Sponsors (30)
The bill protects the basic survival, privacy, and civil liberties of people experiencing homelessness on federal land while shifting constraints onto federal and local agencies — improving individual safeguards but potentially increasing public-safety, management, legal, and fiscal burdens for communities and taxpayers.
People experiencing homelessness on federal public land can perform life-sustaining activities (sleeping, eating, resting) without fear of criminal or civil penalties, reducing immediate risk of harm.
Federal agencies must define and rely on 'adequate alternative indoor space' with accessibility and accommodations before displacing people, which limits forced removals when appropriate shelter is unavailable.
Stored personal property (including in vehicles) receives greater privacy and protection from unreasonable searches by treating possessions more like a private dwelling, reducing loss and intrusion for people without housing.
Local communities, transit users, and park visitors could face increased public-safety, sanitation, and access issues because agencies would have reduced ability to penalize or remove life-sustaining uses of public land.
The bill constrains land managers' flexibility to balance competing public uses, potentially creating conflicts between unhoused occupants and other users of federal public spaces.
Federal agencies may face increased litigation and compliance costs from private suits and Department of Justice enforcement, which could raise taxpayer expenses.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Bars federal agencies from penalizing homeless people for specified life-sustaining activities on public land, creates an affirmative necessity defense, and allows civil enforcement with fee-shifting.
Introduced June 26, 2025 by Pramila Jayapal · Last progress June 26, 2025
Prohibits federal agencies from penalizing people experiencing homelessness for a range of life-sustaining activities and certain uses of public land, including sleeping, sheltering in lawfully parked vehicles or RVs, storing possessions with privacy protections, soliciting donations, and practicing religion. It creates a private right of action and authorizes the Attorney General to seek injunctions and recover litigation costs and attorney’s fees for violations. Establishes an affirmative necessity defense for criminal charges when no adequate alternative indoor space is available, creates a rebuttable presumption that such space was unavailable, requires courts to notify defendants of the defense, and sets standards for what counts as an adequate alternative indoor space (accessibility, nondisplacement, indefinite free availability, disability accommodations, and allowance for pets/partners/possessions). Definitions reference federal homelessness and vehicle standards.