[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1765 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1765

 To amend the Hate Crime Statistics Act to include crimes against the 
                               homeless.


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                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            October 8, 2009

  Mr. Cardin (for himself, Ms. Collins, Mr. Brown, Ms. Mikulski, Mr. 
Whitehouse, Mr. Schumer, and Mr. Burris) introduced the following bill; 
  which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Hate Crime Statistics Act to include crimes against the 
                               homeless.

    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 
Statistics Act of 2009''.

SEC. 2. INCLUSION OF HOMELESS.

    Section (1)(b) of the Hate Crime Statistics Act is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (1), by inserting ``homeless status,'' 
        after ``sexual orientation,''; and
            (2) by adding the end the following:
            ``(6) As used in this subsection, the term `homeless 
        status' with respect to an individual, refers to an individual 
        who--
                    ``(A) lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate 
                nighttime residence; or
                    ``(B) has a primary nighttime residence that is--
                            ``(i) 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;
                            ``(ii) a supervised publicly or privately 
                        operated shelter designed to provide temporary 
                        living accommodations, including motels, 
                        hotels, congregate shelters, and transitional 
                        housing; or
                            ``(iii) 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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