II 111th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 1765 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.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Hate Crimes Against the Homeless Statistics Act of 2009.

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. .