on the sidewalks has been considerably stepped up using present laws but more situations not legally sanctioned such as telling people they can't sit on the sidewalk or sparechange.
I am seeking to work with Copwatch, Osha Neumann and the Homeless Action Center to try increase documentation and legal resistance I have been successfully able to do in previous years. About two weeks ago there was a sweep of people sleeping between Shattuck and campus. In early summer there was a visible dearth of street people on Telegraph but now as people come back from Santa Rita or John George and the police harassment seems to let up to more normal levels I find there is quite few street people about.
A key part of the ordinance language being proposed I am concerned with involved taking away the 2 warnings people are allowed for lodging(647j) and basically the essential call under the Homeless Human and Civil Rights Resolution that sleeping outside would be the police's lowest priority. After sending many of those being cited by the police for sleeping outside mostly after the HHCRR was passed in April 2001 to the Suitcase Clinic and the East Bay Community Law Center where these citations and police incidents were amply documented the EBCLC lawyer Tirien Steinbach released documented proving what we in the BOSS Community Organizing Team were saying.
This report was presented to the Police Review Commission that recommended an area in a city park be open at night(all city parks now have curfew laws in place from 10am to 6pm so sleeping in the parks can get you a trespassing ticket) and for all sleep infractions people get a warning. The city council did not act on these recommendations. The Berkeley police complain that being required to give warnings ties their hands and inhibits them from citing folks. As long as there is way too inadequate availability of housing and shelter giving the police this removal of warnings results in a basic criminalization of the human need to sleep.
Sleep deprivation is a commonly used form of torture. Many homeless already stay up at night for fear of the police---and yes criminal elements that prey on them which the police too seldomly protect them from. The police say they need their hands untied to go after problematic street behavior but the reality is despite all their claims to the contrary is many of those whose main crime is being houseless get routinely swept up, forced to move on and in effect em0tionally brutalized by letting police to go after people sleeping without checks. Many of the officers avoid doing this, will only do so if ordered to but there is always a few "cowboys'' often with a demeaning sense of humor who seem to relish making people sleeping outside get up, pounding their shoes with batons.
While I have definitely been an active advocate for more substance abuse and mental health services I am concerned this will be "offerred" in a coercive manner that violates patient rights and force people into recovery programs who are not addicts. 12 step programs and mental health recovery programs work for those who accept they need that kind of assistance yes after "hitting bottom" but too often with combined with law enforcement and the courts represent another way to punish the homeless as "undeserving poor" and remove from the streets the visible manifestation of the sort of abject poverty.
I believe society needs uncomfortable reminders of on a daily basis. There are real instances of inappropriate street behavior that call for some kind of intervention. I think the idea of having a peer street outreach behavior speak to them before the police acts is good, support crisis intervention training for the police to better to deal with those in mental crisis and community policing. I think with the money generated by the parking fees is an opportunity to provide positive incentives to change street behavior, help people get off the streets.
The initiative according to the city manager's plan seeks to ensure everyone feels welcome and safe in the city's common areas. Initially unveiled in March many homeless advocates and others concerned about those on streets were alarmed by its language. At the city council meeting then I successfully got several people from the streets including six street youths to show up concerned about the plan to ban sidewalk sitting on Telegraph and Shattuck who held up signs that got on the local tv news. A small but determined group of advocates were able to argue successfully against the more onerous parts of the initiative.
The mayor dropped the ban to sitting on the sidewalks which means on 3 different times I have been successful in organizing against that(the last times were in 1998 and under Measure O from 1994 to 1996). We also got the city council the need for public bathrooms particularly at night because the initiative called for laws against public urination and defecation which the council passed in June before those bathrooms were opened or their hours expanded to 24-7. Since the initiative was proposed police targeting of those without homes sleeping outside or those sitting on the sidewalks has been considerably stepped up using present laws but more situations not legally sanctioned such as telling people they can't sit on the sidewalk or sparechange.
I am seeking to work with Copwatch, Osha Neumann and the Homeless Action Center to try increase documentation and legal resistance I have been successfully able to do in previous years. About two weeks ago there was a sweep of people sleeping between Shattuck and campus. In early summer there was a visible dearth of street people on Telegraph but now as people come back from Santa Rita or John George and the police harassment seems to let up to more normal levels I find there is quite few street people about.
A key part of the ordinance language being proposed I am concerned with involved taking away the 2 warnings people are allowed for lodging(647j) and basically the essential call under the Homeless Human and Civil Rights Resolution that sleeping outside would be the police's lowest priority. After sending many of those being cited by the police for sleeping outside mostly after the HHCRR was passed in April 2001 to the Suitcase Clinic and the East Bay Community Law Center where these citations and police incidents were amply documented the EBCLC lawyer Tirien Steinbach released documented proving what we in the BOSS Community Organizing Team were saying.
This report was presented to the Police Review Commission that recommended an area in a city park be open at night(all city parks now have curfew laws in place from 10am to 6pm so sleeping in the parks can get you a trespassing ticket) and for all sleep infractions people get a warning. The city council did not act on these recommendations. The Berkeley police complain that being required to give warnings ties their hands and inhibits them from citing folks. As long as there is way too inadequate availability of housing and shelter giving the police this removal of warnings results in a basic criminalization of the human need to sleep.
Sleep deprivation is a commonly used form of torture. Many homeless already stay up at night for fear of the police---and yes criminal elements that prey on them which the police too seldomly protect them from. The police say they need their hands untied to go after problematic street behavior but the reality is despite all their claims to the contrary is many of those whose main crime is being houseless get routinely swept up, forced to move on and in effect em0tionally brutalized by letting police to go after people sleeping without checks. Many of the officers avoid doing this, will only do so if ordered to but there is always a few "cowboys'' often with a demeaning sense of humor who seem to relish making people sleeping outside get up, pounding their shoes with batons.
While I have definitely been an active advocate for more substance abuse and mental health services I am concerned this will be "offerred" in a coercive manner that violates patient rights and force people into recovery programs who are not addicts. 12 step programs and mental health recovery programs work for those who accept they need that kind of assistance yes after "hitting bottom" but too often with combined with law enforcement and the courts represent another way to punish the homeless as "undeserving poor" and remove from the streets the visible manifestation of the sort of abject poverty.
I believe society needs uncomfortable reminders of on a daily basis. There are real instances of inappropriate street behavior that call for some kind of intervention. I think the idea of having a peer street outreach behavior speak to them before the police acts is good, support crisis intervention training for the police to better to deal with those in mental crisis and community policing. I think with the money generated by the parking fees is an opportunity to provide positive incentives to change street behavior, help people get off the streets.
Monday, September 10, 2007
People's Park Peace Rally 9/15
As a result of discussions a core of People's Park activists including Michael Delacouer, Terri Compost, myself, Charles Garry, Arthur, Yukon Hannibal and others have worked with other progressives opposed to the present war policies of the Bush administration, its attack on the constitution and waste of $400 billion in taxpayer dollars while key social needs like homelessness and poverty and ecological damage are far from adequately funded we have decided to hold a community peace rally in People's Park this coming Saturday September 15th from one to five pm.
We will have speakers, music, tables and at 2pm have several concurrent group discussions on pressing community topics such as one on poverty and homelessness which I will be leading. Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Daniel Ellsberg(on the stopping war on Iran and on the need for impeachment), Michael Lerner, Berkeley city council members Kriss Worthington and Dona Spring, Barbara Lubin of the Middle Eastern Children's Alliance, Dave Hilliard from the Black Panthers, Bill Simpich speaking for Iraqi Moratorium, Allan Jackson on War & Katrina, Bud Hazelkorn for Impeachbush-cheney.com, Not in Our Name and the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste will be speaking and musically the Funky Nixons, All My Pretty Ones, Beatbeat Whisper, park activist Max Ventura, Steven Strauss & Will Scarlet will be performing.
We felt strongly motivated to counter the bad anti-homeless attacks on the park, the threats to the trees/the green open space in People's Park and to lift the energy of the park from what has been a degeneration into negative behaviors such as hardcore drug use, theft and violence that occurs in the park(much like many other urban parks) by strengthening its roots in radical progressive values which though weaker than it was in earlier years such as 1969 or 1991 still continue in the park. We felt that in the face of the MK Think public process paid for by UC Berkeley to "redesign" People's Park we needed an event to reconnect People's Park to the radical progressive values on a larger level again.
This event does seem to be doing this successfully. This follows a small but spiritually positive People's Park Solidarity Day Yukon Hannibal and myself held Sat. Aug. 25th to bring up the spirits of daily park users many of them homeless. The September 15th event is also in solidarity with the Save the Oaks coalition and the Phoenix Coalition-a coalition of more radical UC Berkeley student organizations seeking to unify against the university's attempts to once again stop free speech activities on campus which has been meeting in People's Park and inviting older activists such as myself to join their discussions. -Michael Diehl, BOSS Community Organizing Team
We will have speakers, music, tables and at 2pm have several concurrent group discussions on pressing community topics such as one on poverty and homelessness which I will be leading. Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Daniel Ellsberg(on the stopping war on Iran and on the need for impeachment), Michael Lerner, Berkeley city council members Kriss Worthington and Dona Spring, Barbara Lubin of the Middle Eastern Children's Alliance, Dave Hilliard from the Black Panthers, Bill Simpich speaking for Iraqi Moratorium, Allan Jackson on War & Katrina, Bud Hazelkorn for Impeachbush-cheney.com, Not in Our Name and the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste will be speaking and musically the Funky Nixons, All My Pretty Ones, Beatbeat Whisper, park activist Max Ventura, Steven Strauss & Will Scarlet will be performing.
We felt strongly motivated to counter the bad anti-homeless attacks on the park, the threats to the trees/the green open space in People's Park and to lift the energy of the park from what has been a degeneration into negative behaviors such as hardcore drug use, theft and violence that occurs in the park(much like many other urban parks) by strengthening its roots in radical progressive values which though weaker than it was in earlier years such as 1969 or 1991 still continue in the park. We felt that in the face of the MK Think public process paid for by UC Berkeley to "redesign" People's Park we needed an event to reconnect People's Park to the radical progressive values on a larger level again.
This event does seem to be doing this successfully. This follows a small but spiritually positive People's Park Solidarity Day Yukon Hannibal and myself held Sat. Aug. 25th to bring up the spirits of daily park users many of them homeless. The September 15th event is also in solidarity with the Save the Oaks coalition and the Phoenix Coalition-a coalition of more radical UC Berkeley student organizations seeking to unify against the university's attempts to once again stop free speech activities on campus which has been meeting in People's Park and inviting older activists such as myself to join their discussions. -Michael Diehl, BOSS Community Organizing Team
Monday, June 4, 2007
important city council meetings(budget, public commons)
STOP HOMELESS SERVICE CUTS IN BERKELEY
(PUBLIC COMMONS FOR EVERYONE?)
