H.Res. 1249 — Unhoused Persons Bill of Rights

This section expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States must protect specified fundamental civil and human rights of unhoused individuals, including rights to housing, non-discrimination in public services and assistance programs, access to restrooms and shelters, sleeping in public without penalty, religious practice, self-employment, voting, medical care, education, privacy, and protest. The section further expresses the sense of the House that the United States must (1) establish regulations and enforcement tools to protect unhoused individuals from violations by law enforcement and private entities; (2) provide legal protections for third parties distributing food, clothing, or services to unhoused individuals; and (3) create a civil action process for such violations that awards damages, attorney’s fees, and costs to prevailing plaintiffs, with leniency for plaintiffs' documentation challenges.

This section directs the House of Representatives to strive to provide specified funding and policy changes to address homelessness, including (1) reallocating not less than $168 billion from the defense budget to permanently end and prevent the unhoused crisis; (2) allocating $148.4 billion every five years to the Public Housing Capital Fund, full funding to the Public Housing Operating Fund until the unhoused crisis ends, $42.4 billion annually to the National Housing Trust Fund for homes affordable to lowest-income households, and $3.18 billion annually for a permanent Emergency Rental Assistance Program; (3) the highest possible funding for public restrooms and sanitation facilities proportional to unhoused populations, trash services in unhoused areas, and federal housing and supportive services programs such as the Continuum of Care, Emergency Solutions Grants, HUD-VASH vouchers, Community Development Block Grants, VAWA transitional housing, SAMHSA homeless grants (GBHI, TIEH, PATH), Health Care for the Homeless, HIV prevention, McKinney-Vento education, and Indian Housing Block Grants; (4) the highest funding for universal K-12 school meals, expanded SNAP/TANF/WIC eligibility without purchase restrictions (including hot/ready-to-eat foods), and fair housing enforcement; and (5) permanent authorization of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. This section further directs the House to strive to (1) increase low-income housing by funding construction to replenish units lost since 1978, fully funding operating subsidies, and repealing the Faircloth Amendment (which limits net increases in public housing units); (2) provide universal housing choice vouchers through the Section 8 tenant-based program; (3) reauthorize Runaway and Homeless Youth and Trafficking Prevention Act programs with at least $318 million, including street outreach; and (4) expand Fair Housing Act protections to prohibit discrimination based on prior housing status, domestic violence effects, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, and source of income, particularly in shelters and supportive housing.

This section directs the House of Representatives to strive to require the Departments of Justice, Housing and Urban Development, and Health and Human Services to coordinate with community advocates, policymakers, and unhoused individuals to develop guidelines, policies, and procedures for decriminalizing unhoused individuals and communities and providing resources and direct services to unhoused communities, and to submit a report to Congress within six months of enactment.