National Forum on the Human Right to Housing

Registration is now open for the National Forum on the Human Right to Housing, June 7-8, 2011 in Washington, D.C.

The forum offers an opportunity to learn more about the exciting work going on across the country and around the world in advocacy for the right to housing and to participate in planning for the next steps we can take together. One workshop, "Preventing Homelessness in the Housing Crisis" will focus on topics particularly relevant to this group. Speakers will include Geraldine Doetzer, National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty; Jonathan Harwitz, U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development; Gail Laster, Rep. Barney Frank's Office; and Rob Robinson, Take Back the Land. This panel will focus on several solutions to homelessness in an era of rampant foreclosure: ranging from legal tools like the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act to grassroots movements like “Take
Back the Land.”

Additional workshops will discuss a wide range of timely topics, from the rights and needs of homeless and unstably housed children to an education, to housing rights of domestic violence survivors, to human rights approaches to budget analysis. It will conclude with a Congressional briefing on the right to housing, and an opportunity for advocates to meet with their representatives.

Confirmed speakers also include:  

• Peter Edelman, Professor of Law and Director of the Center on Poverty, Inequality, and Public Policy, Georgetown University School of Law
• Barbara Ehrenreich, best-selling author of Nickel & Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
• Pam Fessler, poverty & philanthropy correspondent, National Public Radio 
• Bryan Green, General Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing at HUD
• Barbara Poppe, Executive Director, U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness
• And more!

The forum is co-sponsored by the American Bar Association Commission on Homelessness & Poverty. We are grateful for the support of the U.S. Human Rights Fund; Au Bon Pain; Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP; and Jones Day.

For more information, and to register, see www.nlchp.org/2011forum.cfm.