Contact Us

Please see below for all email updates sent in April 2025. Feel free to reach out to Katie at kmeyerscott at homelesslaw.org with any questions or to be added to the email list!

**********

From: Katie Meyer Scott
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2025 10:02 AM
To: Index <index@homelesslaw.org>
Subject: Update 4/11/25

Hello all,

Wanted to give an update on a new procedure for our Office Hours (and a reminder that our next session is Tues, 4/15 from 3:30-5:00 PM ET). In order to speed up our screening process and accommodate larger groups when there is a need to gather to discuss big changes or strategize around pressing issues, we’re going to start using a registration form that will be sent a few days before each office hours. Here is the registration for Tuesday:

Once you fill out the form, we will manually approve your registration and send the zoom link, which will only work for the email you used to register. This will allow us to pre-vet everyone and let folks in the room more quickly at the beginning of the session so that we can get down to business and cover more questions! We are a little sad to lose the “drop in” quality of our previous model BUT we’ll keep the registration link open until a few hours before each session. And you can always “drop in” to my email.

I wanted to focus the rest of this mini update on the dangers youth in shelter face from immigration enforcement (content warning). We quietly spread the word earlier this week to our partners in LA that ICE agents detained two young people outside of a youth shelter. Quietly because in light of the continued threats from the administration (for instance, this letter from the HUD Sec’y), the shelter providers we spoke with feel that it is important to not draw further attention to who they serve, so that they can continue to serve them.

Besides sharing as many resources as we can with the shelter involved to try to get legal help to the detained youth, we’ve been gathering information about what happened to see if we can glean any helpful recommendations to better protect youth in shelter. Here is what we know:

  1. The car was unmarked, but the agents who emerged wore ICE vests and were armed. Shelter staff had noticed the vehicle in the area for a while before the youth were detained but didn’t realize it was ICE.
  2. The detained youth are Venezuelan (a stated focus of this administration) and had only been at the shelter for a month – so staying up to date on who the admin is targeting might help identify who is most at risk.
  3. It is unclear why these young people were on ICE’s radar. A few clues – they were recently cited for something extremely minor and likely listed their address as the shelter on the citation. They may have also failed to appear for a hearing on the citation. So, we can’t say for sure, but it seems likely the ICE is running whatever names they have against any public court records?

If you are or you know a young person who may be at risk of being targeted by ICE, you can make arrangements ahead of time for getting connected with legal counsel, and alerting loved ones, etc. For instance, providers could create a release form that would allow them to retain legal counsel for a young person who is detained, as well as gather instructions re: who else to contact.

Here is some general know your rights info: https://www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/wp-content/uploads/Home-Raid-community-Flyer-ENGL-February-2025.pdf, as well as a comprehensive guide geared towards shelter providers: https://homelesslaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/ICE-Guidance.pdf.

California has a Rapid Response Network to respond to ICE activity: https://www.ccijustice.org/rapid-response. Local numbers can be found here: https://www.ccijustice.org/carrn. There may be something similar in your jurisdiction! The ABA Homeless Youth Legal Network is working on an immigration specific legal directory, which we will share soon.

And finally, I will be out of the office most of next week. Thanks for your understanding if my responses are a bit more delayed than usual!

-Katie

**********

From: Katie Meyer Scott
Sent: Monday, April 7, 2025 3:46 PM
To: Index <index@homelesslaw.org>
Subject: Update 4/7/2025

Hi everyone,

I am currently riding high from a choral performance of Dolly Parton songs that I saw this weekend and hope you all have gotten to do things that delight and sustain you since the last time I wrote.

This is going to be a short update in the interest of urgently sharing some analysis about the changes to FY2024 Continuum of Care grant agreements that will trickle down to many youth homelessness providers and that may signal what to expect for grant agreements for other federal programs and future NOFOs:

I inadvertently held a mini-webinar on the draft analysis during our last office hours but this has now been vetted by multiple legal and regulatory experts and we are comfortable sharing the actual document now. Please do not share the link or code with anyone else without explicit permission from me.

We are working on planning an actual webinar to discuss these changes and hopefully include some actual recommendations and guidance for operating under these…conditions.

I wanted to also share that I am meeting with some cross-sector experts and stakeholders next week to do a deeper dive into the data privacy and data management piece that connects with all of this (both for HMIS and beyond) and will hopefully have a timeline for some comprehensive guidance soon. In the meantime, I did see this webinar advertised by Bitfocus (their HMIS software is called Clarity Human Services): https://aloha.bitfocus.com/privacy-security-events. I am not familiar enough to fully vouch for them but it does appear that they provide HMIS services to some of the largest CoCs. I am going to try to attend.

I am working on additional updates that I will share later this week. FYI that our next office hours is scheduled for next Tues, 4/15 from 3:30-5:00 PM ET. We may implement a registration procedure (we had more than 100 people trying to get in last time due to the desire to discuss the CoC grant agreements) but more on that soon!

