Sponsors (10)
Official title: Expressing that the United States is obligated to permanently end the unhoused crisis by 2029 and uphold, protect, and enforce the civil and human rights of unhoused individuals, including the human rights to housing, universal health care, livable wages, education, employment opportunities, access to public facilities, free movement in public spaces, privacy, confidentiality, internet access, vote, freedom from harassment by law enforcement, private businesses, property owners, and housed residents, and equal rights to health care, legal representation, and social services without discrimination based on housing status.
Introduced April 30, 2026 by Rashida Tlaib · Last progress April 30, 2026
The bill strengthens rights and expands service- and housing-focused responses for people experiencing homelessness—potentially reducing criminalization and improving access to care—but does so at the cost of higher fiscal and administrative burdens for governments, increased legal exposure for providers and property owners, and uneven outcomes depending on implementation.
People experiencing homelessness gain explicit statutory recognition of a broad set of rights (housing, healthcare, sanitation, voting, ID access), strengthening legal protections and remedies for rights violations.
Low-income and unhoused people would face fewer arrests and criminal penalties through decriminalization of many homelessness-related activities, reducing criminal justice harms and related long-term consequences.
The bill promotes expanded access to housing, health, and social services (housing-first policies, universal rental assistance approaches, coordinated resources, and evidence from emergency rental assistance), which could stabilize millions of households.
Expanding services, housing supports, and potential federal funding (public housing repairs, full voucher funding, rental assistance) implies substantially higher costs for federal, state, and local governments and could increase taxpayer burdens.
The new statutory rights and civil remedies are likely to prompt increased litigation and legal costs for municipalities, nonprofit providers, and businesses defending claims, raising local government and organizational expenses.
Landlords, property owners, and small businesses may face stricter liability, regulatory changes, or reduced operational flexibility (including stronger renter protections and universal assistance preferences), increasing compliance costs.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Declares a House policy recognizing a broad Bill of Rights for unhoused people, urges decriminalization and large funding priorities for housing and services, and directs agency coordination and a report.
Declares the sense of the House that people experiencing homelessness should have a broad set of civil, human, and service-access rights, and that federal policy should prioritize preventing and ending homelessness. It enumerates specific rights for unhoused individuals, urges protections from criminalization and private discrimination, asks courts to allow remedies for violations, and directs federal agencies to coordinate with communities to develop decriminalization and service-delivery guidelines. The resolution also urges the House to strive to allocate very large funding levels (including a nonbinding recommendation to reallocate defense funds) and to prioritize existing HUD, HHS, DOJ, and other program funding for housing, emergency rental assistance, public housing capital and operating needs, health and behavioral programs, school meals, and anti-poverty benefits. The language is hortatory and does not itself appropriate money or change statute; it expresses policy goals, funding priorities, and a reporting request for coordinated agency guidance within six months of related enactments.