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 <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 <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