LAW 612SEM - Right to Adequate Housing

This seminar will critically examine what it means for national, state, and local communities to legally guarantee a right to adequate housing to all inhabitants. Beginning with a survey of how this right has been recognized, conceptualized, and protected in international human rights law and jurisprudence, it will proceed to a comparative examination of national efforts to incorporate the right to housing into domestic constitutions, laws, and policies in such nations as Spain, South Africa, Brazil, and the United States. Special attention will be paid to issues of evictions, social housing access, discrimination, public and private nuisance, and criminalization of homelessness. Drilling down to the local, we will look at how specific constitutional and statutory housing rights guarantees operate in Barcelona, California, and New York, finishing with an examination of the City of Buffalo’s housing codes and specialized Housing Court. As an experiential course, we will observe Buffalo Housing Court proceedings and engage in moot advocacy exercises regarding California’s proposal to add a fundamental right to adequate housing to its Constitution as well as the U.S. Supreme Court’s determination of whether people experiencing homelessness have a constitutional right to camp on public property when they do not have an alternative adequate place to sleep.

Credits: 3