{"id":38231,"date":"2025-11-19T03:33:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T03:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/38231\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T03:33:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T03:33:12","slug":"bill-would-decriminalize-homelessness-in-pennsylvania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/38231\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill would decriminalize homelessness in Pennsylvania"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) \u2013 Democratic lawmakers in both chambers of the Pennsylvania State Capitol are pushing for legislation that would decriminalize homelessness.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cWe are experiencing, right now, one of the most severe crises of housing and homelessness that this country has ever seen,\u201d said Sen. Nikil Saval (D-Philadelphia).<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"#sailthru-signup-widget\" data-ylk=\"slk:Close;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Close<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Thanks for signing up!<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Watch for us in your inbox.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Subscribe Now<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Commonwealth is also experiencing a rising number of unhoused individuals, according to data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pahouse.com\/InTheNews\/NewsRelease\/?id=140533\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:legislation;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">legislation<\/a>, known as the \u201cShelter First Act,\u201d would allow people experiencing homelessness to \u201cconduct life-sustaining activity in public spaces when no reasonable, alternative options for housing are offered or available.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">That said, municipalities would also be required to provide \u201cadequate indoor spaces\u201d for individuals experiencing homelessness before the municipality could enforce any ordinance that would criminalize living outside.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link  yahoo-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/lawmakers-push-mandatory-paid-family-222405865.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Lawmakers push for mandatory paid family, medical leave in Pennsylvania;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Lawmakers push for mandatory paid family, medical leave in Pennsylvania <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThis is not a somewhere else problem, this is a Central Pennsylvania and Lancaster County problem,\u201d said Rep. Izzy Smith-Wade-El (D-Lancaster). \u201cI think we have to ask ourselves if we want money to be spent incarcerating people, or if we want that money to be spent bringing our neighbors home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc27.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) \u2013 Democratic lawmakers in both chambers of the Pennsylvania State Capitol are pushing for legislation&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[23375,23376,391,21254,28,30,29,8577],"class_list":{"0":"post-38231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-democratic-lawmakers","9":"tag-experiencing","10":"tag-homelessness","11":"tag-nikil-saval","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","14":"tag-pennsylvania-news","15":"tag-pennsylvania-state-capitol"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}