In 2014, the United States continues to face an affordable housing crisis. Homelessness was already a national crisis prior to the foreclosure crisis and economic recession. An estimated 2.5 to 3.5 million men, women, and children were experiencing homelessness each year, including a total of 1.35 million children, and over a million people working full or part-time but unable to pay for housing. The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (NLCHP) has written a report card that assesses the current level of U.S. compliance with the human right to housing in the context of American homelessness. It primarily considers the steps the federal government has taken to end and prevent homelessness, with reference to state and local practices where relevant.
The 2014 Report Card is also adapted from the NLCHP submission to the U.N. Human Rights Council for the U.S. government’s second Universal Periodic Review, which the Law Center coordinated and submitted together with the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign, National Coalition for the Homeless, National Fair Housing Alliance, National Low Income Housing Coalition, and Unity Parenting and Counseling, Inc. and was endorsed by a further forty-six organizations and individuals. The report charges that the U.S. has failed to uphold its obligations to protect the human right to adequate housing, under international law and under its specifically accepted recommendations to promote the right to housing and protection of homeless persons from its first review in 2010.
Click here to access the report
