Contact Us

Please see below for all email updates sent in March 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: Monday, March 17, 2025 1:00 PM
To: Index <index@homelesslaw.org>
Subject: Updates 3/25/2025

Hi all,

Sending this message to you all with the hope everyone is finding ways to disconnect when possible, as well as new and sustaining ways to be in community. I have struggled with exhaustion this past week – the deep, existential kind, on top of physical tiredness. I know many of you can relate.

There are a lot of updates but, as usual, it is really hard to sort through what is an emergency v. what is an FYI v. what is actually changing. I will do my best to prioritize and illuminate here. Please also note the usual content warning – dehumanization abounds.

HUD

  • You may have heard about the MOU re: “American Housing Programs for American Citizens” between HUD and the Dept. of Homeland Security (https://www.hud.gov/sites/default/files/PA/documents/DHS-HUD-MOU-032425.pdf). Undocumented folks don’t qualify for almost any HUD-funded programs, so what is the point here besides the cruel rhetoric? A few ideas come to mind.
    • The memorandum requires HUD to place a full-time staff member at DHS’s “Incident Command Center” – obviously signaling an intention to use HUD in immigration enforcement but also a very disturbing enmeshment of law enforcement in our federal housing programs.
    • It puts mixed-status families at risk – leaving youth and young adults at risk of separation from caregivers when seeking/maintaining housing (quick plug for Legal Counsel for Youth and Children’s Immigrant Safety Plan resource. Some of it is specific to WA state but LOTS of universally helpful guidance in it.)
    • This may also set the stage for more stringent eligibility requirements – lack of identity documents is already a huge barrier for unhoused youth in trying to qualify for housing. This will almost certainly exacerbate that.
    • There isn’t much we can do about this except to be aware – will update you with more information or actions items as they develop.
  • There have also been some changes to the basic requirements for Disaster Recovery funds that advocates worry will mean that those who need DR most, won’t be prioritized. Here is a summary of the issues from NLIHC: https://nlihc.org/resource/nlihc-statement-cdbg-dr-universal-notice-modifications. If you are in an area that is dealing with the intersection of homelessness and disaster relief, I would be happy to put you in touch with the folks who will be trying to mitigate the effects of these changes.

IRS

I really hoped my previous updates on this would turn out to be a false alarm, but it does appear that the IRS is actually going to share taxpayer data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE): https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/23/irs-ice-deal-share-data-undocumented-immigrants?CMP=share_btn_url. ICE will provide the IRS with a list of names to cross-reference with their confidential taxpayer databases. My take is that this is illegal under IRC Section 6103, which prohibits the release of tax information by an IRS employee and the only exception allowing it to be shared with law enforcement is a court order – I haven’t heard yet whether any legal challenges are planned. I do think that young people who have filed taxes using an ITIN in the past should be advised to take precautions at the addresses and workplaces known to the IRS and to refresh their knowledge about their resources and rights.

As with HUD’s cooperation with DHS mentioned above – I don’t believe for a second that this stops at immigration enforcement (and it would be deeply wrong even if it did). Project 2025 also calls for rounding up homeless people and putting them in camps; and for the erasure of transgender youth. Using these agencies and this data for law enforcement purposes is disturbing and we are all in this together. Keep telling your electeds that this needs to stop. There is also a national day of action planed on April 5th: https://handsoff2025.com/.

Other Privacy Concerns

Our friends at the Raikes Foundation shared this helpful information (that I can also confirm – we have partners who have had to remove this email from their distribution lists): “The DOGE anti-DEI team uses the email deiatruth@opm.org and are signing up for newsletters and reading and clicking on links. Also, right-wing content creators are registering for Zoom meetings, recording them, and posting excerpts out of context or with their own twisted framing to attack progressive orgs and organizers. We recommend informing your teams to use extra care and routinely review all new sign-ups for distribution lists and webinars.  Zoom also offers these best practices for keeping Zoom meetings secure. We also highly recommend not allowing AI notetakers into the room.”

Dept. of Ed.

