This report, a joint effort of the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (“the Law Center”), documents the rise of homeless encampments and “tent cities” across the United States and the legal and policy responses to that growth.
With this report, we examine a few representative tent cities with the objective of illuminating the factors giving rise to their creation, the stories of their inhabitants, and the ways in which communities have responded. Given existing documentation of West Coast encampments, we focus primarily on East Coast and Southern tent cities—in particular, those located in Providence, Rhode Island; Lakewood, New Jersey; New Orleans, Louisiana; and St. Petersburg, Florida. We also review the growing body of domestic and international law affirming the human right to housing, including the right not just to shelter, but to housing that is decent and affordable. While maintaining that the existence of tent cities itself reflects a severe lack of affordable housing—and thus a violation of the human right to adequate housing–we find that when adequate housing or shelter is not available, forced evictions of tent communities may violate human rights, and may also violate principles of domestic law. We end with several recommendations for best practices in dealing with tent cities and mitigating homelessness, including providing assistance to those living in tent cities and facilitating their transition to permanent housing.