On November 8th, PPEHRC member groups from across the nation presented testimony to the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, Raquel Rolnik at the National Forum on the Human Right to Housing. Special Rapporteur Rolnik was appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council in May of 2008 to examine the crisis surrounding homelessness as well as inadequate and unaffordable housing, as part of a larger movement for an adequate standard of living for all people in the US and the rest of the world. This is a historic first official visit to the United States for the Rapporteur, who spent 18 days travelling the country meeting with housing experts and people experiencing housing issues.


In her final stop, Special Rapporteur Rolnik hosted a town hall meeting to hear the voices of over 20 organizations that deal with housing issues to include in her final report, which will be submitted to the United Nations HRC in March 2010. All of the testimony along with an expanded report will be published on the Internet at restorehousingrights.org. We listened to several hours of testimony. Testimony was given by PPEHRC member groups from the Gulf of Mississippi, St. Petersburg, Florida, Rhode Island, California, Chicago, Illinois, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The movement organized and presented a packet of written testimony, from PPEHRC groups in attendance as well as those who could not make it, to the Special Rapporteur. Cheri Honkala, national organizer for PPEHRC, insisted that the focus of the forum be on poor people as the central leadership in the movement to end poverty. We are hopeful that the final report will have this crucial emphasis on the stories of those of us who are suffering daily with housing issues.


The National Forum on the Human Right to Housing continued the following day with workshops and planning sessions with the people affected by the crisis and advocacy groups in attendance centered on how to end homelessness. Cheri Honkala participated in a panel entitled, “Development-based and the Human Right to Housing” along with Coalition to Protect Public Housing organizer, J.R. Fleming and Erika Sipp and Mr. Bonner of the National Alliance of HUD Tenants. We talked about the importance of ratifying the International Covenant of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.


Because of the moving testimony given on behalf of the Minnesota 5, a lawyer has stepped forward to represent the women in their struggle to hold onto their homes. More information on this exciting development will be released very soon. We look forward to other people in the legal community stepping forward to assist members of an organized movement to end poverty.




PPEHRC Groups Represented:

Minneapolis PPEHRC

Kensington Welfare Rights Union - Philadelphia

Fair Valley York, PA

Western Regional Advocacy Project – California

Coalition to Protect Public Housing – Chicago

Waveland Watchers – Mississippi Gulf

St. Petersburg, Florida PPEHRC

National PPEHRC

Labels: Cheri Honkala, Erika Sipp, J. R. Flemming, National Alliance of HUD Tenants, UN Special Rapporteur Raquel Rolnik United Nations Human Rights Council