The Housing Not Handcuffs Act
About The Housing Not Handcuffs Act
Introduced by Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Rep. Maxwell Frost on June 26th, 2025, the Housing Not Handcuffs Act is restorative legislation that prevents federal agencies from arresting, ticketing, or otherwise criminalizing homelessness. Created in response to the horrific results of the Grants Pass Supreme Court Case, Housing Not Handcuffs ensures that homeless people cannot be arrested or ticketed by federal police when:
- living on federal lands when there are no other options without blocking traffic
- asking for help or donations in public places
- practicing religion in public spaces
- living in a vehicle without blocking traffic
Instead of wasting taxpayer money on ineffective and cruel bills that punish people, Housing Not Handcuffs eliminates criminalization as an option and redirects elected officials to focus on the real solutions to homelessness: housing and supportive services that everyone needs to thrive.
The Supreme Court got it wrong. Congress must act.
On June 28th, 2024, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Johnson v. Grants Pass that cities to arrest and ticket people for experiencing homelessness. In the year since, more than 320 bills have been introduced to throw people in jail and charge them thousands for sleeping outside. 230 of them have passed. These backwards laws do nothing to address the real cause of homelessness: the sky-high cost of housing. Instead, they waste taxpayer dollars and make homelessness worse. Criminal records and more debt push people deeper into poverty and homelessness. The Housing Not Handcuffs Act will help solve homelessness by refocusing attention away from systems of harm, and towards housing and care.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does it mean to make homelessness a crime?
Everyone needs a safe place to live. Instead of fulfilling people’s basic needs, politicians are making homelessness worse by throwing people in jail for sleeping outside.
To criminalize homelessness means to threaten and/or use police, arrests, fines, and tickets to punish people for sleeping, laying down, asking for help, or just existing in public places. Homeless encampment evictions, where homeless people are forced out of public spaces through harassment and threats, are a cruel benchmark of criminalization.
Criminalizing homelessness and poverty is not new. Homelessness is and has always been a policy choice, one that disproportionately harms Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, as well as disabled people and LGBTQ+ people.
What is the Grants Pass Supreme Court case?
On April 22nd 2024, the Supreme Court of the United States heard the case of Johnson v. Grants Pass. On June 28th, a decision was announced that cities and states can arrest people for sleeping outside, even when there are no safe alternatives.
The Supreme Court has given cities and states across the U.S. permission to punish people who are forced to sleep outside, even when they have no other safe option. A ruling like this does nothing to end homelessness, and punishes people for existing in public simply because they have nowhere else to go.
Studies and experience show that criminalizing homelessness only leads to more homelessness. Prohibiting acts of human survival, such as sleeping outside, is a waste of taxpayer money and actually makes it harder to connect people with housing. This ruling is a clear sign that the Supreme Court, as well as many elected officials across the political spectrum, would rather side with billionaires and make homelessness worse than simply ensure everyone is safely housed.
What are the real causes of homelessness?
The number one cause of homelessness is the dire lack of affordable housing. Decades of failed, racist housing policies have turned the basic need of housing into a commodity only the wealthy few can afford. Instead of focusing on fulfilling people’s needs, politicians are criminalizing homelessness by giving handcuffs to poor people and handouts to billionaires.
- For every $100 increase in rent, homelessness goes up by 9%.
- 60% of Americans can’t afford the basic costs of living.
- More than half of Americans pay more than they can afford in rent and one in four people worry about becoming homeless.
- 75% of voters say that lack of affordable housing is the primary cause of homelessness.
- 77% of voters say that we need to address homelessness through housing and services rather than arrests.
How can I help solve homelessness in my community?
The Housing Not Handcuffs Act is a federal bill modeled after a state-local template legislation, the Gloria Johnson Act, named after the lead plaintiff in the Johnson v. Grants Pass case. The Gloria Johnson Act also prevents governments from enacting laws that make it a crime to be homeless. GJA has now been introduced in over ten states.
If you’re an advocate or part of an organization trying to solve homelessness in your community, reach out to Jesse Rabinowitz at the National Homelessness Law Center (jrabinowitz@homelesslaw.org) to learn more about introducing GJA to your community.