SchoolHouse Connection has an excellent primer on the E.O. dismantling the Department of Education and what it means and what could be coming: https://schoolhouseconnection.org/article/white-house-issues-executive-order-to-dismantle-ed

Finally, I wanted to share this tracker of all the litigation currently filed against the Trump Administration: https://www.justsecurity.org/107087/tracker-litigation-legal-challenges-trump-administration/. It’s very helpful for those who want to stay up to date on legal challenges!

For those who are new to these emails, I am posting previous email updates here: https://youthhomelessnessindex.org/blog/. If there is someone you’d like to add to this email list, feel free to email me (I will vet them before I add them). I am also working on this page to compile updates and action items by topic/agency: https://youthhomelessnessindex.org/the-movement-to-end-youth-homelessness/. It is a work in progress and I will try to keep it updated at the same rate as these emails!

Our next Office Hours (with the ABA’s Homeless Youth Legal Network) is on Tues., April 1st from 3:30-5:00 PM ET. Here is the zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85357526614. If you’d like to download the recurring calendar invite, click here. If you plan on attending, it helps us prepare if you fill out this form but if something urgent comes up, feel free to just show up!

More next week,

Katie

**********

From: Katie Meyer Scott
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2025 1:00 PM
To: Index <index@homelesslaw.org>
Subject: Mini-update 3/17/2025

Hi all,

Things have been so fast moving at the federal level, between executive orders, more layoffs, legal challenges, legal orders (some of which are being followed or partially followed, and some not followed at all), budget fights (or lack thereof – looking at you, Senate Dems), and HUD grant agreements going out, that it has been hard to capture a solid update over the past two weeks that isn’t obsolete before I send it. I am hoping to get a longer check in to you early next week, after the dust settles a bit (please let there be time for the dust to settle a bit).

In the meantime, two things:

  1. I wanted to uplift this guidance by the National Alliance around DEIA and grant agreements and contracts: https://endhomelessness.org/blog/the-road-ahead-anti-deia-executive-orders-ongoing-risks/. Important reminder that fair housing laws, the Civil Rights Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act has not changed and “[a]ll recipients of Continuum of Care (CoC) Program and Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) funding must comply with the nondiscrimination and equal opportunity provisions of federal civil rights laws.”
  2. Also, our next Office Hours with the ABA’s Homeless Youth Legal Network is TOMORROW Tues., 3/18 from 3:30-5:00 PM ET. Here is the zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86092605675. If you’d like to download the recurring calendar invite, click here. If you plan on attending, it helps us prepare if you fill out this form but if something urgent comes up, feel free to show up without filling out the form.

Until next time!

Katie

**********

From: Katie Meyer Scott
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2025 4:54 PM
To: Index <index@homelesslaw.org>
Subject: URGENT mini-update 3/12

Apologies to those who have already received this update but please see this email from NN4Y below. We need to blow up the phones of every senator NOW.

For some further explanation of what is going on and why it is important to call D senators as well as Rs: https://www.reddit.com/r/esist/comments/1j9ovza/aoc_says_call_your_democratic_senators_today/

-Katie

**********

From: Katie Meyer Scott <kmeyerscott@homelesslaw.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 4, 2025 10:38 AM
To: Index <index@homelesslaw.org>
Subject: Updates 3/4/2025

Hello all,

First up, SchoolHouse Connection with a great reminder that the executive orders do not supersede federal laws, along with a summary of the rights of students. I will note that rights sadly do not enforce themselves, however, so if you or a young person you work with need legal help in enforcing those rights, please contact the Homeless Youth Legal Network (HYLN) or visit the HYLN map to find a list of attorneys in your state.

Next up, HUD. I think this article and this article summarizes the HUD technical assistance and capacity building contract cancellations fairly well. There still aren’t any updates as far as I can tell re: grants awarded for 2025 and 2026 and the uncertainty and chaos about what is happening at HUD in general is causing the NYC Housing Authority to change their policy to issue rent payments within one business day of the agency actually receiving the money from the federal government (rather than scheduling the payments to arrive on the 1st of the month). I am preaching to the choir here so I don’t have to describe how late rent payments could end up having a cascading bad outcomes – for tenants, for landlords, for the tenuous trust in the Section 8 program that many advocates have spent years building, etc.