June is a busy month for homeless advocates in Berkeley. At the city council meeting on May 22nd thanks to city councilman Darryl Moore proposed budget cuts to the Catholic Workers breakfast program were restored but cuts to the B.O.S.S. programs at the Harrison St. family shelter and at the Multi-Agency Services Center($9,000) as well as the mental health client run Berkeley drop-in center($20,ooo) and the Berkeley Food and Housing Project quarter meal program and other services due to cuts made on the federal level passed on to the city remain in the proposed city budget.
There will be a public hearing to speak out against these cuts on Tuesday June 19th(council meeting starts at 7pm) and then the budget is voted on the following Tuesday evening. At the next city council meeting on June 12th Mayor Tom Bates will probably try again to pass his revised plans around his Public Commons for Everyone that he was not successful in passing at the May 22nd meeting when he lost quorum at 11:15pm.
This putting the agenda item until last did not work in his favor. Council member Laurie Capitelli strongly spoke to the need for all night bathrooms before they criminalize public urination and defecation and getting shelter beds for everyone whether they want or not. Councilwoman Linda Maio identified as a swing vote came out strongly and said she would vote against any plan to criminalize sidewalk sitting or sleeping on the sidewalk after 10pm which the mayor's talk of revoking the 647j lodging warnings before an arrest could be made that we of the Community Organizing Team and over 150 homeless people back in April 2001. If people do get arrested or cited under either of these situations Osha Neumann of Community Defense Inc. will again challenge that under the necessity defense as was done under the public defender in the Berkeley case of Ken Moshesh as well as by David Ritchie for Rabbit at the Albany land fill and in other California cities.
Presently there is activity to organize some kind of public protest probably before the city council meeting on the 12th to protest the social control of street behavior proposed under the Public Commons for Everyone initiative. As it is it does look we have rather successfully push back any implementation of the initiative until November except the hiring of a public consultant to come up with a revised plan. As a member of the Berkeley Mental Health Commission I am helping spearhead a meeting of the 3 city commissions(Mental Health, Homeless, Public Welfare and Community Action) with the mayor where commission members get to ask the mayor specific questions about the Public Commons for Everyone initiative which the mayor has agreed to come to.
-Michael Diehl
Monday, May 21, 2007
No Bus for Sacramento for Mental Health Advocacy Day - May 23, 2007
Dear Folks,
The Berkeley Mental Health coordinator for the AB2034 program called me to tell me that the city attorney has said Berkeley Mental Health can not use the Social Services Transit bus to get folks up to Sacramento on Wednesday May 23, 2007 for the Mental Health Advocacy Day.
Governor Schwarzenegger with the support of California Director of Mental Health Steve Mayberg has called for cutting the funding for AB2034 that has provided funding to get 100 mentally health clients ("seriously mental ill") off the streets of Berkeley and into housing with intensive services integration team (full services partnerships). Their argument now with the passage of Proposition 63 the coming implementation of the Mental Health Services Act can supplant the funding for this housing.
While the city MHSA plan has increased the amount of those categorized as seriously mentally ill and some may be helped by the county MHSA full service partnership plans (Homeless Outreach Services Team, Forensic Assertive Community Treatment etc.) who can be housed who might otherwise be without housing these are other clients and does not come close to replacing the loss of housing Berkeley now provides under AB2034.
This is disaster that threatens to undo whatever positive effects on the street the mayor was hoping to accomplish under his Public Commons for Everyone initiative and the countywide Everybody Home he has been part of.
We need help getting folks up to Sacramento Wednesday morning to get there by 10am for the Mental Health Advocacy Day and we need to let the governor and the legislature know this cut to AB2034 is bad. There will be a rally on the West steps of the State Capitol as well as speeches, a picnic lunch, legislative and budget briefings.
I will be at the Berkeley city council late the evening before to hear the mayor's revised version of Public Commons for Everyone after the public hearing on CDBG (community development block grants) where cuts coming from the Bush administration (taking money from poor people here at home so they can kill poor people overseas) has caused the city manager to recommend cuts to homeless programs.
Thank you for your forbearance.
Michael Diehl
BOSS Community Organizing Team
Berkeley-Albany Mental Health Commission
510-472-6192 or adversary359@yahoo.com
The Berkeley Mental Health coordinator for the AB2034 program called me to tell me that the city attorney has said Berkeley Mental Health can not use the Social Services Transit bus to get folks up to Sacramento on Wednesday May 23, 2007 for the Mental Health Advocacy Day.
Governor Schwarzenegger with the support of California Director of Mental Health Steve Mayberg has called for cutting the funding for AB2034 that has provided funding to get 100 mentally health clients ("seriously mental ill") off the streets of Berkeley and into housing with intensive services integration team (full services partnerships). Their argument now with the passage of Proposition 63 the coming implementation of the Mental Health Services Act can supplant the funding for this housing.
While the city MHSA plan has increased the amount of those categorized as seriously mentally ill and some may be helped by the county MHSA full service partnership plans (Homeless Outreach Services Team, Forensic Assertive Community Treatment etc.) who can be housed who might otherwise be without housing these are other clients and does not come close to replacing the loss of housing Berkeley now provides under AB2034.
This is disaster that threatens to undo whatever positive effects on the street the mayor was hoping to accomplish under his Public Commons for Everyone initiative and the countywide Everybody Home he has been part of.
We need help getting folks up to Sacramento Wednesday morning to get there by 10am for the Mental Health Advocacy Day and we need to let the governor and the legislature know this cut to AB2034 is bad. There will be a rally on the West steps of the State Capitol as well as speeches, a picnic lunch, legislative and budget briefings.
I will be at the Berkeley city council late the evening before to hear the mayor's revised version of Public Commons for Everyone after the public hearing on CDBG (community development block grants) where cuts coming from the Bush administration (taking money from poor people here at home so they can kill poor people overseas) has caused the city manager to recommend cuts to homeless programs.
Thank you for your forbearance.
Michael Diehl
BOSS Community Organizing Team
Berkeley-Albany Mental Health Commission
510-472-6192 or adversary359@yahoo.com
Monday, May 7, 2007
May 8th rally(Public Commons/homeless cuts)
Tomorrow at 6pm folks opposed to the mayor's Public Commons for Everyone initiative will be showing up on the front steps of 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way the old city council chambers(across from Civic Center Park). Last week at the council agenda meeting the mayor and the city manager made clear that the latter's recommendations to pass several items related to and response to the mayor's initiative will not be acted on by the city council.
It will be simply a discussion on the issue of problematic street behavior. There is word that despite this assurance there will be an attempt to pass language banning smoking within 20 feet of a store(versus the present 15 feet ban on smoking near the public street entrance of a store) which in addition to the 20 foot ban from bus stops will effectively ban smoking in the shopping area of Telegraph and much of the other commercial shopping districts.
Also still on the table are budget cuts to the Multi-Services Agency Center and the Harrison St. family shelter programs as well as to the Catholic Workers breakfast program. The plan to ban sidewalk sitting(not just long term as the mayor talked about back in March in his initiative but he later strengthened to a full ban on sidewalk sitting in commercial shopping districts) and social services to aid people getting off the streets have been put off until December.
The mayor has talked about passing a fifty cents increase in parking fees to provide funding for a street outreach worker(neither with the police department or Berkeley Mental Health admitting they both have a coercive element inherent in their interventions) who would go and tell people sidewalk sitting is now illegal and to move or a police officer and/or mobile crisis might come and cite them. This outreach person would try to get the person sitting on the street into services(whether Options Recovery or Berkeley Mental Health or a youth services site or what have you).
Now in response to my bringing up the question he also talked about funding a daytime youth drop in center for the street youth to go. Mayor Tom Bates has just recently accepted my invitation made a couple weeks ago to speak at the May is Mental Health Month event on May 19th at 2:45pm at the North Berkeley Senior Center making a brief appearance to speak to the issue of mental health housing with BOSS director boona cheema.
This event is held annually and will be between 2 and 4pm and is sponsored by the Berkeley Mental Health Commission which I am on. The three commissions that the mayor referred the initiative to-the Homeless, Mental Health and Public Welfare Commissions- have written the city council to take no action on May 8th, to have the mayor address the members of the 3 commissions probably in a joint meeting to address their serious concerns about the initiative. I will be meeting with mayoral aide Julie Sinai about the PCEI and this speaking engagement today. The meetings regarding with PCEI talked about in my previous blog with council members Linda Maio, Darryl Moore and Laurie Capitelli went well
-Michael Diehl
It will be simply a discussion on the issue of problematic street behavior. There is word that despite this assurance there will be an attempt to pass language banning smoking within 20 feet of a store(versus the present 15 feet ban on smoking near the public street entrance of a store) which in addition to the 20 foot ban from bus stops will effectively ban smoking in the shopping area of Telegraph and much of the other commercial shopping districts.
Also still on the table are budget cuts to the Multi-Services Agency Center and the Harrison St. family shelter programs as well as to the Catholic Workers breakfast program. The plan to ban sidewalk sitting(not just long term as the mayor talked about back in March in his initiative but he later strengthened to a full ban on sidewalk sitting in commercial shopping districts) and social services to aid people getting off the streets have been put off until December.
The mayor has talked about passing a fifty cents increase in parking fees to provide funding for a street outreach worker(neither with the police department or Berkeley Mental Health admitting they both have a coercive element inherent in their interventions) who would go and tell people sidewalk sitting is now illegal and to move or a police officer and/or mobile crisis might come and cite them. This outreach person would try to get the person sitting on the street into services(whether Options Recovery or Berkeley Mental Health or a youth services site or what have you).
Now in response to my bringing up the question he also talked about funding a daytime youth drop in center for the street youth to go. Mayor Tom Bates has just recently accepted my invitation made a couple weeks ago to speak at the May is Mental Health Month event on May 19th at 2:45pm at the North Berkeley Senior Center making a brief appearance to speak to the issue of mental health housing with BOSS director boona cheema.
This event is held annually and will be between 2 and 4pm and is sponsored by the Berkeley Mental Health Commission which I am on. The three commissions that the mayor referred the initiative to-the Homeless, Mental Health and Public Welfare Commissions- have written the city council to take no action on May 8th, to have the mayor address the members of the 3 commissions probably in a joint meeting to address their serious concerns about the initiative. I will be meeting with mayoral aide Julie Sinai about the PCEI and this speaking engagement today. The meetings regarding with PCEI talked about in my previous blog with council members Linda Maio, Darryl Moore and Laurie Capitelli went well
-Michael Diehl
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Public Commons for Everyone update
About 50 people showed on March 13th regarding the mayor's Public Commons for Everyone. 20 of them many of the directly impacted homeless many of them street youth came earlier before the city council as I asked them to but left before the item was opened up for public comment at 9pm.
