Housing Forward and Unity Temple will team up with a high-profile housing rights attorney on Oct. 23 for a discussion on America’s homelessness crisis.
Housing Forward, the nonprofit agency that supports individuals and families experiencing homelessness in West Cook County’s suburban communities, is hosting an event at the temple with Maria Foscarinis, a fair housing advocate who has spent her decades-long legal career fighting to eliminate homelessness in America. Among other activities, she founded the National Homelessness Law Center in 1989 and served as its executive director until 2021
The free event will be held at Unity Temple at 7 p.m. Oct. 23. After a conversation with WBEZ Reporter Esther Yoon-Ji Kang, Foscarinis will take questions from audience members
Foscarinis is considered “a primary architect” of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, according to her Columbia University Law faculty biography.
The act, passed in 1987, was the first major U.S. federal law aimed at addressing homelessness. The act guaranteed education rights for children and youth experiencing homelessness and federal funding for local homeless shelters and other support services.
She published her first book And Housing For All: The Fight to End Homelessness in America in June.
“In her new book, And Housing For All, she argues that only by recognizing housing as a fundamental human right can we end homelessness in America,” Housing Forward said in a news release about the event. “Drawing on more than three decades of personal stories and advocacy work, Foscarinis offers insight into why past efforts have failed and what will change as we enter a new era of federal leadership.”
The event comes as Housing Forward confronts significant funding challenges driven by federal budget cuts. Housing Forward CEO Lynda Schueler told Wednesday Journal in June that as much as 25% of the organization’s operating budget is at risk as a result of the cuts.
Last month, Housing Forward cut the ribbon on a new 40-bed overnight emergency shelter at 112 Humphrey St. in Oak Park.