[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 10231 Introduced in House (IH)]
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119th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 10231
To prohibit entities that receive Federal funds from the Department of
Housing and Urban Development from compelling homeless persons to
reside in facilities designated for housing homeless persons, and for
other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 2, 2026
Mr. Frost (for himself, Ms. Norton, Ms. Tlaib, Mrs. Ramirez, Ms.
Bonamici, Mr. Carter of Louisiana, Ms. Lee of Pennsylvania, Ms. Clarke
of New York, Ms. Ansari, Ms. Simon, Ms. Wilson of Florida, Mr. Casar,
Mr. Garcia of Illinois, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Mr. McGovern, Ms.
Dexter, Mrs. Beatty, Mrs. McIver, Mrs. Grijalva, and Ms. Jayapal)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
Financial Services
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To prohibit entities that receive Federal funds from the Department of
Housing and Urban Development from compelling homeless persons to
reside in facilities designated for housing homeless persons, and for
other purposes.
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 ``No Homeless Detention Centers Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Homelessness is growing across the United States due to
a lack of affordable housing and health care options, economic
hardship, systemic racism, chronically low wages,
underemployment and unemployment, gentrification, housing
discrimination, mass incarceration, discrimination based on
immigration status, criminalization of poverty, domestic
violence, discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, gender nonconforming, and queer individuals,
trauma, disabilities, personal and medical debt, a lack of
affordable childcare, natural disasters, barriers to the social
safety net system, and unexpected loss of household income.
(2) A primary response to the growth of homelessness at the
local level has been to ban sleeping, lying, sitting, standing,
loitering, sheltering oneself in public places, vagrancy, and
soliciting donations. More than 300 municipalities, counties,
and States have passed new laws criminalizing camping since the
decision in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, 603 U.S. 520
(2024), overturned prior protections under the Eighth Amendment
for people experiencing homelessness. Despite the growth of
laws criminalizing camping over the past 4 decades,
homelessness has continued to increase.
(3) Many anti-vagrancy and anti-solicitation ordinances
were passed in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War as part
of Jim Crow Black Codes to enable incarceration of formerly
enslaved persons without jobs and force them back into
involuntary servitude through the loophole in the Thirteenth
Amendment that permits involuntary servitude as a condition of
punishment.
(4) More recently, the Cicero Institute has promoted State
legislation creating statewide camping bans, penalizing
communities that do not heavily enforce such bans, and
authorizing the creation of State-run camps where unhoused
people would be forced to go under threat of arrest for
violating such camping bans. Versions of this legislation have
passed in Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Oklahoma,
Tennessee, Texas, and Utah.
(5) In July 2025, supported by the Cicero Institute,
President Trump issued Executive Order 14321 (90 Fed. Reg.
35817), conditioning Federal grant funds to communities on
whether such communities enforce prohibitions on urban camping
and loitering, urban squatting, and illicit drug use, as well
as expanding the use of involuntary commitments and decreasing
access to permanent housing. The Department of Housing and
Urban Development, the Department of Health and Human Services,
and the Department of Justice have all included these
conditions in grant applications, though at least some of these
conditions have been stayed under court order. In August 2025,
President Trump ordered Federal law enforcement agents and the
National Guard into Washington, DC, to ``remov[e] homeless
encampments from all over our parks'' and get ``rid of the
people from underpasses''. President Trump has also called for
the creation of mass homeless camps where people would be
forced to go under threat of arrest.
(6) The Department of Homeland Security has expanded the
use of mass detention centers for immigrants, using sprung
structure facilities, such as the ``Alligator Alcatraz''
facility, and converting warehouses for detention purposes.
Similar proposals for placing unhoused persons into both sprung
structures and warehouses have been made in numerous States.
(7) Utah Governor Spencer Cox explicitly instructed the
Utah Homeless Services Board to align their work with Executive
Order 14321 (90 Fed. Reg. 35817) and to accelerate planning for
a massive 1,300 bed sprung structure facility, combining
locked-door facilities and ``work-conditioned housing''.
Unhoused persons would be forced to stay in the facility under
court order or under threat of having anti-camping ordinances
enforced against them if they needed to sleep after leaving the
facility. Violating a court mandate to stay in the ``work-
conditioned housing'' could result in imprisonment.
(8) West Virginia and Louisiana have also introduced State
legislation promoting forced labor for unhoused persons as part
of the sentences of such persons for violating anti-camping
laws.
SEC. 3. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES.
A recipient of Federal funds from the Department of Housing and
Urban Development may not--
(1) compel, by threat or imposition of punishment, a person
engaging in life-sustaining activities on public property to
reside in a facility designated for housing or sheltering
homeless persons;
(2) compel a person residing in a facility designated for
housing or sheltering homeless persons to provide labor in
order to reside in such facility;
(3) threaten or impose punishment on a homeless person
because such person is engaging in life-sustaining activities
on public property; or
(4) provide assistance to any State or local law
enforcement officer or private contractor acting under color of
Federal law or receiving Federal funds to threaten or impose
punishment on a homeless person because such person is engaging
in life-sustaining activities on public property.
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Homeless person.--The term ``homeless person'' has the
meaning given that term in section 103(a) of the McKinney-Vento
Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 11302(a)).
(2) Life-sustaining activities.--The term ``life-sustaining
activities'' means those activities necessary to maintain the
basic biological health and safety of a human being, including
moving, resting, sitting, standing, lying down, sleeping,
protecting oneself from the elements, eating, drinking, and
storing such personal property as is needed to safely shelter
oneself.
(3) Public property.--The term ``public property'' means
any property that is owned or leased, in whole or in part, by
the United States or by any State, unit of local government,
Tribal government, or territory of the United States, including
areas adjacent to public property upon which there is an
easement for public use or that is held open to the public,
including--
(A) plazas;
(B) courtyards;
(C) parking lots;
(D) sidewalks;
(E) public transportation facilities and services;
(F) public buildings;
(G) underpasses and lands adjacent to roadways; and
(H) parks.
(4) Punishment.--The term ``punishment'' means physical
violence or civil or criminal legal consequences, including--
(A) arrest;
(B) imposition of fines;
(C) revocation of privileges, such as revocation of
a driver's license; and
(D) limitation of legal rights, such as involuntary
commitment, conservatorship, or guardianship.
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