A couple of the young women punk rock youth held up signs which got captured by the local tv news cameras and in the Daily Cal. Now a small group(lawyers Osha Neumann of Community Defense Inc. and Jim Chanin of the American Civil Liberties Union, myself(Michael Diehl), Dan McMullan of Disabled People's Outside Project and Lisa Stephens) met last Friday at Osha's office at his behest. We decided to set up meetings with potential swing votes on the Berkeley city council to lobby basically against the punitive aspects of the mayor's initiative we have met with Linda Maio, have set a meeting with Darryl Moore and some of us also will be talking or have talked with Laurie Capitelli, Mayor Tom Bates and Kriss Worthington(who voted against referring the initiative to the city manager and the commissions). We will also be going to the Homeless Commission (meeting Wednesday April 11th at the North Berkeley Senior Center, public comment at 7pm), the Human Welfare commission on Wed. April 18th and the Mental Health Commission on Sat. April 14th between 3 and 4pm(probably at the Berkeley city college).
On Tuesday April 24th at the B.O.S.S. Administration office the Berkeley Community Coalition( a coalition of homeless services and other nonprofits) will be meeting to discuss the mayor's initiative. Paul Boden of the Western Regional Action Project will be a special guest and there is a move to link the housing issue to the Public Commons for Everyone issue.
On Tuesday March 13th the Berkeley city council voted 6 to 3 to refer Mayor Tom Bates' "Public Commons for Everyone" proposed initiative to the city manager Phil Kamlarz and city staff as well as to the Berkeley-Albany Mental Health Commission(which I am on and which I have been the chair of) and the Homeless Commission to bring back to council in early May.
The mayor is talking about restrictions to limit/ticket people for sitting on the sidewalk too long. Two earlier efforts to ban sitting on the sidewalk in the city shopping districts were successfully defeated in 1996(where it had been part of Berkeley's Measure O which was overturned in federal court) and again in 1998. I was quite centrally involved in the cmapaigns to stop the implementation of these anti-sidewalking ordinances. The mayor's vagueley worded initiative talks about restricting long time sitting on the sidewalk and only citing those who refuse mental health or substance abuse services in a sort of carrot and stick approach. His proposal makes at this time no budget allocation to provide more money for funding these services.
The mayor did talk about going to the voters to get more funding for providing these services. Advocates such as myself complain that present funding is quite inadequate for the needed mental health and substance abuse counseling and the special needs housing to get people off the streets such in the countywide Everybody Home the mayor has been instrumental in getting the cities of Berkeley and Oakland and the county of Alameda. We argue that without more concrete proposals for funding a signifigant increase in fiscal resources available the mayor initiative provides "compassionate" lip service that justifies the violation of homeless people's civil and human rights(under the UN charter).
As I said then to the city council treatment can not be coerced. This is coupled with the University of California hiring a special consultant for $100,000 to come up with a plan to redesign People's Park so that supposedly everybody feels welcome in what feels like Orwellian 1984 newspeak that seeks to obfuscate the reality of increased coercive measures to remove the unsightly presence of poor and homeless folks from the economically upscale supposedly socially progressive in a way that seems warm and fuzzy to assuage the guilt of bourgeios liberals who want to be able to shop and increase property values without being disturbed by the clear visibility of great poverty on the city streets and in its parks.
If this "Public Commons for Everyone" initiative is indeed passed in May there is already organizing effort to get enough signatures to stop its implementation until it can be voted on by Berkeley voters. Those voters in 1994 did vote for the anti-homeless Measure O with 54% support in part due to the deceptive campaign linked to former mayor Measure O supporters Shirley Dean and Jeffrey Shattuck Leiter(one of the largest business landowners in town)that convinced many voters they were voting for more homeless services.
At the city council meeting on March 13th Jim Chanin who is the local lawyer representative for the American Civil Liberties Union said the ACLU as with Measure O (successfully) plans to go to court to stop this new proposed problematic street behavior ordinance that the mayor did tell voters during his reelection campaign last fall he would push. Already the police are being puahed by city staff and the merchant associations such at the Downtown Business Association, the Chamber of Commerce and the Telegraph Avenue Business Improvement District to cite homeless people with dogs for not having plastic bags required for doggy doo, for illegal posseassion of milk crates and shopping carts and having stuff on the sidewalk as an obstruction to foot traffic on the sidewalk. There will be a need to step Copwatching activity to document and help Osha Neumann's Community Defense Inc. legally challenge these citations.
-Michael Diehl
adversary359@yahoo.com
510-472-6192
A couple of the young women punk rock youth held up signs which got captured by the local tv news cameras and in the Daily Cal. Now a small group(lawyers Osha Neumann of Community Defense Inc. and Jim Chanin of the American Civil Liberties Union, myself(Michael Diehl), Dan McMullan of Disabled People's Outside Project and Lisa Stephens) met last Friday at Osha's office at his behest. We decided to set up meetings with potential swing votes on the Berkeley city council to lobby basically against the punitive aspects of the mayor's initiative we have met with Linda Maio, have set a meeting with Darryl Moore and some of us also will be talking or have talked with Laurie Capitelli, Mayor Tom Bates and Kriss Worthington(who voted against referring the initiative to the city manager and the commissions). We will also be going to the Homeless Commission (meeting Wednesday April 11th at the North Berkeley Senior Center, public comment at 7pm), the Human Welfare commission on Wed. April 18th and the Mental Health Commission on Sat. April 14th between 3 and 4pm(probably at the Berkeley city college).
On Tuesday April 24th at the B.O.S.S. Administration office the Berkeley Community Coalition( a coalition of homeless services and other nonprofits) will be meeting to discuss the mayor's initiative. Paul Boden of the Western Regional Action Project will be a special guest and there is a move to link the housing issue to the Public Commons for Everyone issue.
On Tuesday March 13th the Berkeley city council voted 6 to 3 to refer Mayor Tom Bates' "Public Commons for Everyone" proposed initiative to the city manager Phil Kamlarz and city staff as well as to the Berkeley-Albany Mental Health Commission(which I am on and which I have been the chair of) and the Homeless Commission to bring back to council in early May.
The mayor is talking about restrictions to limit/ticket people for sitting on the sidewalk too long. Two earlier efforts to ban sitting on the sidewalk in the city shopping districts were successfully defeated in 1996(where it had been part of Berkeley's Measure O which was overturned in federal court) and again in 1998. I was quite centrally involved in the cmapaigns to stop the implementation of these anti-sidewalking ordinances. The mayor's vagueley worded initiative talks about restricting long time sitting on the sidewalk and only citing those who refuse mental health or substance abuse services in a sort of carrot and stick approach. His proposal makes at this time no budget allocation to provide more money for funding these services.
The mayor did talk about going to the voters to get more funding for providing these services. Advocates such as myself complain that present funding is quite inadequate for the needed mental health and substance abuse counseling and the special needs housing to get people off the streets such in the countywide Everybody Home the mayor has been instrumental in getting the cities of Berkeley and Oakland and the county of Alameda. We argue that without more concrete proposals for funding a signifigant increase in fiscal resources available the mayor initiative provides "compassionate" lip service that justifies the violation of homeless people's civil and human rights(under the UN charter).
As I said then to the city council treatment can not be coerced. This is coupled with the University of California hiring a special consultant for $100,000 to come up with a plan to redesign People's Park so that supposedly everybody feels welcome in what feels like Orwellian 1984 newspeak that seeks to obfuscate the reality of increased coercive measures to remove the unsightly presence of poor and homeless folks from the economically upscale supposedly socially progressive in a way that seems warm and fuzzy to assuage the guilt of bourgeios liberals who want to be able to shop and increase property values without being disturbed by the clear visibility of great poverty on the city streets and in its parks.
If this "Public Commons for Everyone" initiative is indeed passed in May there is already organizing effort to get enough signatures to stop its implementation until it can be voted on by Berkeley voters. Those voters in 1994 did vote for the anti-homeless Measure O with 54% support in part due to the deceptive campaign linked to former mayor Measure O supporters Shirley Dean and Jeffrey Shattuck Leiter(one of the largest business landowners in town)that convinced many voters they were voting for more homeless services.
At the city council meeting on March 13th Jim Chanin who is the local lawyer representative for the American Civil Liberties Union said the ACLU as with Measure O (successfully) plans to go to court to stop this new proposed problematic street behavior ordinance that the mayor did tell voters during his reelection campaign last fall he would push. Already the police are being puahed by city staff and the merchant associations such at the Downtown Business Association, the Chamber of Commerce and the Telegraph Avenue Business Improvement District to cite homeless people with dogs for not having plastic bags required for doggy doo, for illegal posseassion of milk crates and shopping carts and having stuff on the sidewalk as an obstruction to foot traffic on the sidewalk. There will be a need to step Copwatching activity to document and help Osha Neumann's Community Defense Inc. legally challenge these citations.
-Michael Diehl
adversary359@yahoo.com
510-472-6192
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Housing Right - By Bob Mills (Activist)
Housing Right
By Bob Mills
Homeless people and those at risk
On any given night in the U.S., over 800,000 people are homeless. Between 2.5 and 3.5 million people will experience homelessness sometime during the next year and 12 million, or 6.5% of the population will experience homelessness at some point in their lives. Beyond the ranks of the homeless, in no city in the U.S. can a worker at the minimum wage afford a one-bedroom apartment, and over 14 million are paying more than 50% of their income for housing – putting them just one paycheck or one accident away from homelessness themselves. Meanwhile, due to huge budget cuts to federal and state assistance programs over the past two decades, housing assistance requests are growing to waiting times of two years or more, and some cities have simply closed the request lists – in effect denying the growth of the problem.
Housing problems fall disproportionately on racial minority groups. Although only 12% of the population is African-American, 50% of homeless persons in cities are. Furthermore, residential racial segregation continues. While no longer actively promoted by the government, as it was under Jim Crow and federal lending guidelines that prevented lending in integrated neighborhoods, the inadequate enforcement of fair housing and lending laws continue to allow real estate agents to tacitly endorse segregation. Segregated housing enables segregated education and lack of other health and safety services that put additional human rights at risk.
Recognizing the human right to housing in the U.S. would change the dialogue on housing issues in two important ways.
First, by the human right to housing, we would recognize that every person, without discrimination on the basis of race, sex, economic or other status, deserves access to adequate shelter. International law sees a violation of this non-discrimination principle in both policies with discriminatory intent and those with discriminatory impact, unlike U.S. law which for the most part only outlaws intentional discrimination.