Things continue to be extremely scary for undocumented people – the Department of Homeland Security is pushing the IRS to turn over taxpayer data for those who file using Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) in order to target them for deportation. The IRS has so far refused. I still don’t feel I have a good referral/updated resource doc for undocumented taxpayers. If you have one – please let me know!! One thing I will note is that if you have undocumented young people that are participating in Youth Action Boards or that you are helping with employment issues – it is generally perfectly legal (at the moment) for people who are citizens of other countries to start businesses in this county. I have worked with several young people who have formed their own LLCs in order to legally charge a fee for and accept payment for their services. Please reach out if you’d like more information about this as we are in the process of compiling resources about this.

In a similar vein to IRS data, I am finally able to provide a response to a question I’ve been asked a few times, which is: what about HMIS data? Can HUD demand access to this personalized data? Can HUD demand that providers delete data they don’t like?  I will make a more user friendly version of this and we are still gathering some more information to cover various scenarios but for now, here is a quick summary of the basic answers (including a paragraph about law enforcement access):  HMIS Data Memo.pdf. Let me know if you have any trouble with the link.

For all these issues and more – I am keeping the pressure on my elected officials (federal, state, and local). Our best bet to stop these EOs, memos, policy changes, etc. from becoming law is to convince our elected federal lawmakers to not turn them into laws. And in my opinion, the best chance of surviving the fall out of massive cuts to programs and services is if our state and local governments (and private funders and foundations) step up and into that breach. There is some rumbling around creating mass and organized actions and responses by our sector (and the legal sector in regard to the rule of law) – I will share anything definite that I hear.

Finally, quick reminder that our Office Hours (with the ABA’s Homeless Youth Legal Network) is TODAY from 3:30-5:00 PM ET. Here is the zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85357526614. If you’d like to download the recurring calendar invite, click here. If you plan on attending, it helps us prepare if you fill out this form but if something urgent comes up, feel free to show up without filling out the form.

Sending you strength,

Katie
  • Katie M Scott
  • March 5, 2025

March 2025 Updates

Please see below for all email updates sent in March 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: Monday, March 17, 2025 1:00 PM
To: Index <index@homelesslaw.org>
Subject: Updates 3/25/2025

Hi all,

Sending this message to you all with the hope everyone is finding ways to disconnect when possible, as well as new and sustaining ways to be in community. I have struggled with exhaustion this past week – the deep, existential kind, on top of physical tiredness. I know many of you can relate.

There are a lot of updates but, as usual, it is really hard to sort through what is an emergency v. what is an FYI v. what is actually changing. I will do my best to prioritize and illuminate here. Please also note the usual content warning – dehumanization abounds.

HUD

  • You may have heard about the MOU re: “American Housing Programs for American Citizens” between HUD and the Dept. of Homeland Security (https://www.hud.gov/sites/default/files/PA/documents/DHS-HUD-MOU-032425.pdf). Undocumented folks don’t qualify for almost any HUD-funded programs, so what is the point here besides the cruel rhetoric? A few ideas come to mind.
    • The memorandum requires HUD to place a full-time staff member at DHS’s “Incident Command Center” – obviously signaling an intention to use HUD in immigration enforcement but also a very disturbing enmeshment of law enforcement in our federal housing programs.
    • It puts mixed-status families at risk – leaving youth and young adults at risk of separation from caregivers when seeking/maintaining housing (quick plug for Legal Counsel for Youth and Children’s Immigrant Safety Plan resource. Some of it is specific to WA state but LOTS of universally helpful guidance in it.)
    • This may also set the stage for more stringent eligibility requirements – lack of identity documents is already a huge barrier for unhoused youth in trying to qualify for housing. This will almost certainly exacerbate that.
    • There isn’t much we can do about this except to be aware – will update you with more information or actions items as they develop.
  • There have also been some changes to the basic requirements for Disaster Recovery funds that advocates worry will mean that those who need DR most, won’t be prioritized. Here is a summary of the issues from NLIHC: https://nlihc.org/resource/nlihc-statement-cdbg-dr-universal-notice-modifications. If you are in an area that is dealing with the intersection of homelessness and disaster relief, I would be happy to put you in touch with the folks who will be trying to mitigate the effects of these changes.

