FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 16, 2025
CONTACT: Unai Montes, press@peoplesaction.org, 202-660-0605 (bilingual)
Ahead of a national week of action that coincides with the anniversary of the Grants Pass ruling, People’s Action Institute, National Homelessness Law Center, VOCAL-US, Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) and organizations across the country are calling on Congress to change course on their federal budget proposals and pass the Housing Not Handcuffs Act.
A livestreamed web briefing with U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) on this new legislation will be held on Tuesday, June 17 from 8-9 p.m. EDT. Register here.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Those at risk of losing their housing and currently unhoused Americans will be joined by U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., for an online press and public event calling attention to the national housing and homelessness crisis.
255 laws to put people in handcuffs before they put them in housing have been introduced since the Supreme Court ruled in Grants Pass v. Johnson, that people can be arrested for being outside, even in places that do not offer shelter, Over 9 million of our loved ones and neighbors could be forced into homelessness by congressional cuts to rental assistance following Donald Trump’s attack on housing programs and renters’ rights and threats to force homeless people into government-run detention camps.
Participants will urge congressional leaders to protect essential programs and services supported by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and call for lawmakers to sponsor the Housing Not Handcuffs Act and invest in housing, not handcuffs.
WHAT: People fighting criminalization while experiencing homelessness or
struggling to afford housing calling on the Senate to change course on the budget and
announcing a week of action that includes events in Louisville, Ky., Austin, Texas,
Rochester, N.Y., Chicago, Il., and a June 25, 3 p.m. Eastern press conference in the
House Triangle in Washington, D.C., with U.S. Reps. Jayapal, D-Wash., and Maxwell Frost,
D-Fla.
WHO: U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.
Helen Cruz – Grants Pass, Oregon resident
Mandy Hodge – Deschutes County, Oregon resident
Lindsey Krinks – Open Table Nashville
Sulma Arias – People’s Action Institute
Antonia Fasanelli – National Homelessness Law Center
Paul Boden – Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP)
Reginald Brown – VOCAL-New York
VOCAL-Kentucky
Hoosier Action
WHEN: Tuesday, June 17, 2025, 8 p.m.–9 p.m. Eastern
WHERE: https://ppls.ac/housingnow
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About People’s Action Institute:
For over five decades, People’s Action Institute and our affiliates have fought for reforms that recognize poor and working people’s dignity and make material and political improvements to millions of lives. Our victories include the Community Reinvestment Act, Superfund, the Affordable Care Act, the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act and the MAT Act.
We engage in issue campaigns, public education and training to advance a long-term agenda for racial, economic and gender justice. Our focus now is on deepening community organizing so we can build lasting power across the country.
About the National Homelessness Law Center:
The National Homelessness Law Center is committed to protecting the rights of unhoused people across the United States and advocating for policies that prevent and end homelessness, and ensuring that all people have access to safe and adequate housing.
About VOCAL-US:
VOCAL-US is a national organization dedicated to ending AIDS, the drug war, mass incarceration, and homelessness, and the next chapter for Voices of Communities Activists and Leaders. VOCAL-US embodies years of work in New York, in addition to new fights taken on by VOCAL-KY and VOCAL-TX, by harnessing advocacy by directly-impacted people to a national scale.
About WRAP:
By empowering homeless people and communities, WRAP strives to balance the debate by putting forth a vital alternative perspective, pushing for smarter, representative, and accountable public policy that protects those most in need rather than punishing them for their circumstances. Through our research, community organizing, and policy advocacy, we aim to translate the outrage at sleeping bodies in public into a catalyst for change in attitudes and practices rather than something to quickly hide away from sight, disregarding human dignity and rights for appearances’ sake.
For more information, visit: https://peoplesactioninstitute.org/