Second, every right creates a corresponding duty on the government to ensure that right is upheld. In the U.S., we value the right to a fair trial, so for those who cannot afford it, the government pays for a lawyer. Having the right to housing does not mean that the government must build a house for every person in America and give it to them free of charge. It does however put ultimate responsibility on the government for ensuring all people have access to adequate housing. Under human rights law, adequacy of housing is broken down into seven elements: Security of Tenure; Availability of Services, Materials, and Infrastructure; Affordability; Accessibility; Habitability; Location; and Cultural Adequacy. It’s more than just a roof over your head - the government can choose whether this should be through public housing, voucher programs such as Section 8, incentives for private development of affordable housing, or other means, but it has to fulfill all of these elements. We have many of these frameworks in place already – but they are being inadequately funded and implemented, and the human right to housing gives us the tool to hold the government accountable.
Relevant Human Rights Treaties
Because human rights are indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated, the right to housing encompasses a broad and complex range of rights—including the rights to: adequate shelter, standard of living, access to safe drinking water and sanitation, the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, a safe and healthy environment, an environment appropriate for physical and mental development for children, access to basic services, schools, transportation, and employment options, affordability in housing, freedom from discrimination, choice of residence, freedom from arbitrary interference with one’s privacy, family, or home, security, protection from forced eviction and destruction or demolition of one’s home, equal protection of the law and judicial remedies for redress of violations of the human right to adequate housing.
Treaties protecting the right to housing: S = U.S. signed, R = U.S.ratified
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948, S = 1948, R = n/a) - Article 25.1: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including … housing...”
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965, S 1966, R 1994) - Article 5: prohibits and seeks to eliminate all racial discrimination and guarantee equal rights to all before the law, including “the right to housing.”
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966, S = 1977, R= no) - Article 11.1: Recognizes “the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing, and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions.”
Vancouver Declaration on Human Settlements (1976, S = n/a, R= n/a), also called “Habitat: United Nations Conference on Human Settlements.” - Section III (8): “Adequate shelter and services are a basic human right which places an obligation on Governments to ensure their attainment by all people, beginning with direct assistance to the least advantaged through guided programs of self-help and community action. Governments should endeavor to remove all impediments hindering attainments of these goals, of special importance is the elimination of social and racial segregation, inter alia, through the creation of better balanced communities, which blend different social groups, occupation, housing, and amenities.”
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979, S = 1980, R = no) - Article 14 (h): Declares women’s right “to enjoy adequate living conditions, particularly in relation to housing…
Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989, S = 1995, R = no) - Article 27.3: “State Parties, in accordance with national conditions and within their means, shall take appropriate measures to assist parents and others responsible for the child to implement this right and shall in case of need provide material assistance and support programs, particularly with regard to nutrition, clothing, and housing”
Charter of Organization of American States (1948, S = 1948, R= 1951) - Article 34 (k): In order to achieve “equality of opportunity, the elimination of extreme poverty, equitable distribution of wealth and income and the full participation of their peoples in decisions relating to their own development…” States should ensure provision, among other basic rights, of “adequate housing for all sectors of the population.”
American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man (1948, S= 1948, R = n/a) - Article 8: “Every person has the right to fix his residence within the territory of the state of which he is a national…” Article 9: “Every person has the right to the inviolability of his home.” Article 11: “Every person has the right to the preservation of his health through sanitary and social measures relating to food, clothing, housing and medical care to the extent permitted by public and community resources.” Article 23: “Every person has the right to own such private property as meets the essential needs of decent living and helps to maintain the dignity of the individual and of the home.”
American Convention on Human Rights (1969, S = 1977, R = no) - Article 11: Every person has the “right to privacy…the right to have his honor respected and his dignity recognized”, and freedom from “arbitrary or abusive interference with his private life, his family, his home…” - Article 21: “Everyone has the right to the use and enjoyment of his property.”
Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (1988, S = no, R = no) - Article 11: “Everyone shall have the right to live in a healthy environment and to have access to basic public services. The State Parties shall promote the protection, preservation, and the improvement of the environment.”
Current Human Rights Work
The Housing Caucus, under the leadership of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, has engaged in regional and national trainings on housing and human rights in Los Angeles (2003 and 2006), Chicago (2005), Florida (2007), and Washington, DC (2003, 2005, 2006). Out of these trainings, a number of strategies have emerged. (See Case in Point below for Chicago-based work.)
In Los Angeles, the trainings have led to the creation of a local coalition for the right to housing led by Beyond Shelter, which has already successfully campaigned to include the human right to housing as one of the seven guiding principles of L.A.’s ten-year plan to end homelessness. This principle reads:
By reaffirming that housing is one of the basic human rights, the County of Los Angeles and cities have the opportunity to demonstrate true leadership on a national scale. By committing to the development of strategies and resources necessary to end homelessness in 10 years, the County of Los Angeles and cities commit to progressively realize this right.
The L.A. coalition is currently drafting local human rights legislation and engaging in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) shadow reporting process.
Coming out of the 2006 training, based on concerns of training participants from across the country, NLCHP is working on a human rights approach to the issue of separation of children from homeless families. In the coming year, NLCHP will issue a report examining domestic and international practices and explore the integration of human rights principles into policy and litigation at the state and local level, and as part of this strategy anticipates pressing the issue before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Because of the unprecedented destruction and the widespread dispersal of evacuees, the restoration of the Gulf region will have deep implications at all policy levels. Important issues of housing, resettlement, and education will most certainly continue to arise, and from these issues, new legal precedents will emerge. Following on the strong participation of groups from the Gulf Coast in our 2006 national training, the Caucus is collaborating with groups in New Orleans to help promote a human rights approach to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts there.
A 2007 training in Florida brought together over 200 activists and government officials, who are now crafting locally relevant talking points to promote the human right to housing. The Florida Bar Public Interest Law Section is now incorporating human rights standards into all their future Continuing Legal Education trainings and policy discussions. Additionally, NLCHP is currently in consultation with Florida lawyers regarding integrating international standards on cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment into an 8th Amendment case for the destruction of tents of homeless persons in Florida.
Suggested Advocacy Strategies
Currently, the right to housing is unlikely to be enforceable on its own terms in U.S. courts. But it can be used as an advocacy tool, in courts and in other arenas.
Legal advocacy. Courts are increasingly looking to international law as an interpretive guide when U.S. law is ambiguous. International law on equal protection protects against laws with discriminatory impact as well as intent – in advance of most US law - and has been cited by courts from local to federal Supreme Court level. The international right to housing can also inform state constitutional provisions on subsistence and welfare rights.
Policy advocacy. Legislative advocates can promote the right to housing at all levels of government. Several cities have passed resolutions affirming the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the ICESCR; Los Angeles included the right to housing in their 10-year plan to end homelessness; Cook County, IL (Chicago) passed a resolution recognizing the right to housing which led to increased funding for affordable housing from the state; San Francisco passed a law to implement the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in the city, which has resulted in greater safety for homeless women and girls; activists in New York City are working on a similar bill; Pennsylvania passed two resolutions creating a commission to investigate ways to integrate human rights standards into state laws and policies; and California adopted the CERD definition of racial discrimination into state statutory law in order to resist attacks on affirmative action.
Grassroots advocacy. Because human rights are universal, they provide an inclusive, unifying framework that can help counter current divisive and punitive responses to poverty, and empower traditionally disfranchised groups. By incorporating responsibilities along with rights, the human rights framework also helps counter some of the current assumptions underlying those responses. Additionally, human rights are inter-dependent and can serve as an umbrella to bridge various groups – for example those working on homelessness to those working on healthcare or education issues.
Public education. The Housing Caucus engage in multiple forms of outreach, including regional and national trainings. A recent training in Los Angeles led to the creation of an ad hoc coalition on the right to housing in LA, which is in turn working on additional education and policy objectives. Trainings in 2007 will be held in Florida, Minnesota, and Washington, DC.
Models. Other countries, comparable to the United States, have ratified and incorporated the ICESCR; some include a right to housing in their constitutions. Scotland has enacted a law to end homelessness within 10 years, providing for immediate transfer of homeless persons into temporary and then permanent housing, and including a provision that would allow individuals to sue the government for failing to do so. France is working on a similar law.
Advocacy with International Bodies. U.N. committees and other international bodies, such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, monitor the right to housing. Nonprofit groups can submit reports to them about the status of housing rights in the U.S. to call attention to the issue. For example, in 2005, a coalition of advocates requested and obtained a hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights at the Organization of American States on the status of housing rights in the Americas, with a focus on the U.S., Canada, and Brazil. In 2006, as a result of the advocacy of a number of U.S. activists, the UN Human Rights Committee concluded the U.S. was in violation of the right of non-discrimination because while only 12% of the population is African American, African Americans make up 50% of the homeless population. The Committee called upon the government to take steps to remedy this ongoing violation.
A Case in Point
The Chicago Coalition to Protect Public Housing (CPPH) launched its Housing is a Human Right Campaign in February 2005. By combining a human rights framework with a community organizing strategy, the CPPH planned to preserve low-income housing for the 1000 families that live in the Cabrini Green public housing development. In April of 2005, the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) announced, in contradiction to previous legal settlements, to summarily close half of the development down in 90 days. The CHA did not offer any on-site replacement housing nor did they allow the soon to be displaced residents the opportunity to move into the hundreds of vacant units that would remain in Cabrini Green.
The CPPH and Cabrini Green residents responded to this attempt to destroy their community by filing a law suit and organizing the residents to fight for their human rights. At the urging of the Cabrini Green resident leadership, the law suit was the first in Chicago's history to cite international legal standards. After several months of litigation, supported by a strong organizing campaign in Cabrini Green, the the federal judge ruled that any resident who wanted to stay in Cabrini Green could do so until such a time as adequate replacement housing has been built. Although this was a major victory for the residents facing displacement and the destruction of their community, the fight is not over. The CHA has continually attempted to ignore this ruling and has yet to plan for any replacement housing for the units it has torn town. However, the resident leadership at Cabrini Green has continued to fight and to increase their base of support. Hundreds of families still remain in Cabrini Green, fighting for their Human Right to Housing.
