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Connecticut on its way to enact the “Homeless Bill of Rights”
June 12, 2013Connecticut is on the cusp of enacting a major new law to protect people who are homeless from discrimination.
Last week, Connecticut lawmakers passed the “Homeless Person’s Bill Of Rights” at the literal 11th hour — 11:30pm on June 5th, one half hour before the legislative session ended. The bill, SB 896, a landmark piece of legislation to protect homeless individuals’ rights, adds homeless people as a protected class who can’t be discriminated against in employment, housing, or public accommodations. It also includes protections for homeless people to move freely in public spaces, such as parks and sidewalks, without being singled out for harassment by law enforcement officers.
Here are the bill’s seven protections:
(1) Move freely in public spaces, including on public sidewalks, in public parks, on public transportation and in public buildings without harassment or intimidation from law enforcement officers in the same manner as other persons;
(2) Have equal opportunities for employment;
(3) Receive emergency medical care;
(4) Register to vote and to vote;
(5) Have personal information protected;
(6) Have a reasonable expectation of privacy in his or her personal property; and
(7) Receive equal treatment by state and municipal agencies.
This is no symbolic victory, Michael Stoops, Director of Community Organizing at the National Coalition for the Homeless, explained. “Homeless people are regularly discriminated against in employment and housing,” Stoops told ThinkProgress.
Nate Fox, Project Supervisor for Faces Of Homelessness Connecticut, a group that advocated for the bill, hailed its passage. “Currently, there are certain civil liberties that could be automatically wiped out when you walked into a homeless shelter,” Fox told ThinkProgress. This bill not only fixes that unintended side effect of shelters and other homeless services, it’s also “changed the conversation on how to protect homeless persons’ rights,” Fox said.
The bill now awaits Gov. Dan Malloy’s (D) signature before it can take effect at its scheduled date of October 1, 2013. It will not only play a major role in preventing discrimination against homeless people; it could also have an effect on municipalities like Hartford which currently have anti-loitering and anti-panhandling ordinances.
If it ultimately becomes law, Connecticut will become just the second state in the nation to enact a Homeless Person’s Bill of Rights. Last year, Rhode Island became the first state to do so. Illinois could increase the number to three if Gov. Pat Quinn (D) signs a bill which passed the legislature recently, and other states like Oregon and Delaware are considering similar legislation.
A Homeless Bill of Rights is also pending in California. Last month the Assembly’s Judiciary Committee approved the legislation but the Appropriations Committee put it on hold until January 2014.
With the regular harassment homeless people in California (especially those living on Skid Row) & in other states face, this kind of Bill of Rights legislation could help protect basic human rights like the freedom of movement, healthcare & employment.
Some good news!!! I can hardly believe it!!
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Florine Stettheimer, Still Life with Flowers, 1921 (at de Young Museum)
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My heart just broke…..
oh ym god what does it say after “but i’m”
“Hungry”
“Ashamed to beg, but I’m hungry”crying
Had to reblog. While some people are wasting cash on the newest cars, clothes, etc. We have people practically starving here. It’s sickening how selfish some people can be and how reality is. But I have to say, thank god for the people who actually have a heart to help the ones who struggle. We’re all human beings, nobody deserves this.
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Haha!
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So I am suspended for 30 days from Facebook because I posted this photo.
This is a picture of me with the wonderful women of the Himba tribe in Namibia, Africa. These women treated me with respect and kindness. They were sitting in town making bracelets and just sort of hanging out with each other and their children. My family and I thought these women were really cool, so we bought some bracelets from them and asked for a picture. They were excited and motioned for me to sit with them.
So I ask you, are people in western culture just SO brainwashed by patriarchy they can’t STAND to see women who live differently? Are we just so fucking offended that we need to deem these women as dirty, sexual, pornographical, vulgar? Are people on facebook just THAT ignorant about the rest of the world, where they feel the need to report something because they don’t understand it? These women are doing nothing wrong. They’re simply just living their every day life, like you or I would. Yet facebook is literally PUNISHING me for posting a photo with them.
It’s incredibly racist. I don’t see photos of fake breasted, spray tanned, scantily clad white women being reported or taken down. I’ve seen countless photos of white girls, even underage white girls, who post photos revealing MUCH more than in this photo, and they don’t get reported or banned.
Why is it that nearly every week, I see some sort of video on facebook of a girl masturbating with a banana or beer bottle, a dog fucking a girl, a woman getting her head cut off, someone stepping on kittens, just all kinds of horrible inappropriate shit, yet those videos and photos hardly EVER get taken down? Why is it I’ve seen actual like pages of rape jokes/memes, and those are funny and acceptable? But a photo of a fucking African woman is wrong? Does facebook also report and ban pages like National Geographic? I’m pretty sure their whole JOB is to inform others about different places and people in the world, which is OBVIOUSLY a crime! How dare we let these women expose their breasts! Don’t they know us Americans find that horrible and disgusting?! They should be ashamed! Conform to our standards of how you should live immediately! You’re doing it all wrong! We obviously know what’s best for you, because we’re white and we’re right.
So thank you facebook, for showing us all the piece of shit you truly are.
Please reblog this so everyone can know and see.
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