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Home , Right to housing

as a Human Right

By Eric Tars, Senior Attorney,National Law Universal Declaration of Human (UDHR), Center on & Poverty recognizing adequate housing as a component of the human right to an adequate standard of living. olling indicates that three-quarters of Americans believe that adequate housing is a human The UDHR is a non-binding declaration, so the right, and two-thirds believe that government right to adequate housing was codified into a Pprograms need to be expanded to ensure this right. binding treaty law by the International Covenant But the massive cutbacks to federal housing funding on Economic, Social and (ICESCR) in the early 1980s have never been restored, which in 1966. The United States signed the ICESCR, and has resulted in our current crisis of homelessness. thus must uphold the “object and purpose” of the Today only one out of four income-eligible renters treaty, even though the U.S. has not yet ratified it. receives assistance—far from a rights-based approach. The U.S. ratified the International Covenant on Civil Beginning in 2012, due to well-organized advocacy, and Political Rights in 1992, and the International the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial (USICH), the U.S. Departments of Justice (DOJ), and Discrimination in 1994. Both recognize the right to HUD have all taken enforcement actions and adopted be free from discrimination, including in housing, language against the criminalization on the basis of race, gender, disability, and other of homelessness. At the state level, there is a trend status. The U.S. also ratified the Convention Against of homeless bills of rights, and locally, a number of in 1994, protecting individuals from torture municipalities have passed resolutions declaring their and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, belief in housing as a human right. including the criminalization of homelessness. Many in the housing advocacy world believe that More recently, there were hints that the U.S. might housing should be a right for all, but are not as have interest in revitalizing the human right to vocal or insistent as the issue demands. Now, housing. In 2010, President Obama stated that it faced with the prospect of more cuts to already is “simply unacceptable for individuals, children, inadequate housing programs at the federal, state, , and our nation’s veterans to be faced with and local levels, housing advocates can use the homelessness in this country.” In March 2011, international human rights framework—which the U.S. made commitments to the U.N. Human deems housing a basic human right—to reframe Rights Council to “reduce homelessness,” “reinforce public debate, craft and support legislative safeguards to protect the rights” of homeless proposals, supplement legal claims in court, people, and continue efforts to ensure access advocate in international fora, and support to for all. In 2015, the U.S. community organizing efforts. Numerous United government supported, in part, a recommendation Nations (U.N.) human rights experts have recently from the Human Rights Council to “Guarantee the visited the United States or made comments directly right by all residents in the country to adequate bearing on domestic housing issues including housing, food, health and education, with the aim affordable and , homelessness, and of decreasing poverty, which affects 48 millions of the foreclosure crisis, often providing detailed people in the country.” recommendations for federal- and local-level In October 2016, the U.S. signed onto the New policy reforms. In 2018, advocates must work Urban Agenda, the outcome report of the U.N. to consolidate these gains and push for action to Habitat III conference. The signatories “commit to accompany the rhetoric. promote national, sub-national, and local housing policies that support the progressive realization of HISTORY the right to adequate housing for all as a component In his 1944 State of the Union address, Franklin of the right to an adequate standard of living, that Roosevelt declared that the United States had a address all forms of discrimination and violence, “,” including the right to a prevent arbitrary forced evictions, and that focus decent . In 1948, the United States signed the on the needs of the homeless, persons in vulnerable

NATIONAL LOW INCOME HOUSING COALITION 1–13 situations, low income groups, and persons affordable housing such as inclusionary zoning with disabilities, while enabling participation or the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, through and engagement of communities and relevant market regulation such as rent control, through stakeholders, in the planning and implementation legal due process protections from eviction or of these policies including supporting the social foreclosure—and the right to counsel to enforce production of habitat, according to national those protections, by ensuring habitable conditions legislations and standards.” The Agenda also stated through housing codes and inspections, or by other “we commit to combat homelessness as well as to means. Contrary to our current framework which combat and eliminate its criminalization through views housing as a commodity to be determined dedicated policies and targeted active inclusion primarily by the market, the right to housing strategies, such as comprehensive, inclusive, and framework gives advocates a tool for holding each sustainable housing first programmes.” level of government accountable if any of those As of the writing of this chapter, USICH, DOJ, elements are not satisfied. and HUD all currently address criminalization France, Scotland, South Africa, and other countries of homelessness as a human rights issue on their have adopted a right to housing in their constitutions websites and have implemented recommendations or legislation, leading to improved housing conditions. of human rights bodies. This is a result of advocacy In Scotland, the Homeless Act of 2003 includes the related to visits by U.N. human rights monitors right for all homeless persons to be immediately and reviews by human rights bodies in Geneva. housed and the right to long-term, supportive The DOJ filed a statement of interest brief arguing housing for as long as needed. The law also includes criminalization of homelessness violates the an individual right to sue if one believes these rights 8th Amendment and human rights standards, are not being met, and requires jurisdictions to plan and HUD provided up to two points on their for development of adequate affordable housing funding applications to Continuums of Care that stock. Complementary policies include the right to demonstrated steps they were taking to end and purchase public housing units and automatic referrals prevent criminalization. Homeless people on the by banks to foreclosure prevention programs to help streets of America are sleeping safer today because people remain in their . All these elements work of international human rights advocacy, but much together to ensure the right to housing is upheld. more remains to be done to ensure the human right Although challenges remain in its implementation, in to adequate housing is a reality for all. general, Scotland’s homelessness is a brief, rare, and non-recurring phenomenon. ISSUE SUMMARY According to the U.N. Committee on Economic, FORECAST FOR 2018 Social and Cultural Rights, which oversees the The current U.S. Administration and Congress pose ICESCR, the human right to adequate housing some potential threats both to the enjoyment of consists of seven elements: (1) security of the right to adequate housing by Americans, and tenure; (2) availability of services, materials, and to the acceptance of a rights-based approach to infrastructure; (3) affordability; (4) accessibility; (5) housing. Issues to watch for include proposals to habitability; (6) location; and (7) cultural adequacy. cut non-defense spending every year, which directly In the human rights framework, every right conflicts with a rights-based approach and would creates a corresponding duty on the part of the be devastating to affordable housing programs government to respect, protect, and fulfill the right. including vouchers, public housing, Having the right to housing does not mean that the and project-based rental assistance (which need to government must build a for every person increase every year just to keep pace with inflation); in America and give it to them free of charge. It reform-type changes such as work does, however, allocate ultimate responsibility to requirements and time limits to all anti-poverty the government to progressively realize the right programs, which again undermine the ability to adequate housing, whether through devoting to access needed housing as a right; and block resources to public housing and vouchers, by granting of more funds (which can make it easier to creating incentives for private development of use anti-poverty funding for other purposes).

