Over the past year more than 3 million Americans were homeless. A scary thing is that a lot more people are at risk of becoming homeless. The Department of Housing and Urban Development conducted a study in 2001 which showed that nearly 5 million low-income American households were paying more than a half of their income on rent and thus were a great risk of becoming homeless. A great number of circumstances like missed paycheck, health problems or unpaid bills can force these families into homeless. One of the main reasons for homelessness is obviously deficit of housing that poor families can afford. National Law Center has special projects that are aimed to increase a number of affordable housing. NLCHP has helped to convert federal property worth more than $100 million into housing, job training centers, and child care facilities for homeless people. These places help thousands of homeless people every year. NLCHP also helps to Increase Housing Through Enforcement of Civil Rights by supporting and advocacy consultations. NLCHP assists local groups to battle Not-In-My-Back-Yard opposition to siting of housing for homeless people. NLCHP has issued two reports documenting NIMBY impact on housing and services for homeless people, talking about Fair Housing Act protections for siting of such facilities, and suggesting practical actions to reduce NIMBY resistance.
Since the level of income has a great effect on risk becoming homeless, the Law Center has developed Income Project that is focused on providing Supplemental Security Income, food stamps, welfare, and some other benefits for homeless people. NLCHP runs an Earned Income Tax Credit campaign with the help of which homeless workers can find out more about the tax credit and how to receive it, since tax credit is a great increase in income. The Law Center also helps homeless people wit mental disabilities to receive Mental Illness Disability Benefits.
The Law Center implements effective actions according to the McKinney-Vento Act, the law that provides a great number of educational rights to homeless children. NLCHP also supports parents, guardians and educators all over the country to make sure that homeless children have an access to public schools, so they can get proper education. The Center makes great effort to enforce different laws and policies that would protect homeless children and teens.
Another very important aspect for homeless people is civil rights. The NLCHP does not leave this aspect aside. It fights against the laws that prohibit homeless people conducting life-sustaining activities in public places, even if there are no private spaces provided for homeless to conduct these activities. For instance, laws do not allow sleeping in public places even if a person does not have a home where to sleep. Some laws might not allow eating in public places. To help out homeless people regarding this issue, the Law Center has Civil Rights Project that advocates against the laws that I have mentioned above. On March 4, 2005 in Washington D.C. the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, one of two organizations in the inter-American structure for the encouragement and protection of human rights, had a inquiry to evaluate fulfillment with the basic human right to housing by the largest Western nations.
It is crucially important that NLCHP updates and innovates its programs regularly. For example, at the end of January 2005 the Center presented Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness to D.C. City Council. The D.C. plan like many others is mainly focused on chronically homeless. However, it should also focus on homeless families and children. In order to end homelessness, according to NLCHP, a number of policies have to be implemented to eliminate the basic causes of this unwanted by any society issue. The Law Center’s main goal is to increase the number of affordable housing, raise incomes, so people can afford to pay rent and still have money left over, and increase government assistance to homeless people.
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