[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2217 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2217

 To amend the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 to 
  include homeless status in the definition of ``hate crime'' for the 
               purposes of Federal sentencing provisions.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 8, 2007

Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas (for herself, Mr. Lewis of Georgia, 
 Mr. Wexler, Mr. Kucinich, and Mr. Jefferson) introduced the following 
       bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 to 
  include homeless status in the definition of ``hate crime'' for the 
               purposes of Federal sentencing provisions.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Hate Crimes Against the Homeless 
Enforcement Act''.

SEC. 2. HOMELESS STATUS INCLUDED IN DEFINITION OF HATE CRIME.

    Section 280003(a) of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement 
Act of 1994 (28 U.S.C. 994 note) is amended to read as follows:
    ``(a) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) Hate crime.--The term `hate crime' means a crime in 
        which the defendant intentionally selects a victim, or in the 
        case of a property crime, the property that is the object of 
        the crime, because of the actual or perceived race, color, 
        religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, 
        sexual orientation, or homeless status of any person.
            ``(2) Homeless status.--The term `homeless status' means 
        the status of an individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and 
        adequate nighttime residence, or an individual who has a 
        primary nighttime residence that is--
                    ``(A) a public or private place not designed for, 
                or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation 
                for human beings, including cars, parks, public spaces, 
                abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train 
                stations, or similar settings;
                    ``(B) a supervised publicly or privately operated 
                shelter designed to provide temporary living 
                accommodations, including motels, hotels, congregate 
                shelters, and transitional housing; or
                    ``(C) housing of other persons in which the 
                individual is temporarily staying due to loss of 
                housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason.''.
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