1–14 2018 ADVOCATES’ GUIDE It is precisely in this time of ongoing economic affordable housing. Advocates can also hold local hardship that a rights-based approach to budgeting government accountable to human rights standards and policy decisions would help generate the by creating an annual Human Right to Housing will to protect people’s basic human dignity first, Report Card. Using international mechanisms and rather than relegating it to the status of an optional the domestic process around them—such as the policy. National Law Center on Homelessness & review by the Committee on the Elimination of Poverty, together with many other housing and Racial Discrimination described above—can also homelessness organizations (including NLIHC), cast an international spotlight on local issues. launched the Housing Not Handcuffs Campaign in 2016, linking local and national advocacy against WHAT TO SAY TO LEGISLATORS criminalization of homelessness and for housing. It is important for legislators and their staff (as well One potential opportunity to address federal agencies as other advocates) to hear their constituents say within the human rights context may come in the “Housing is a human right,” and to call for policies planned review of the U.S. by the U.N. Committee to support it as such, because this helps us to change on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. As of the the normative framework for all of the housing issues time of this writing, the U.S. is overdue in submitting we work on. That said, there are also times when it its report to the Committee, but it may do so at any is more strategic not to utilize the language of human time, initiating a year-long process where advocates rights per se, but to emphasize or advocate for the can engage to highlight housing issues in the context underlying programs or policies that would help to of racial discrimination. better guarantee the right in practice. At the state level, Rhode Island, Illinois, and For the situations where it is appropriate to frame the Connecticut have all passed Homeless Bills of broader case on housing as a human right, tying the Rights; and California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, concept to the United States’ origins and acceptance Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Hawaii are all likely to of these rights in Roosevelt’s “Second Bill of Rights,” consider similar legislation in 2018. the polling data above, and showing the affirmations of this language by USICH, HUD, and the DOJ all Locally, advocates in many cities are working emphasize it as a homegrown idea rather than one to pass right to housing resolutions or directly imposed from abroad. On a somewhat converse implement the right to housing. Advocates in point, however, using the recommendations made by Eugene, OR, have successfully used human rights human rights monitors can also reinforce advocates’ framing to create political will for a safe camping messages by lending them international legitimacy. area for homeless persons. Groups such as the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign are organizing Both the American Bar Association and the eviction and foreclosure defenses, and using a International Association of Official Human Rights state law allowing nonprofits to take over and Agencies (the association of state and local human rehabilitate vacant to draw attention to rights commissions) have passed resolutions and directly implement the human right to housing. endorsing a domestic implementation of the human right to housing, which local groups are TIPS FOR LOCAL SUCCESS using as tools in their advocacy. In reaching out Local groups wishing to build the movement to religiously motivated communities, it may be around the human right to housing in the United helpful to reference the numerous endorsements States can use international standards to promote of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in favor policy change, from rallying slogans to concrete of the human right to housing, and that Pope legislative proposals. Groups can start with a Francis called for the human right to housing to be non-binding resolution stating that their locality implemented during his 2015 visit to the U.S. All recognizes housing as a human right in the context of these can lead us to a future where housing is of the ongoing economic and foreclosure crisis, enjoyed as a right by all Americans. such as that passed by the Madison, WI, city council and the surrounding Dane County Board FOR MORE INFORMATION of Supervisors in November 2011, which later National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, served as a basis for an $8 million investment in 202-638-2535, [email protected], www.nlchp.org

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