Resources
General:
Beyond Shelter
Founded in 1988, the mission of Beyond Shelter is to develop systemic approaches to combat poverty and homelessness among families with children and enhance family economic security and well-being. Beyond Shelter accomplishes its goals through responsive service delivery, people-centered community development, and the creation of knowledge for social change. Beyond Shelter leads the L.A. Coalition for the Human Right to Housing. http://www.beyondshelter.org/
The Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation (CERA)
A not-for-profit charitable organization located in Canada, CERA works to realize the right to adequate housing, the right to an adequate standard of living, and encourages others to stand up for all of their social and economic rights. CERA conducts public education, research, advocacy, and eviction prevention. www.equalityrights.org/cera
Centre on Housing Rights & Evictions (COHRE)
COHRE is a non-governmental, not-for-profit human rights organization. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, but with a U.S. office in Duluth, MN, COHRE campaigns to protect housing rights and prevent forced evictions. Their website is an excellent source of information and resources. http://www.cohre.org/
Chicago Coalition for the Homeless
The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) organizes and advocates to prevent and end homelessness based on our belief that housing is a human right in a just society. CCH is Alternate Chair of the Housing Caucus. http://www.chicagohomeless.org/
Coalition to Protect Public Housing (CPPH)
Founded in 1996, in response to the federal mandate to demolish more than 100,000 units of public housing nationwide- 18,000 of those units in Chicago, affecting the lives of 42,000 people- The Coalition to Protect Public Housing (CPPH) is an advocacy group of public housing residents, community-based organizations, religious institutions, businesses, and non-profit organizations all working to protect the rights of public housing and to ensure the future of public housing. http://www.limits.com/cpph/
Habitat International Coalition (HIC)
Habitat International Coalition (HIC) is an independent, international, non-profit alliance of some 400 organizations and individuals working in the area of human settlements. The strength of the Coalition is based on its worldwide membership that includes social movements, grassroot organizations, civil society organizations, NGOs, academia and research institutions, and like-minded individuals from 80 countries in both North and South. A shared set of objectives bind and shape HIC's commitment to communities working to secure housing and improve their habitat conditions. http://www.hic-net.org/
Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights
Heartland Alliance is a service-based, human rights organization focused on investments in and solutions for the most poor and vulnerable men, women, and children in our society. Heartland Alliance believes that everyone has the right to adequate housing and works to realize that right by providing housing and human rights protections for those in need. http://www.heartlandalliance.org/
Housing Rights, INC.
Housing Rights, Inc. offers housing rights counseling, legal referrals, affordable housing advocacy, homeownership preparation, and housing provider training. Housing Rights, Inc. commits to “fight for equal access to housing for everyone by eliminating barrier to housing choice” through human rights education, outreach, and advocacy. http://www.housingrights.com/
Human Rights Watch (HRW)
Human Rights Watch commits itself to the protection of human rights in all parts of the world. The organization is dedicated to investigating and exposing human rights violations and holding abusers accountable for their actions. http://www.hrw.org/
National Alliance of HUD Tenants (NAHT)
Founded in 1991, NAHT is the first national membership organization of resident groups advocating for 2.1 million lower income families in privately-owned, HUD-assisted multifamily housing. Through NAHT, tenants have proven that united action can mount an effective campaign to save people’s homes. NAHT chairs the U.S. section of the Habitat International Coalition. http://www.saveourhomes.org/
National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH)
The National Alliance to End Homelessness is a leading voice on the issue of homelessness. The Alliance analyzes policy and develops pragmatic, cost-effective policy solutions. We work collaboratively with the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to build state and local capacity, leading to stronger programs and policies that help homeless individuals and families make positive changes in their lives. We provide data and research to policymakers and elected officials in order to inform policy debates and educate the public and opinion leaders nationwide. http://naeh.org/
National Center for Human Rights Education (NCHRE)
NCHRE educates people about their human rights, trains people to educate others, and assists communities in claiming and realizing their human rights. NCHRE is a center for human rights education strategies and resources; the center offers workshops and trainings. The website is a wonderful source of information, including a list of “10 Things You Can Do”. http://www.nchre.org/
National Coalition for the Homeless
The National Coalition for the Homeless, founded in 1984, is a national network of people who are currently experiencing or who have experienced homelessness, activists and advocates, community-based and faith-based service providers, and others committed to a single mission. That mission, our common bond, is to end homelessness. We are committed to creating the systemic and attitudinal changes necessary to prevent and end homelessness. At the same time, we work to meet the immediate needs of people who are currently experiencing homelessness or who are at risk of doing so. We take as our first principle of practice that people who are currently experiencing homelessness or have formerly experienced homelessness must be actively involved in all of our work. http://www.nationalhomeless.org/
National Economic & Social Rights Initiative (NESRI)
NESRI works with the social justice community to develop strategies, models and structures for effectively using international economic and social rights standards in US advocacy. Human rights offer a conceptual and practical framework for the social justice community to come together and build a movement to ensure freedom, security and dignity for all people. http://www.nesri.org/
National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA)
The National Fair Housing Alliance is the only national organization dedicated solely to ending discrimination in housing. NFHA works to eliminate housing discrimination and to ensure equal housing opportunity for all people through leadership, education and outreach, membership services, public policy initiatives, advocacy and enforcement. http://www.nationalfairhousing.org/
National Healthcare for the Homeless Council (HCH)
The National Health Care for the Homeless (HCH) Council is a home for those who work to improve the health of homeless people and who seek housing, health care, and adequate incomes for everyone. In the National HCH Council, agencies and individuals, clinicians and advocates, homeless people and housed people come together for mutual support and learning opportunities, and to advance the cause of human rights. http://www.nhchc.org/
National Housing Institute (NHI)
The National Housing Institute was founded in 1975 as an independent nonprofit organization that examines the issues causing the crisis in housing and community in America. NHI examines the key issues affecting affordable housing and community development practitioners and their supporters. These issues include housing, jobs, safety, and education, with an emphasis on housing and economic development, as well as poverty and racism, disinvestment and lack of employment, and breakdown of the social fabric. http://www.nhi.org/
The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (NLCHP)
The mission of the Law Center is to prevent and end homelessness by serving as the legal arm of the nationwide movement to end homelessness. To achieve its mission, the Law Center pursues three main strategies: impact litigation, policy advocacy, and public education. To amplify the work of its small staff, the Law Center relies on interns, volunteers, and the pro bono assistance of the private bar. NLCHP currently chairs the Housing Caucus, and has a wide array of materials on the human right to housing available at its website. http://www.nlchp.org/
National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC)
The National Low Income Housing Coalition is dedicated solely to ending America's affordable housing crisis. We believe that this is achievable, that the affordable housing crisis is a problem that Americans are capable of solving. While we are concerned about the housing circumstances of all low income people, we focus our advocacy on those with the most serious housing problems, the lowest income household. http://www.nlihc.org/
The National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness (NPACH)
NPACH is a national grassroots organization whose primary concern is to ensure that national homelessness policy accurately reflects the needs of local communities. http://www.npach.org/
New York City Aids Housing Network (NYCAHN)
The New York City AIDS Housing Network (NYCAHN) is an award winning membership organization comprised and led by low-income people living with HIV/AIDS working in a unique coalition with nonprofit housing providers and AIDS service organizations. Given that housing is a human right, it is our mission to empower low-income people living with HIV/AIDS to organize our community, including the non-profits that serve us, to advocate for more housing, better housing and sound public policies for all people living with HIV/AIDS. NYCAHN led efforts to pass a bill recognizing a right to housing for people living with AIDS in New York City. http://nycahn.org/
People’s Movement for Human Rights Learning
Founded in 1988 as the People’s Decade of Human Rights Education (PDHRE), this non-profit, international service organization seeks to make human rights education “relevant to people’s daily lives in the context of their personal struggles for social and economic justice and democracy.” This group focuses on all aspects of human rights education—including the right to adequate housing. www.pdhre.org/rights/housing.html
Poverty & Race Research & Action Council (PRRAC)
PRRAC is a civil rights policy organization convened by major civil rights and anti-poverty groups in 1989. PRRAC's primary mission is to help connect social scientists with advocates working on race and poverty issues, and to promote a research-based advocacy strategy on issues of structural racial inequality. PRRAC is leading efforts to report to CERD on health and housing discrimination matters. http://www.prrac.org/
UN-HABITAT
The United Nations Human Settlement Programme pursues the Habitat Agenda, which holds that governments should take responsibility for the realization of the human right to adequate housing. Their mission is to “promote socially and environmentally sustainable human settlements development and the achievement of adequate shelter for all.” http://www.unhabitat.org/
Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP)
Founded in Spring, 2005, the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) is an innovative organization determined to make ending homelessness a national priority. By ensuring that legislators in Washington, DC receive a constant, consistent, constituent-informed message from the west coast, WRAP strives to shape public policies that address the systemic causes of poverty, ensure adherence to human rights, and are also grounded in the experiences of those who live with and work on homeless issues every day. http://www.wraphome.org/
Resource Guides
Housing Rights for All: Promoting and Defending Housing Rights in the U.S. Resource Manual, Second Edition
Produced by COHRE and NLCHP, "Housing Rights for All" is designed to address the right to adequate housing for all and provides strategies on how to promote that right. Sections include: Monitoring Housing Rights, Domestic and International Advocacy Options, and Engaging in Strategic Litigation in the United States. The manual also provides information on international law and domestic law, including detailed appendicies, described below. http://nlchp.org/content/pubs/Human%20Rights%20Resource%20Manual%20FINAL%20PDF.pdf
Housing Rights for All Resource Manual Appendix: Local and State Human Rights Resolutions
http://nlchp.org/content/pubs/Local%20and%20State%20Human%20Rights%20Resolutions.pdf
Housing Rights for All Resource Manual Appendix: U.N. General Comment and Fact Sheets
http://nlchp.org/content/pubs/U.N.%20General%20Comment%20and%20Fact%20Sheets.pdf
Housing Rights for All Resource Manual Appendix: U.S. Federal and State Case Law Asserting Economic and Social Rights as Human Rights
http://nlchp.org/content/pubs/U.S.%20Case%20Law.pdf
For Sample Documentation of Housing As a Human Rights Issue See
2007 Report on Illinois Poverty
Heartland Alliance and the Mid-America Institute on Poverty
Heartland Alliance and the Mid-America Institute on Poverty produce a comprehensive annual update on Illinois Poverty. This report illuminates conditions and trends of poverty in Illinois and is a useful tool for researchers, service providers, and the wider community. This year’s report states: “Safe, decent, and affordable housing is a fundamental human right. To be realized, Illinoisans must be able to put a roof over their head without depleting all their resources and must be able to access programs designed to help those who have no affordable housing options and those who have difficulty retaining stable housing.” For more information about housing in Illinois, you can find the report online at: http://www.heartlandalliance.org/maip/research.html
Not Even A Place In Line
In January, 2007, the Mid-America Institute on Poverty at Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights published this study of public housing and housing choice voucher capacity and waiting lists in Illinois.
http://www.heartlandalliance.org/maip/documents/NotEvenaPlaceinLine2007_001.pdf
Snapshot of Supportive Housing Residents Across Illinois
The Mid-America Institute on Poverty at Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights produced this study of supportive housing in Illinois for the Supportive Housing Providers Association in January, 2007. The report summarizes survey results from 476 supportive housing tenants from 11 Illinois counties. The report explains what supportive housing is, where it is utilized in Illinois, and describes its residents.
