We, the North Carolina chapter of the National Union of the Homeless, condemn House Bill 437 as dangerous to our lives and an affront to our human rights. Rather than providing housing we can afford, or unlocking the vast amount of vacant corporate real estate being held hostage, this bill makes us criminals. We aren’t criminals. More people will die because of this bill–it will kill Veterans, survivors of Hurricane Helene and tropical storm Chantel, families with children, domestic abuse survivors, everyday North Carolinians that have been abandoned by our government.

We sleep outdoors because we have nowhere else to go. Would you arrest Jesus if he lived in North Carolina? He didn’t have a home, he slept outside with others who didn’t have homes. And he made it very clear that he wanted us to act with love for the ones who had the least. (see Gospel of Matthew chapter 25). That’s us.

City shelters are full and not always safe; there are many reasons why they are not appropriate places for some of us. A lot of us have jobs but they don’t pay enough for us to afford sky high rent. What this bill actually does is make it a crime to sleep–do you want to arrest us and give us a bed in the jail? That’s a very expensive option for the government, in so many ways. We know there are 27 empty homes per unhoused person in our country (US Census & national Point In Time counts) and we DEMAND you unlock those homes for us before you lock us up in the jails.

This bill says it is humane, but it isn’t – it is cruel and gives us no realistic options. It appears you just want to push us poor North Carolinians out of the state altogether, but we have a human right to live, and sleep is necessary for life.

Pushing us out of public view, and requiring towns to set up a tent encampment with all these stipulations – but only for one year – these are concentration camps! Your bill will require law enforcement to arrest us for sleeping outside before the towns can even get everything together to set up an encampment. If you truly want to improve the lives of North Carolinians, then do everything in your power to guarantee housing as a human right, provide decent jobs with living wages for all, abolish profiteering from our healthcare systems, proliferate diverse mental health and substance use practices, and allow democracy to flourish from our workplaces to our communities.

NC locals, National Union of the Homeless

nchomelessunion@gmail.org

919-335-3038