AMERICAN SAFE SHELTER AND PUBLIC PROPERTY ACT

# Petition for the American Safe Shelter and Public Property Act

## No American Should Die Outside While Usable Government Buildings Stand Empty

To the President of the United States, the United States Congress, state governors, state legislatures, and local governments:

The United States has the resources to protect people from freezing temperatures, deadly heat, storms, smoke, and other dangerous conditions. Yet Americans experiencing homelessness are routinely left outside while publicly owned buildings remain vacant or underused.

Our government funds military operations, international assistance, corporate subsidies, and countless other priorities. Whatever our political beliefs, protecting human life here at home must also be a national priority.

Homelessness is not simply a matter of personal responsibility. Americans become homeless because of unaffordable housing, disability, illness, domestic violence, job loss, family emergencies, mental-health conditions, rising rents, and inadequate retirement or disability income. Many people experiencing homelessness are senior citizens, veterans, families with children, people with disabilities, and working adults who cannot afford housing.

No person should die from exposure while a safe, publicly owned building stands empty.

We call upon Congress to pass and fully fund the **American Safe Shelter and Public Property Act**, establishing a nationwide system for using appropriate government property to protect people experiencing homelessness during dangerous conditions.

## We demand that the legislation:

### 1. Establish a national inventory of public property

Require federal agencies, states, counties, cities, and other participating public bodies to identify vacant and underused buildings that could potentially serve as:

* Emergency warming or cooling centers
* Overnight shelters
* Seasonal shelters
* Navigation and service centers
* Temporary individual living spaces
* Transitional or permanent supportive housing

The inventory must identify each building’s ownership, condition, accessibility, utilities, estimated capacity, and necessary safety improvements.

### 2. Require every community to have a dangerous-weather shelter plan

Every state, county, and qualifying municipality receiving federal homelessness or emergency-management funding must maintain a written plan for protecting unhoused residents during:

* Freezing temperatures
* Dangerous heat and humidity
* Severe storms
* Flooding or wildfire smoke
* Other conditions that threaten health or life

Plans must identify primary and backup facilities before an emergency occurs.

### 3. Create a dedicated federal funding program

Congress must establish permanent federal funding to help communities:

* Inspect and repair suitable buildings
* Install fire alarms, sprinklers, emergency exits, and carbon-monoxide detectors
* Restore heating, cooling, electricity, plumbing, and sanitation
* Meet disability-access requirements
* Provide cots, bedding, showers, laundry, lockers, food, and drinking water
* Employ trained staff, medical personnel, security, outreach workers, and housing navigators
* Transport people safely to and from shelters
* Maintain humane accommodations for couples, families, pets, service animals, and personal belongings

Funding must be distributed to every state according to population, homelessness levels, local housing costs, climate dangers, and unmet shelter needs. Rural and tribal communities must receive dedicated funding.

### 4. Expand the federal surplus-property program

Strengthen the existing federal process that allows certain unused federal properties to be leased or transferred for homeless assistance.

Suitable property should be offered first to local governments, tribal governments, housing authorities, and qualified nonprofit organizations before it is sold, demolished, or left vacant.

The application process must be simplified, and recipients must receive financial and technical assistance to make buildings safe and operational.

### 5. Establish humane national shelter standards

Federally funded shelters must:

* Be clean, sanitary, adequately staffed, and protected from violence
* Provide reasonable privacy
* Accommodate people with disabilities
* Protect women, children, older adults, veterans, and other vulnerable individuals
* Allow service animals and provide reasonable options for pets
* Preserve families and couples whenever safely possible
* Provide secure storage for medications, identification, and belongings
* Maintain clear complaint and oversight procedures
* Avoid unnecessary barriers that force vulnerable people back onto the street

People must not be denied protection from life-threatening weather merely because they cannot pay, lack identification, have a disability, or cannot separate from a service animal.

### 6. Keep emergency facilities open for the entire dangerous period

Shelters should not close in the morning when temperatures remain dangerous. During declared weather emergencies, facilities must remain available around the clock until conditions are safe.

Free or accessible transportation must be provided, particularly for people with disabilities and those living far from public transportation.

### 7. Connect emergency shelter with permanent solutions

Emergency shelter saves lives, but it does not end homelessness. Every participating facility must connect guests with:

* Affordable and supportive housing
* Social Security, disability, Medicaid, Medicare, SNAP, and veterans’ benefits
* Identification and document replacement
* Physical and mental-health services
* Substance-use treatment when voluntarily requested
* Domestic-violence services
* Employment assistance
* Eviction prevention and rapid rehousing

The ultimate objective must be safe, stable, permanent housing.

### 8. Require public accountability

Every participating government must report:

* Available shelter capacity
* The number of people served
* The number of people turned away and why
* Public money received and spent
* Properties considered and rejected
* Deaths and serious injuries connected with exposure
* The number of people placed into permanent housing

Reports must be publicly accessible, and funding must be subject to independent audits.

### 9. Prevent misuse of the program

Property owners, contractors, shelter operators, and public officials must not profit improperly from this crisis. Federal funding must include competitive contracting, financial disclosure, inspection, whistleblower protection, and penalties for fraud, abuse, unsafe conditions, discrimination, or misuse of funds.

### 10. Preserve housing as the ultimate goal

Emergency shelters must never become a substitute for affordable housing. Congress must also increase investment in:

* Rental assistance
* Public and affordable housing
* Permanent supportive housing
* Housing for older adults and people with disabilities
* Homelessness prevention
* Rapid rehousing
* Mental-health and community-based support services

## Why This Matters

The value of a nation is reflected not only in its wealth or military strength, but in how it treats people who are vulnerable.

Leaving people outside during lethal weather is not an acceptable housing policy. Criminalizing people for sleeping outside does not create housing. Moving an encampment from one location to another does not solve homelessness.

When government possesses a building that can be made safe, and human beings are at risk of dying outside, the government has a moral responsibility to act.

We are not asking for luxury. We are asking for safety, sanitation, dignity, accountability, and a genuine path toward permanent housing.

We therefore call upon Congress to introduce, pass, and fully fund the **American Safe Shelter and Public Property Act**, and we call upon every state and community to participate.

**Public property should serve the public. Human life must come first. No American should be left to die outside while usable buildings stand empty.**