http://www.heartlandalliance.org/maip/research.html#Affordablehousing
Without Housing
Thoroughly documented by WRAP in 2006 using federal budget data and other sources, Without Housing presents data on housing and human rights with passion and vitality, and uses artwork to give life to the words and data to express the pain and frustration experienced by real human beings abandoned by a federal government more concerned with the profits of corporations than with the well-being of its poorest people. http://www.wraphome.org/wh_press_kit/Without_Housing_20061114.pdf
Homelessness in the United States and the Human Right to Housing
A 2004 report by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty which details the right to housing and current U.S. violations of this right. http://nlchp.org/content/pubs/Homeless%20in%20the%20US%20&%20the%20Human%20Right%20to%20Housing-RTH%20Report%20(2004).pdf
A Right to Housing: Foundation for a New Social Agenda
Leading activists and scholars contributed essays to this book, which thoughtfully considers vital issues related to America's housing crisis. A Right to Housing: Foundation for a New Social Agenda examines income inequality and insecurity, segregation and discrimination, the rights of the elderly, and various legislative and judicial responses to homelessness. The book details how access to adequate housing is directly related to economic security and proposes comprehensive, progressive changes. Overall, this book presents a convincing analysis of the continuing inability of the United States to meet the housing needs of its people. (Editors: Rachel G. Bratt, Michael E. Stone, and Chester Hartman)
Homlessness, Litigation and Law Reform Strategies
Published in the December 2004 editions of the Australian Journal of Human Rights - this article is part of the Symposium: Housing, Homelessness and Human Rights issue.
http://nlchp.org/content/pubs/AustrialianJournal_Foscarinis_2004.pdf
No Second Chance: People with Criminal Records Denied Access to Public Housing. Human Rights Watch, 2004
This report exposes a U.S. federal policy that excludes needy people with criminal records the right to public housing. The current federal policy is a “one strike” rule—which allows no second chances. The policy requires that public housing authorities exclude people with certain types of criminal records and allows them discretion to exclude others as well. This report assesses public housing exclusionary policies against human rights standards and demonstrates that these policies are arbitrary, unreasonable, and discriminatory.
http://hrw.org/reports/2004/usa1104/usa1104.pdf
For Sample International Complaints Regarding the Right to Housing See:
Testimony of Maria Foscarinis, Before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Situation of the right to adequate housing in the Americas Hearing, 122nd Period, 3/2005 http://nlchp.org/content/pubs/IACHR%20Testimony%203-4-05.pdf
Housing Rights for All Resource Manual Appendix: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
http://nlchp.org/content/pubs/Inter-American%20Materials.pdf
Housing Rights for All Resource Manual Appendix: Homelessness and U.S. Compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
http://nlchp.org/content/pubs/ICCPR%20Reports.pdf
By Bob Mills
Homeless people and those at risk
On any given night in the U.S., over 800,000 people are homeless. Between 2.5 and 3.5 million people will experience homelessness sometime during the next year and 12 million, or 6.5% of the population will experience homelessness at some point in their lives. Beyond the ranks of the homeless, in no city in the U.S. can a worker at the minimum wage afford a one-bedroom apartment, and over 14 million are paying more than 50% of their income for housing – putting them just one paycheck or one accident away from homelessness themselves. Meanwhile, due to huge budget cuts to federal and state assistance programs over the past two decades, housing assistance requests are growing to waiting times of two years or more, and some cities have simply closed the request lists – in effect denying the growth of the problem.
Housing problems fall disproportionately on racial minority groups. Although only 12% of the population is African-American, 50% of homeless persons in cities are. Furthermore, residential racial segregation continues. While no longer actively promoted by the government, as it was under Jim Crow and federal lending guidelines that prevented lending in integrated neighborhoods, the inadequate enforcement of fair housing and lending laws continue to allow real estate agents to tacitly endorse segregation. Segregated housing enables segregated education and lack of other health and safety services that put additional human rights at risk.
Recognizing the human right to housing in the U.S. would change the dialogue on housing issues in two important ways.
First, by the human right to housing, we would recognize that every person, without discrimination on the basis of race, sex, economic or other status, deserves access to adequate shelter. International law sees a violation of this non-discrimination principle in both policies with discriminatory intent and those with discriminatory impact, unlike U.S. law which for the most part only outlaws intentional discrimination.
Second, every right creates a corresponding duty on the government to ensure that right is upheld. In the U.S., we value the right to a fair trial, so for those who cannot afford it, the government pays for a lawyer. Having the right to housing does not mean that the government must build a house for every person in America and give it to them free of charge. It does however put ultimate responsibility on the government for ensuring all people have access to adequate housing. Under human rights law, adequacy of housing is broken down into seven elements: Security of Tenure; Availability of Services, Materials, and Infrastructure; Affordability; Accessibility; Habitability; Location; and Cultural Adequacy. It’s more than just a roof over your head - the government can choose whether this should be through public housing, voucher programs such as Section 8, incentives for private development of affordable housing, or other means, but it has to fulfill all of these elements. We have many of these frameworks in place already – but they are being inadequately funded and implemented, and the human right to housing gives us the tool to hold the government accountable.
Relevant Human Rights Treaties
Because human rights are indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated, the right to housing encompasses a broad and complex range of rights—including the rights to: adequate shelter, standard of living, access to safe drinking water and sanitation, the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, a safe and healthy environment, an environment appropriate for physical and mental development for children, access to basic services, schools, transportation, and employment options, affordability in housing, freedom from discrimination, choice of residence, freedom from arbitrary interference with one’s privacy, family, or home, security, protection from forced eviction and destruction or demolition of one’s home, equal protection of the law and judicial remedies for redress of violations of the human right to adequate housing.
Treaties protecting the right to housing: S = U.S. signed, R = U.S.ratified
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948, S = 1948, R = n/a) - Article 25.1: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including … housing...”
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965, S 1966, R 1994) - Article 5: prohibits and seeks to eliminate all racial discrimination and guarantee equal rights to all before the law, including “the right to housing.”
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966, S = 1977, R= no) - Article 11.1: Recognizes “the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing, and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions.”
Vancouver Declaration on Human Settlements (1976, S = n/a, R= n/a), also called “Habitat: United Nations Conference on Human Settlements.” - Section III (8): “Adequate shelter and services are a basic human right which places an obligation on Governments to ensure their attainment by all people, beginning with direct assistance to the least advantaged through guided programs of self-help and community action. Governments should endeavor to remove all impediments hindering attainments of these goals, of special importance is the elimination of social and racial segregation, inter alia, through the creation of better balanced communities, which blend different social groups, occupation, housing, and amenities.”
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979, S = 1980, R = no) - Article 14 (h): Declares women’s right “to enjoy adequate living conditions, particularly in relation to housing…
Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989, S = 1995, R = no) - Article 27.3: “State Parties, in accordance with national conditions and within their means, shall take appropriate measures to assist parents and others responsible for the child to implement this right and shall in case of need provide material assistance and support programs, particularly with regard to nutrition, clothing, and housing”
Charter of Organization of American States (1948, S = 1948, R= 1951) - Article 34 (k): In order to achieve “equality of opportunity, the elimination of extreme poverty, equitable distribution of wealth and income and the full participation of their peoples in decisions relating to their own development…” States should ensure provision, among other basic rights, of “adequate housing for all sectors of the population.”
American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man (1948, S= 1948, R = n/a) - Article 8: “Every person has the right to fix his residence within the territory of the state of which he is a national…” Article 9: “Every person has the right to the inviolability of his home.” Article 11: “Every person has the right to the preservation of his health through sanitary and social measures relating to food, clothing, housing and medical care to the extent permitted by public and community resources.” Article 23: “Every person has the right to own such private property as meets the essential needs of decent living and helps to maintain the dignity of the individual and of the home.”
American Convention on Human Rights (1969, S = 1977, R = no) - Article 11: Every person has the “right to privacy…the right to have his honor respected and his dignity recognized”, and freedom from “arbitrary or abusive interference with his private life, his family, his home…” - Article 21: “Everyone has the right to the use and enjoyment of his property.”
Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (1988, S = no, R = no) - Article 11: “Everyone shall have the right to live in a healthy environment and to have access to basic public services. The State Parties shall promote the protection, preservation, and the improvement of the environment.”
Current Human Rights Work
The Housing Caucus, under the leadership of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, has engaged in regional and national trainings on housing and human rights in Los Angeles (2003 and 2006), Chicago (2005), Florida (2007), and Washington, DC (2003, 2005, 2006). Out of these trainings, a number of strategies have emerged. (See Case in Point below for Chicago-based work.)
In Los Angeles, the trainings have led to the creation of a local coalition for the right to housing led by Beyond Shelter, which has already successfully campaigned to include the human right to housing as one of the seven guiding principles of L.A.’s ten-year plan to end homelessness. This principle reads:
By reaffirming that housing is one of the basic human rights, the County of Los Angeles and cities have the opportunity to demonstrate true leadership on a national scale. By committing to the development of strategies and resources necessary to end homelessness in 10 years, the County of Los Angeles and cities commit to progressively realize this right.
The L.A. coalition is currently drafting local human rights legislation and engaging in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) shadow reporting process.
Coming out of the 2006 training, based on concerns of training participants from across the country, NLCHP is working on a human rights approach to the issue of separation of children from homeless families. In the coming year, NLCHP will issue a report examining domestic and international practices and explore the integration of human rights principles into policy and litigation at the state and local level, and as part of this strategy anticipates pressing the issue before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Because of the unprecedented destruction and the widespread dispersal of evacuees, the restoration of the Gulf region will have deep implications at all policy levels. Important issues of housing, resettlement, and education will most certainly continue to arise, and from these issues, new legal precedents will emerge. Following on the strong participation of groups from the Gulf Coast in our 2006 national training, the Caucus is collaborating with groups in New Orleans to help promote a human rights approach to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts there.
A 2007 training in Florida brought together over 200 activists and government officials, who are now crafting locally relevant talking points to promote the human right to housing. The Florida Bar Public Interest Law Section is now incorporating human rights standards into all their future Continuing Legal Education trainings and policy discussions. Additionally, NLCHP is currently in consultation with Florida lawyers regarding integrating international standards on cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment into an 8th Amendment case for the destruction of tents of homeless persons in Florida.
Suggested Advocacy Strategies
Currently, the right to housing is unlikely to be enforceable on its own terms in U.S. courts. But it can be used as an advocacy tool, in courts and in other arenas.
Legal advocacy. Courts are increasingly looking to international law as an interpretive guide when U.S. law is ambiguous. International law on equal protection protects against laws with discriminatory impact as well as intent – in advance of most US law - and has been cited by courts from local to federal Supreme Court level. The international right to housing can also inform state constitutional provisions on subsistence and welfare rights.
Policy advocacy. Legislative advocates can promote the right to housing at all levels of government. Several cities have passed resolutions affirming the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the ICESCR; Los Angeles included the right to housing in their 10-year plan to end homelessness; Cook County, IL (Chicago) passed a resolution recognizing the right to housing which led to increased funding for affordable housing from the state; San Francisco passed a law to implement the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in the city, which has resulted in greater safety for homeless women and girls; activists in New York City are working on a similar bill; Pennsylvania passed two resolutions creating a commission to investigate ways to integrate human rights standards into state laws and policies; and California adopted the CERD definition of racial discrimination into state statutory law in order to resist attacks on affirmative action.
