These next sections specify National and State League positions that justify elements of the proposed Action Policy. The full position statements are given in the LWVUS publication Impact on Issues and the LWVC publication Action Policies and Positions. (links are embedded in position name). Positions are quoted in bold; the extrapolations from those positions used to justify the language in the Action Policy are in italics. View the related Local League Action Policy Toolkit and our Glossary. 

LWVUS Positions

Meeting Basic Human Needs (as it relates to Homelessness)

Support programs and policies to prevent or reduce poverty and to promote self-sufficiency for individuals and families. Support income assistance programs, based on need, that provide decent, adequate standards for food, clothing, and shelter. Provide essential support services. Support policies to provide a decent home and a suitable living environment for every American family.

• In order to promote self-sufficiency, it is important to advocate for a living wage.

• Ensure that safety net services provide the support necessary to prevent people from becoming homeless.

• Advocate for appropriate supportive services to prevent families and individuals from falling into homelessness, as well as if they should become homeless. Area Continuums of Care (COC)* via Coordinated Entry Systems (CES)* ensure that the best supportive services are provided in a timely fashion.

• Assume “every American family” means any resident of the state.

Equality of Opportunity (as it relates to Homelessness)

Support equal access to education, employment and housing.

• Advocate for access to a quality education for all people, which is vital in order to obtain upward mobility and access to good-paying jobs.

• Support job training and re-training in specific skills to give all people access to employment, especially those whose skills may not match up with current economic needs.

Urban Policy (as it relates to Homelessness)

Promote the economic health of cities and improve the quality of urban life

• Target economic and community development assistance to families and individuals most in need, and especially to those who are impoverished or on the verge of becoming impoverished.

• Promote policies to encourage businesses to locate in distressed communities and neighborhoods through financial incentives such as investment tax credits, loan guarantees, interest subsidies, and subsidies to hire the long-term unemployed and formerly incarcerated.

• Support policies that promote a balance between jobs and housing, including land-use policies to promote jobs and housing in proximity to one another.

• Support a comprehensive mass transit system to ensure all workers can reach their employers more easily while keeping greenhouse gas emissions low.

Health Care (as it relates to Homelessness)

Promote a health care system for the United States that provides access to a basic level of quality care for all U.S. residents and controls health care costs.

• Advocate for access to quality and affordable health care for all people regardless of income. 

• Advocate for mental health care as an integral part of basic health care services.

• Advocate for prenatal programs for homeless women who are pregnant.

Natural Resources (as it relates to Homelessness)

Promote the management of natural resources as interrelated parts of life-supporting ecosystems. Pollution of these resources should be controlled in order to preserve the physical, chemical, and biological integrity of ecosystems and to protect public health.

• Support social justice programs that strive to improve air and water quality in communities that historically have suffered from high levels of air and water pollution.

•  Homeless services and facilities should be sited within walking distance of transit to the extent possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Violence Prevention as it relates to Homelessness

Support violence prevention programs in communities.

• Advocate for programs to educate law enforcement on how to de-escalate domestic violence situations.

• Urge policies, practices, regulations, and laws that address violence against people experiencing homelessness.

• Support safe facilities for battered women, and their children, many of whom are homeless or on the verge of homelessness.

• Support protection of homeless people from random acts of violence.

• Support programs to give victims of domestic violence access to job training to enhance their marketability for employment.

• Support emergency shelter and housing interventions for domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking survivors who are fleeing, or attempting to flee, and have no other residence, and lack the resources or support networks to obtain other permanent housing.

LWVC Positions

Children and Family Issues Action Policy (as it relates to Homelessness)

Support policies and programs that promote the wellbeing, development, and safety of all children

• Make it a priority to keep families experiencing homelessness together.

• Support programs that provide for affordable early childhood education and developmental services, including pre-K.

• Encourage a strong support system for juveniles who may become separated from one or both parents due to divorce, court order, prison, or death.

• Advocate for childcare and after-school care for homeless families.

• Advocate for an extended safety net for foster care children as they age out of the system as well as other young adults (16-26). 