IRS

I really hoped my previous updates on this would turn out to be a false alarm, but it does appear that the IRS is actually going to share taxpayer data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE): https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/23/irs-ice-deal-share-data-undocumented-immigrants?CMP=share_btn_url. ICE will provide the IRS with a list of names to cross-reference with their confidential taxpayer databases. My take is that this is illegal under IRC Section 6103, which prohibits the release of tax information by an IRS employee and the only exception allowing it to be shared with law enforcement is a court order – I haven’t heard yet whether any legal challenges are planned. I do think that young people who have filed taxes using an ITIN in the past should be advised to take precautions at the addresses and workplaces known to the IRS and to refresh their knowledge about their resources and rights.

As with HUD’s cooperation with DHS mentioned above – I don’t believe for a second that this stops at immigration enforcement (and it would be deeply wrong even if it did). Project 2025 also calls for rounding up homeless people and putting them in camps; and for the erasure of transgender youth. Using these agencies and this data for law enforcement purposes is disturbing and we are all in this together. Keep telling your electeds that this needs to stop. There is also a national day of action planed on April 5th: https://handsoff2025.com/.

Other Privacy Concerns

Our friends at the Raikes Foundation shared this helpful information (that I can also confirm – we have partners who have had to remove this email from their distribution lists): “The DOGE anti-DEI team uses the email deiatruth@opm.org and are signing up for newsletters and reading and clicking on links. Also, right-wing content creators are registering for Zoom meetings, recording them, and posting excerpts out of context or with their own twisted framing to attack progressive orgs and organizers. We recommend informing your teams to use extra care and routinely review all new sign-ups for distribution lists and webinars.  Zoom also offers these best practices for keeping Zoom meetings secure. We also highly recommend not allowing AI notetakers into the room.”

Dept. of Ed.

SchoolHouse Connection has an excellent primer on the E.O. dismantling the Department of Education and what it means and what could be coming: https://schoolhouseconnection.org/article/white-house-issues-executive-order-to-dismantle-ed

Finally, I wanted to share this tracker of all the litigation currently filed against the Trump Administration: https://www.justsecurity.org/107087/tracker-litigation-legal-challenges-trump-administration/. It’s very helpful for those who want to stay up to date on legal challenges!

For those who are new to these emails, I am posting previous email updates here: https://youthhomelessnessindex.org/blog/. If there is someone you’d like to add to this email list, feel free to email me (I will vet them before I add them). I am also working on this page to compile updates and action items by topic/agency: https://youthhomelessnessindex.org/the-movement-to-end-youth-homelessness/. It is a work in progress and I will try to keep it updated at the same rate as these emails!

Our next Office Hours (with the ABA’s Homeless Youth Legal Network) is on Tues., April 1st from 3:30-5:00 PM ET. Here is the zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85357526614. If you’d like to download the recurring calendar invite, click here. If you plan on attending, it helps us prepare if you fill out this form but if something urgent comes up, feel free to just show up!

More next week,

Katie

**********

From: Katie Meyer Scott
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2025 1:00 PM
To: Index <index@homelesslaw.org>
Subject: Mini-update 3/17/2025

Hi all,

Things have been so fast moving at the federal level, between executive orders, more layoffs, legal challenges, legal orders (some of which are being followed or partially followed, and some not followed at all), budget fights (or lack thereof – looking at you, Senate Dems), and HUD grant agreements going out, that it has been hard to capture a solid update over the past two weeks that isn’t obsolete before I send it. I am hoping to get a longer check in to you early next week, after the dust settles a bit (please let there be time for the dust to settle a bit).