-Katie
  • Katie M Scott
  • May 5, 2025

April 2025 Updates

Please see below for all email updates sent in April 2025. Feel free to reach out to Katie at kmeyerscott at homelesslaw.org with any questions or to be added to the email list!

**********

From: Katie Meyer Scott
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2025 10:02 AM
To: Index <index@homelesslaw.org>
Subject: Update 4/11/25

Hello all,

Wanted to give an update on a new procedure for our Office Hours (and a reminder that our next session is Tues, 4/15 from 3:30-5:00 PM ET). In order to speed up our screening process and accommodate larger groups when there is a need to gather to discuss big changes or strategize around pressing issues, we’re going to start using a registration form that will be sent a few days before each office hours. Here is the registration for Tuesday:

Once you fill out the form, we will manually approve your registration and send the zoom link, which will only work for the email you used to register. This will allow us to pre-vet everyone and let folks in the room more quickly at the beginning of the session so that we can get down to business and cover more questions! We are a little sad to lose the “drop in” quality of our previous model BUT we’ll keep the registration link open until a few hours before each session. And you can always “drop in” to my email.

I wanted to focus the rest of this mini update on the dangers youth in shelter face from immigration enforcement (content warning). We quietly spread the word earlier this week to our partners in LA that ICE agents detained two young people outside of a youth shelter. Quietly because in light of the continued threats from the administration (for instance, this letter from the HUD Sec’y), the shelter providers we spoke with feel that it is important to not draw further attention to who they serve, so that they can continue to serve them.

Besides sharing as many resources as we can with the shelter involved to try to get legal help to the detained youth, we’ve been gathering information about what happened to see if we can glean any helpful recommendations to better protect youth in shelter. Here is what we know:

  1. The car was unmarked, but the agents who emerged wore ICE vests and were armed. Shelter staff had noticed the vehicle in the area for a while before the youth were detained but didn’t realize it was ICE.
  2. The detained youth are Venezuelan (a stated focus of this administration) and had only been at the shelter for a month – so staying up to date on who the admin is targeting might help identify who is most at risk.
  3. It is unclear why these young people were on ICE’s radar. A few clues – they were recently cited for something extremely minor and likely listed their address as the shelter on the citation. They may have also failed to appear for a hearing on the citation. So, we can’t say for sure, but it seems likely the ICE is running whatever names they have against any public court records?

If you are or you know a young person who may be at risk of being targeted by ICE, you can make arrangements ahead of time for getting connected with legal counsel, and alerting loved ones, etc. For instance, providers could create a release form that would allow them to retain legal counsel for a young person who is detained, as well as gather instructions re: who else to contact.

Here is some general know your rights info: https://www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/wp-content/uploads/Home-Raid-community-Flyer-ENGL-February-2025.pdf, as well as a comprehensive guide geared towards shelter providers: https://homelesslaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/ICE-Guidance.pdf.

California has a Rapid Response Network to respond to ICE activity: https://www.ccijustice.org/rapid-response. Local numbers can be found here: https://www.ccijustice.org/carrn. There may be something similar in your jurisdiction! The ABA Homeless Youth Legal Network is working on an immigration specific legal directory, which we will share soon.

And finally, I will be out of the office most of next week. Thanks for your understanding if my responses are a bit more delayed than usual!

-Katie

**********

From: Katie Meyer Scott
Sent: Monday, April 7, 2025 3:46 PM
To: Index <index@homelesslaw.org>
Subject: Update 4/7/2025

Hi everyone,

I am currently riding high from a choral performance of Dolly Parton songs that I saw this weekend and hope you all have gotten to do things that delight and sustain you since the last time I wrote.

This is going to be a short update in the interest of urgently sharing some analysis about the changes to FY2024 Continuum of Care grant agreements that will trickle down to many youth homelessness providers and that may signal what to expect for grant agreements for other federal programs and future NOFOs:

I inadvertently held a mini-webinar on the draft analysis during our last office hours but this has now been vetted by multiple legal and regulatory experts and we are comfortable sharing the actual document now. Please do not share the link or code with anyone else without explicit permission from me.

We are working on planning an actual webinar to discuss these changes and hopefully include some actual recommendations and guidance for operating under these…conditions.

I wanted to also share that I am meeting with some cross-sector experts and stakeholders next week to do a deeper dive into the data privacy and data management piece that connects with all of this (both for HMIS and beyond) and will hopefully have a timeline for some comprehensive guidance soon. In the meantime, I did see this webinar advertised by Bitfocus (their HMIS software is called Clarity Human Services): https://aloha.bitfocus.com/privacy-security-events. I am not familiar enough to fully vouch for them but it does appear that they provide HMIS services to some of the largest CoCs. I am going to try to attend.

I am working on additional updates that I will share later this week. FYI that our next office hours is scheduled for next Tues, 4/15 from 3:30-5:00 PM ET. We may implement a registration procedure (we had more than 100 people trying to get in last time due to the desire to discuss the CoC grant agreements) but more on that soon!

-Katie