Latest Homelessness News

Sweltering streets: Hundreds of homeless die in extreme heat
PHOENIX (AP) — Hundreds of blue, green and grey tents are pitched under the sun’s searing rays in downtown Phoenix, a jumble of flimsy canvas and plastic along dusty sidewalks. Here, in the hottest big city in America, thousands of homeless people swelter as the summer’s triple digit...

Vatican to start monthly newspaper by and with the poor
ROME (AP) — The Vatican newspaper is starting a new monthly edition dedicated to the poor and people on the margins, aimed at not only telling their stories but involving them in the paper's production and distribution, the Vatican said Friday. The first edition of L’Osservatore...

Black veteran groups seek policy agenda on racial inequities
As a young man in Memphis, Tennessee, Robert Dabney Jr. wanted to blaze a path that could set his family up for a better life. So two weeks after high school graduation in 1998, at age 18, he joined the U.S. Army. During nine years of service that included two tours in Iraq, Dabney...
Board wants management plan for shelter pods for homeless
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — A city board in Burlington has signed off on the development of a shelter pod community for the homeless population in Vermont’s largest city. Members of the Burlington Development Review Board said Tuesday night that they want to see a...

CA governor's mental health court plan advances amid worries
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A controversial proposal by California Gov. Gavin Newsom to prod more homeless people into mental health treatment is making its way through the Legislature, despite deep misgivings from lawmakers struggling to address a problem that reaches every corner of the state. ...

California eyes banning loitering for prostitution arrests
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers on Monday finally sent Gov. Gavin Newsom a hot potato of a bill that would bar police from making arrests on a charge of loitering for prostitution, nine months after the measure passed the Legislature. Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener...

No tickets yet from team enforcing Denver's camping ban
DENVER (AP) — The temperature ticked upward recently as members of Denver’s Street Enforcement Team talked with two men living in tents and under patio umbrellas near a scrap yard just south of the Auraria Campus. The team, known as SET, had been here before and was looking for a...

Judge OKs Los Angeles' lawsuit settlement on homelessness
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal judge this week gave final approval to a lawsuit settlement that commits the city of Los Angeles to sheltering or housing thousands of homeless residents within five years. In approving the deal reached in April, U.S. District Judge David Carter wrote...
Portland, Oregon, to vote on major government overhaul
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A commission formed to review the government structure in Portland, Oregon, has voted by a supermajority to send a sweeping slate of reforms to voters in November amid rising dissatisfaction with livability issues and the current leadership structure. The...
Georgia man gets 2-year sentence in counterfeit check scheme
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A Georgia man was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Rhode Island to two years in prison for his role in a scheme that recruited homeless people to cash counterfeit checks at banks around New England in exchange for a small fee. The scheme that ran from...