In the meantime, two things:

  1. I wanted to uplift this guidance by the National Alliance around DEIA and grant agreements and contracts: https://endhomelessness.org/blog/the-road-ahead-anti-deia-executive-orders-ongoing-risks/. Important reminder that fair housing laws, the Civil Rights Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act has not changed and “[a]ll recipients of Continuum of Care (CoC) Program and Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) funding must comply with the nondiscrimination and equal opportunity provisions of federal civil rights laws.”
  2. Also, our next Office Hours with the ABA’s Homeless Youth Legal Network is TOMORROW Tues., 3/18 from 3:30-5:00 PM ET. Here is the zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86092605675. If you’d like to download the recurring calendar invite, click here. If you plan on attending, it helps us prepare if you fill out this form but if something urgent comes up, feel free to show up without filling out the form.

Until next time!

Katie

**********

From: Katie Meyer Scott
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2025 4:54 PM
To: Index <index@homelesslaw.org>
Subject: URGENT mini-update 3/12

Apologies to those who have already received this update but please see this email from NN4Y below. We need to blow up the phones of every senator NOW.

For some further explanation of what is going on and why it is important to call D senators as well as Rs: https://www.reddit.com/r/esist/comments/1j9ovza/aoc_says_call_your_democratic_senators_today/

-Katie

**********

From: Katie Meyer Scott <kmeyerscott@homelesslaw.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 4, 2025 10:38 AM
To: Index <index@homelesslaw.org>
Subject: Updates 3/4/2025

Hello all,

First up, SchoolHouse Connection with a great reminder that the executive orders do not supersede federal laws, along with a summary of the rights of students. I will note that rights sadly do not enforce themselves, however, so if you or a young person you work with need legal help in enforcing those rights, please contact the Homeless Youth Legal Network (HYLN) or visit the HYLN map to find a list of attorneys in your state.

Next up, HUD. I think this article and this article summarizes the HUD technical assistance and capacity building contract cancellations fairly well. There still aren’t any updates as far as I can tell re: grants awarded for 2025 and 2026 and the uncertainty and chaos about what is happening at HUD in general is causing the NYC Housing Authority to change their policy to issue rent payments within one business day of the agency actually receiving the money from the federal government (rather than scheduling the payments to arrive on the 1st of the month). I am preaching to the choir here so I don’t have to describe how late rent payments could end up having a cascading bad outcomes – for tenants, for landlords, for the tenuous trust in the Section 8 program that many advocates have spent years building, etc.

Things continue to be extremely scary for undocumented people – the Department of Homeland Security is pushing the IRS to turn over taxpayer data for those who file using Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) in order to target them for deportation. The IRS has so far refused. I still don’t feel I have a good referral/updated resource doc for undocumented taxpayers. If you have one – please let me know!! One thing I will note is that if you have undocumented young people that are participating in Youth Action Boards or that you are helping with employment issues – it is generally perfectly legal (at the moment) for people who are citizens of other countries to start businesses in this county. I have worked with several young people who have formed their own LLCs in order to legally charge a fee for and accept payment for their services. Please reach out if you’d like more information about this as we are in the process of compiling resources about this.

In a similar vein to IRS data, I am finally able to provide a response to a question I’ve been asked a few times, which is: what about HMIS data? Can HUD demand access to this personalized data? Can HUD demand that providers delete data they don’t like?  I will make a more user friendly version of this and we are still gathering some more information to cover various scenarios but for now, here is a quick summary of the basic answers (including a paragraph about law enforcement access):  HMIS Data Memo.pdf. Let me know if you have any trouble with the link.

For all these issues and more – I am keeping the pressure on my elected officials (federal, state, and local). Our best bet to stop these EOs, memos, policy changes, etc. from becoming law is to convince our elected federal lawmakers to not turn them into laws. And in my opinion, the best chance of surviving the fall out of massive cuts to programs and services is if our state and local governments (and private funders and foundations) step up and into that breach. There is some rumbling around creating mass and organized actions and responses by our sector (and the legal sector in regard to the rule of law) – I will share anything definite that I hear.

Finally, quick reminder that our Office Hours (with the ABA’s Homeless Youth Legal Network) is TODAY from 3:30-5:00 PM ET. Here is the zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85357526614. If you’d like to download the recurring calendar invite, click here. If you plan on attending, it helps us prepare if you fill out this form but if something urgent comes up, feel free to show up without filling out the form.

Sending you strength,

Katie