Grassroots advocacy. Because human rights are universal, they provide an inclusive, unifying framework that can help counter current divisive and punitive responses to poverty, and empower traditionally disfranchised groups. By incorporating responsibilities along with rights, the human rights framework also helps counter some of the current assumptions underlying those responses. Additionally, human rights are inter-dependent and can serve as an umbrella to bridge various groups – for example those working on homelessness to those working on healthcare or education issues.
Public education. The Housing Caucus engage in multiple forms of outreach, including regional and national trainings. A recent training in Los Angeles led to the creation of an ad hoc coalition on the right to housing in LA, which is in turn working on additional education and policy objectives. Trainings in 2007 will be held in Florida, Minnesota, and Washington, DC.
Models. Other countries, comparable to the United States, have ratified and incorporated the ICESCR; some include a right to housing in their constitutions. Scotland has enacted a law to end homelessness within 10 years, providing for immediate transfer of homeless persons into temporary and then permanent housing, and including a provision that would allow individuals to sue the government for failing to do so. France is working on a similar law.
Advocacy with International Bodies. U.N. committees and other international bodies, such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, monitor the right to housing. Nonprofit groups can submit reports to them about the status of housing rights in the U.S. to call attention to the issue. For example, in 2005, a coalition of advocates requested and obtained a hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights at the Organization of American States on the status of housing rights in the Americas, with a focus on the U.S., Canada, and Brazil. In 2006, as a result of the advocacy of a number of U.S. activists, the UN Human Rights Committee concluded the U.S. was in violation of the right of non-discrimination because while only 12% of the population is African American, African Americans make up 50% of the homeless population. The Committee called upon the government to take steps to remedy this ongoing violation.
A Case in Point
The Chicago Coalition to Protect Public Housing (CPPH) launched its Housing is a Human Right Campaign in February 2005. By combining a human rights framework with a community organizing strategy, the CPPH planned to preserve low-income housing for the 1000 families that live in the Cabrini Green public housing development. In April of 2005, the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) announced, in contradiction to previous legal settlements, to summarily close half of the development down in 90 days. The CHA did not offer any on-site replacement housing nor did they allow the soon to be displaced residents the opportunity to move into the hundreds of vacant units that would remain in Cabrini Green.
The CPPH and Cabrini Green residents responded to this attempt to destroy their community by filing a law suit and organizing the residents to fight for their human rights. At the urging of the Cabrini Green resident leadership, the law suit was the first in Chicago's history to cite international legal standards. After several months of litigation, supported by a strong organizing campaign in Cabrini Green, the the federal judge ruled that any resident who wanted to stay in Cabrini Green could do so until such a time as adequate replacement housing has been built. Although this was a major victory for the residents facing displacement and the destruction of their community, the fight is not over. The CHA has continually attempted to ignore this ruling and has yet to plan for any replacement housing for the units it has torn town. However, the resident leadership at Cabrini Green has continued to fight and to increase their base of support. Hundreds of families still remain in Cabrini Green, fighting for their Human Right to Housing.
Resources
General:
Beyond Shelter
Founded in 1988, the mission of Beyond Shelter is to develop systemic approaches to combat poverty and homelessness among families with children and enhance family economic security and well-being. Beyond Shelter accomplishes its goals through responsive service delivery, people-centered community development, and the creation of knowledge for social change. Beyond Shelter leads the L.A. Coalition for the Human Right to Housing. http://www.beyondshelter.org/
The Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation (CERA)
A not-for-profit charitable organization located in Canada, CERA works to realize the right to adequate housing, the right to an adequate standard of living, and encourages others to stand up for all of their social and economic rights. CERA conducts public education, research, advocacy, and eviction prevention. www.equalityrights.org/cera
Centre on Housing Rights & Evictions (COHRE)
COHRE is a non-governmental, not-for-profit human rights organization. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, but with a U.S. office in Duluth, MN, COHRE campaigns to protect housing rights and prevent forced evictions. Their website is an excellent source of information and resources. http://www.cohre.org/
Chicago Coalition for the Homeless
The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) organizes and advocates to prevent and end homelessness based on our belief that housing is a human right in a just society. CCH is Alternate Chair of the Housing Caucus. http://www.chicagohomeless.org/
Coalition to Protect Public Housing (CPPH)
Founded in 1996, in response to the federal mandate to demolish more than 100,000 units of public housing nationwide- 18,000 of those units in Chicago, affecting the lives of 42,000 people- The Coalition to Protect Public Housing (CPPH) is an advocacy group of public housing residents, community-based organizations, religious institutions, businesses, and non-profit organizations all working to protect the rights of public housing and to ensure the future of public housing. http://www.limits.com/cpph/
Habitat International Coalition (HIC)
Habitat International Coalition (HIC) is an independent, international, non-profit alliance of some 400 organizations and individuals working in the area of human settlements. The strength of the Coalition is based on its worldwide membership that includes social movements, grassroot organizations, civil society organizations, NGOs, academia and research institutions, and like-minded individuals from 80 countries in both North and South. A shared set of objectives bind and shape HIC's commitment to communities working to secure housing and improve their habitat conditions. http://www.hic-net.org/
Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights
Heartland Alliance is a service-based, human rights organization focused on investments in and solutions for the most poor and vulnerable men, women, and children in our society. Heartland Alliance believes that everyone has the right to adequate housing and works to realize that right by providing housing and human rights protections for those in need. http://www.heartlandalliance.org/
Housing Rights, INC.
Housing Rights, Inc. offers housing rights counseling, legal referrals, affordable housing advocacy, homeownership preparation, and housing provider training. Housing Rights, Inc. commits to “fight for equal access to housing for everyone by eliminating barrier to housing choice” through human rights education, outreach, and advocacy. http://www.housingrights.com/
Human Rights Watch (HRW)
Human Rights Watch commits itself to the protection of human rights in all parts of the world. The organization is dedicated to investigating and exposing human rights violations and holding abusers accountable for their actions. http://www.hrw.org/
National Alliance of HUD Tenants (NAHT)
Founded in 1991, NAHT is the first national membership organization of resident groups advocating for 2.1 million lower income families in privately-owned, HUD-assisted multifamily housing. Through NAHT, tenants have proven that united action can mount an effective campaign to save people’s homes. NAHT chairs the U.S. section of the Habitat International Coalition. http://www.saveourhomes.org/
National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH)
The National Alliance to End Homelessness is a leading voice on the issue of homelessness. The Alliance analyzes policy and develops pragmatic, cost-effective policy solutions. We work collaboratively with the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to build state and local capacity, leading to stronger programs and policies that help homeless individuals and families make positive changes in their lives. We provide data and research to policymakers and elected officials in order to inform policy debates and educate the public and opinion leaders nationwide. http://naeh.org/
National Center for Human Rights Education (NCHRE)
NCHRE educates people about their human rights, trains people to educate others, and assists communities in claiming and realizing their human rights. NCHRE is a center for human rights education strategies and resources; the center offers workshops and trainings. The website is a wonderful source of information, including a list of “10 Things You Can Do”. http://www.nchre.org/
National Coalition for the Homeless
The National Coalition for the Homeless, founded in 1984, is a national network of people who are currently experiencing or who have experienced homelessness, activists and advocates, community-based and faith-based service providers, and others committed to a single mission. That mission, our common bond, is to end homelessness. We are committed to creating the systemic and attitudinal changes necessary to prevent and end homelessness. At the same time, we work to meet the immediate needs of people who are currently experiencing homelessness or who are at risk of doing so. We take as our first principle of practice that people who are currently experiencing homelessness or have formerly experienced homelessness must be actively involved in all of our work. http://www.nationalhomeless.org/
National Economic & Social Rights Initiative (NESRI)
NESRI works with the social justice community to develop strategies, models and structures for effectively using international economic and social rights standards in US advocacy. Human rights offer a conceptual and practical framework for the social justice community to come together and build a movement to ensure freedom, security and dignity for all people. http://www.nesri.org/
National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA)
The National Fair Housing Alliance is the only national organization dedicated solely to ending discrimination in housing. NFHA works to eliminate housing discrimination and to ensure equal housing opportunity for all people through leadership, education and outreach, membership services, public policy initiatives, advocacy and enforcement. http://www.nationalfairhousing.org/
National Healthcare for the Homeless Council (HCH)
The National Health Care for the Homeless (HCH) Council is a home for those who work to improve the health of homeless people and who seek housing, health care, and adequate incomes for everyone. In the National HCH Council, agencies and individuals, clinicians and advocates, homeless people and housed people come together for mutual support and learning opportunities, and to advance the cause of human rights. http://www.nhchc.org/
National Housing Institute (NHI)
The National Housing Institute was founded in 1975 as an independent nonprofit organization that examines the issues causing the crisis in housing and community in America. NHI examines the key issues affecting affordable housing and community development practitioners and their supporters. These issues include housing, jobs, safety, and education, with an emphasis on housing and economic development, as well as poverty and racism, disinvestment and lack of employment, and breakdown of the social fabric. http://www.nhi.org/
The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (NLCHP)
The mission of the Law Center is to prevent and end homelessness by serving as the legal arm of the nationwide movement to end homelessness. To achieve its mission, the Law Center pursues three main strategies: impact litigation, policy advocacy, and public education. To amplify the work of its small staff, the Law Center relies on interns, volunteers, and the pro bono assistance of the private bar. NLCHP currently chairs the Housing Caucus, and has a wide array of materials on the human right to housing available at its website. http://www.nlchp.org/
National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC)
The National Low Income Housing Coalition is dedicated solely to ending America's affordable housing crisis. We believe that this is achievable, that the affordable housing crisis is a problem that Americans are capable of solving. While we are concerned about the housing circumstances of all low income people, we focus our advocacy on those with the most serious housing problems, the lowest income household. http://www.nlihc.org/
The National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness (NPACH)
NPACH is a national grassroots organization whose primary concern is to ensure that national homelessness policy accurately reflects the needs of local communities. http://www.npach.org/
New York City Aids Housing Network (NYCAHN)