Criminal Justice (as it relates to Homelessness)

The LWVC supports the elimination of systemic bias, including the disproportionate policing and incarceration of marginalized communities:

Policing

• Establish de-escalation (the use of time, distance, communications, and available resources whenever it is safe to do so) and anti-bias training; ensure all staff is provided with this training.

• Authorize minimal use of force during police encounters with the public and consider deadly force only when necessary to prevent imminent death or serious bodily injury. 

Pre-Trial

• Ensure no person suffers discrimination before the law due to their economic status nor should they be subject to risk assessment tools that can produce biased outcomes.

• Recognize that mental health conditions and substance abuse/addictions are public health issues, not crimes.

• Implement the use of specialty courts, e.g. drug treatment courts and restorative justice programs.

• Consider community-based treatment programs and other alternatives to incarceration when appropriate. 

Sentencing

• Consider the individual circumstances of the person charged and the nature of the crime, rather than mandatory minimum sentences. 

• Consider split sentencing and/or alternatives to incarceration when appropriate.

Housing & Homelessness as it relates to Homelessness

Support of equal opportunity in housing. Support of measures to provide state programs to increase the supply of safe, decent, and adequate housing for all Californians. Support for action at all levels of government for the provision of affordable housing for all Californians.

• Advocate for policies to provide a decent home and suitable living environment for all.

• When families or individuals cannot afford decent housing, the role of the government is to provide assistance in the form of income and/or assisted housing.

• Advocate for removing local barriers to building extremely low, very low, low-income, and affordable housing* in all areas of California.

• Take proactive measures to protect residents from evictions, displacement, and housing discrimination.

• Advocate for the preservation of all types of existing low-income housing, both naturally affordable and those with rent restrictions due to expire.

Land Use (as it relates to Homelessness)

Support state land use planning that recognizes land as a resource as well as a commodity. The state should establish guidelines and standards for land areas of more than local concern.

• Advocate for enforcement of state requirements that local jurisdictions plan for sufficient land with adequate zoning for housing to meet the needs of all income categories.

• Encourage, and incent, local jurisdictions to reduce regulatory constraints that make it more difficult and costly to build affordable and extremely low, very low and low-income housing.*

• Support legislation to allow more homeless, extremely-low, very low, and low-income housing* to be built “by-right” without public hearings or special land use permits.

• Support legislation to allow homeless facilities “by-right” in mixed-use and commercial zones.

• Promote regional planning in order to plan growth in an orderly manner including housing for all levels of low- and moderate-income families.

• Affordable housing for low- and moderate-income families and individuals should be planned as part of balanced communities with provision for adequate public facilities and services. Such housing should be dispersed throughout cities and regions while avoiding undue concentration in any particular neighborhood or community. Support incentives to build such housing.

Mental Health Care (as it relates to Homelessness)

Support an adequately funded mental health care system that provides comprehensive services to the acutely, chronically, and seriously mentally ill of all ages; maintains optimal mental health services for all clients; places emphasis on meeting the needs of children; offers mental health services for the homeless; seeks additional funds for preventive services; implements a master plan to integrate services; raises awareness of critical unmet needs, and emphasizes case management.

• Advocate for outreach services to work with the homeless where they live.

• Recognize that finding shelter/housing for the homeless, such as emergency shelter, rapid rehousing, permanent supportive housing, and bridge housing*, is often a needed first step to ensure that continuous care can be provided.

State & Local Finance as it relates to Homelessness

Support measures: to ensure revenues both sufficient and flexible enough to meet changing needs for state and local government services; that contribute to a system of public finance that emphasizes equity and fair sharing of the tax burden as well as adequacy; that include long-range finance methods that meet current and future needs while taking into account the cumulative impact of public debt.

• Recognize that support for homeless individuals and families is a responsibility of all levels of government – federal, state, and local.

• Advocate for the creation of dedicated funding sources for the sole purpose of affordable, extremely low, very low, and low-income housing*, as well as any type of homeless housing construction, acquisition, and maintenance.

• Encourage partnerships with corporations, philanthropic institutions, and individual donors to secure private funding to augment public funding in order to reduce and prevent homelessness.

 *See Glossary