The New York City AIDS Housing Network (NYCAHN) is an award winning membership organization comprised and led by low-income people living with HIV/AIDS working in a unique coalition with nonprofit housing providers and AIDS service organizations. Given that housing is a human right, it is our mission to empower low-income people living with HIV/AIDS to organize our community, including the non-profits that serve us, to advocate for more housing, better housing and sound public policies for all people living with HIV/AIDS. NYCAHN led efforts to pass a bill recognizing a right to housing for people living with AIDS in New York City. http://nycahn.org/
People’s Movement for Human Rights Learning
Founded in 1988 as the People’s Decade of Human Rights Education (PDHRE), this non-profit, international service organization seeks to make human rights education “relevant to people’s daily lives in the context of their personal struggles for social and economic justice and democracy.” This group focuses on all aspects of human rights education—including the right to adequate housing. www.pdhre.org/rights/housing.html
Poverty & Race Research & Action Council (PRRAC)
PRRAC is a civil rights policy organization convened by major civil rights and anti-poverty groups in 1989. PRRAC's primary mission is to help connect social scientists with advocates working on race and poverty issues, and to promote a research-based advocacy strategy on issues of structural racial inequality. PRRAC is leading efforts to report to CERD on health and housing discrimination matters. http://www.prrac.org/
UN-HABITAT
The United Nations Human Settlement Programme pursues the Habitat Agenda, which holds that governments should take responsibility for the realization of the human right to adequate housing. Their mission is to “promote socially and environmentally sustainable human settlements development and the achievement of adequate shelter for all.” http://www.unhabitat.org/
Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP)
Founded in Spring, 2005, the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) is an innovative organization determined to make ending homelessness a national priority. By ensuring that legislators in Washington, DC receive a constant, consistent, constituent-informed message from the west coast, WRAP strives to shape public policies that address the systemic causes of poverty, ensure adherence to human rights, and are also grounded in the experiences of those who live with and work on homeless issues every day. http://www.wraphome.org/
Resource Guides
Housing Rights for All: Promoting and Defending Housing Rights in the U.S. Resource Manual, Second Edition
Produced by COHRE and NLCHP, "Housing Rights for All" is designed to address the right to adequate housing for all and provides strategies on how to promote that right. Sections include: Monitoring Housing Rights, Domestic and International Advocacy Options, and Engaging in Strategic Litigation in the United States. The manual also provides information on international law and domestic law, including detailed appendicies, described below. http://nlchp.org/content/pubs/Human%20Rights%20Resource%20Manual%20FINAL%20PDF.pdf
Housing Rights for All Resource Manual Appendix: Local and State Human Rights Resolutions
http://nlchp.org/content/pubs/Local%20and%20State%20Human%20Rights%20Resolutions.pdf
Housing Rights for All Resource Manual Appendix: U.N. General Comment and Fact Sheets
http://nlchp.org/content/pubs/U.N.%20General%20Comment%20and%20Fact%20Sheets.pdf
Housing Rights for All Resource Manual Appendix: U.S. Federal and State Case Law Asserting Economic and Social Rights as Human Rights
http://nlchp.org/content/pubs/U.S.%20Case%20Law.pdf
For Sample Documentation of Housing As a Human Rights Issue See
2007 Report on Illinois Poverty
Heartland Alliance and the Mid-America Institute on Poverty
Heartland Alliance and the Mid-America Institute on Poverty produce a comprehensive annual update on Illinois Poverty. This report illuminates conditions and trends of poverty in Illinois and is a useful tool for researchers, service providers, and the wider community. This year’s report states: “Safe, decent, and affordable housing is a fundamental human right. To be realized, Illinoisans must be able to put a roof over their head without depleting all their resources and must be able to access programs designed to help those who have no affordable housing options and those who have difficulty retaining stable housing.” For more information about housing in Illinois, you can find the report online at: http://www.heartlandalliance.org/maip/research.html
Not Even A Place In Line
In January, 2007, the Mid-America Institute on Poverty at Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights published this study of public housing and housing choice voucher capacity and waiting lists in Illinois.
http://www.heartlandalliance.org/maip/documents/NotEvenaPlaceinLine2007_001.pdf
Snapshot of Supportive Housing Residents Across Illinois
The Mid-America Institute on Poverty at Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights produced this study of supportive housing in Illinois for the Supportive Housing Providers Association in January, 2007. The report summarizes survey results from 476 supportive housing tenants from 11 Illinois counties. The report explains what supportive housing is, where it is utilized in Illinois, and describes its residents.
http://www.heartlandalliance.org/maip/research.html#Affordablehousing
Without Housing
Thoroughly documented by WRAP in 2006 using federal budget data and other sources, Without Housing presents data on housing and human rights with passion and vitality, and uses artwork to give life to the words and data to express the pain and frustration experienced by real human beings abandoned by a federal government more concerned with the profits of corporations than with the well-being of its poorest people. http://www.wraphome.org/wh_press_kit/Without_Housing_20061114.pdf
Homelessness in the United States and the Human Right to Housing
A 2004 report by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty which details the right to housing and current U.S. violations of this right. http://nlchp.org/content/pubs/Homeless%20in%20the%20US%20&%20the%20Human%20Right%20to%20Housing-RTH%20Report%20(2004).pdf
A Right to Housing: Foundation for a New Social Agenda
Leading activists and scholars contributed essays to this book, which thoughtfully considers vital issues related to America's housing crisis. A Right to Housing: Foundation for a New Social Agenda examines income inequality and insecurity, segregation and discrimination, the rights of the elderly, and various legislative and judicial responses to homelessness. The book details how access to adequate housing is directly related to economic security and proposes comprehensive, progressive changes. Overall, this book presents a convincing analysis of the continuing inability of the United States to meet the housing needs of its people. (Editors: Rachel G. Bratt, Michael E. Stone, and Chester Hartman)
Homlessness, Litigation and Law Reform Strategies
Published in the December 2004 editions of the Australian Journal of Human Rights - this article is part of the Symposium: Housing, Homelessness and Human Rights issue.
http://nlchp.org/content/pubs/AustrialianJournal_Foscarinis_2004.pdf
No Second Chance: People with Criminal Records Denied Access to Public Housing. Human Rights Watch, 2004
This report exposes a U.S. federal policy that excludes needy people with criminal records the right to public housing. The current federal policy is a “one strike” rule—which allows no second chances. The policy requires that public housing authorities exclude people with certain types of criminal records and allows them discretion to exclude others as well. This report assesses public housing exclusionary policies against human rights standards and demonstrates that these policies are arbitrary, unreasonable, and discriminatory.
http://hrw.org/reports/2004/usa1104/usa1104.pdf
For Sample International Complaints Regarding the Right to Housing See:
Testimony of Maria Foscarinis, Before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Situation of the right to adequate housing in the Americas Hearing, 122nd Period, 3/2005 http://nlchp.org/content/pubs/IACHR%20Testimony%203-4-05.pdf
Housing Rights for All Resource Manual Appendix: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
http://nlchp.org/content/pubs/Inter-American%20Materials.pdf
Housing Rights for All Resource Manual Appendix: Homelessness and U.S. Compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
http://nlchp.org/content/pubs/ICCPR%20Reports.pdf
Monday, March 12, 2007
Sidewalk ordinance, 3/13/07 Berkeley city council
Mayor Tom Bates has come out with a rather vaguely worded ordinance concerning restrictions on sidewalk sitting on the streets where people shop in Berkeley. The particular focus is on homeless people sitting on the sidewalks of Telegraph and Shattuck. This will be combined with a focus on providing services and mental health treatment but no more funding is linked to this specifically at this point. The Berkeley Homeless Union, myself with the BOSS Community Organizing Team and the Disabled People Outside Project at the request of Osha Neumann, lawyer for Community Defense Inc. have been getting the word out by flyer and by word of mouth to get people to show up for tomorrow city council meeting on Tuesday March 13th, 2007 and speak out about their concerns about this proposal to restrict sidewalk sitting. On two other previous occassions(as part of Measure O back in 1994-96 and then again in 1998) I successfully was able to organize resistance to previous attempts to ban sidewalk sitting in the shopping districts. I have talked to a number of the street youth and others on the street about this ordinance since Friday. It seems supporters of the ordinance have already been organizing to come and speak for the proposed ordinance which is on the city council agenda.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Housing Speakout Rally - Feb. 27, 2007
Do you think we are in a Housing Crisis? Do you want to see more affforable housing in Berkeley? Want to hear others or talk about it?
Come to the Berkeley Homeless Union Housing Speakout Rally on Tuesday, February 27, 2007 at 6:00 pm at the Berkeley City Council Chambers (2180 Milvia Street in Berkeley). To learn more about the Berkeley City Council and upcoming meetings, please visit their website at http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/.
Come support better housing.
Hope to see you there.
BOSS Community Organizing Team
Come to the Berkeley Homeless Union Housing Speakout Rally on Tuesday, February 27, 2007 at 6:00 pm at the Berkeley City Council Chambers (2180 Milvia Street in Berkeley). To learn more about the Berkeley City Council and upcoming meetings, please visit their website at http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/.
Come support better housing.
Hope to see you there.
BOSS Community Organizing Team
Get Involved
Each month the City of Berkeley Homeless Commission holds it's monthly meeting discussing issues regarding the homeless situation in Berkeley. If you want to learn more regarding homeless issues or want to voice your comments, please attend these meetings.
The meetings are scheduled for the 2nd wednesday of each month at 7:00 pm at the North Berkeley Senior Center. The North Berkeley Senior Center is located at 1901 Hearst Street in Berkeley.
If you want to learn more, check out the City of Berkeley Homeless Commission website at http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/homeless/default.htm.
Hope to see you there.
The meetings are scheduled for the 2nd wednesday of each month at 7:00 pm at the North Berkeley Senior Center. The North Berkeley Senior Center is located at 1901 Hearst Street in Berkeley.
If you want to learn more, check out the City of Berkeley Homeless Commission website at http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/homeless/default.htm.
Hope to see you there.
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Update on MTC Meeting
I went to the Wed. Urban Habitat Transportation Justice (TJ) meeting and spoke to the Metroploitian Transportation Coalition (MTC) whom voted to table adopting transportation principles #3 and #4, until the new MTC members come in (Mayor Tom Bates being one, whom with the rest of the Berkeley city council supported the TJ principles but we have lost SF Supervisor Tom Ammaniano a key TJ ally whom I talked to last year during a break).
In the meeting, the MTC presented charts countering ours which showed poor minority people don't really ride AC Transit; though their charts showed MUNI clearly was unfairly funded and utilized by poor minority riders.
I spoke to the MTC to the issue that due to the rate hikes, service cuts, overcrowding, grouchiness of overworked bus riders on the main Oakland lines poor people are voting with their tired feet and remain underrepresented.
I will have a blog closer to the next meeting, so if you believe problems exist in the transportation system and want to learn more, advocate, etc. you can attend the next meeting.
In common struggle,
Michael Diehl
In the meeting, the MTC presented charts countering ours which showed poor minority people don't really ride AC Transit; though their charts showed MUNI clearly was unfairly funded and utilized by poor minority riders.
I spoke to the MTC to the issue that due to the rate hikes, service cuts, overcrowding, grouchiness of overworked bus riders on the main Oakland lines poor people are voting with their tired feet and remain underrepresented.
I will have a blog closer to the next meeting, so if you believe problems exist in the transportation system and want to learn more, advocate, etc. you can attend the next meeting.
In common struggle,
Michael Diehl
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