Privately operated shelters are generally allowed to limit their populations in ways that might surprise you: They can allow people of just one gender to stay there. They can exclude children. They can exclude drug users. If the shelter is committed to keeping out drug users, then it has to be fair and legitimate in figuring out who is using drugs. The most reliable way to be sure that the shelter does not have any drug users is to conduct scientific testing.
If a shelter is testing for drug use just to prevent drug crimes from happening then, depending on whether and how it is connected with the government, it may be violating the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment which requires that investigators (or drug testers) have both 1. probable cause to believe that a particular person has committed a certain crime and 2. a warrant issued by a judge in order to search for evidence connected with the crime. http://law.justia.com/constitution/us/amendment-04/07-probable-cause.html To simply guess that a person coming into a homeless shelter might be drug user would not, without other proof, justify a drug test.
If the shelter is targeting certain individuals or groups for drug testing, then those individuals or groups may have a legal claim of discrimination.
Even if the shelter is testing everyone or else is doing random drug testing that doesn’t target individuals or groups, the drug tests might be seen as invasions of privacy. The ACLU takes a strong stand on this and has won court cases by proving that the entities testing for drug use did not have reasons that outweighed people’s right to have the chemical content of their urine kept private. https://www.aclu.org/other/legislative-briefing-kit-drug-testing Contact your local ACLU office if you want them to consider suing a shelter for its drug testing practices. http://www.aclu.org/affiliates
In most states, if there is any drug testing law at all, it is about when and how employers can test workers for drug use. You can peruse those state laws via Nolo Press at http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-books/employee-rights-book/chapter5-3.html Even though employers and shelters have separate specific reasons for conducting drug tests, the reasons are probably connected with safety in both settings. So, if you have to argue against a drug testing policy you might want to first see whether you have a state law and then compare the shelter’s policy with it to see if the policy looks like it complies with the law. If you don’t think it does, contact Project H.E.L.P. http://homelesslegalprotection.com/h-e-l-p-locations/ or the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty http://www.nlchp.org/contact_us.cfm or your local legal aid office. http://www.lsc.gov
Homeless Law Blog 
yes.
Imagine demanding entrance into a person’s home on YOUR terms. Wouldn’t that be rude?
Their resources, their rules.
I had been hunting the world-wide-web for months, receiving the exact
same old stuff. Then found this homeless couple’s story now.
It can be distinct, it displays the struggle of a distinctive scenario.
Well being troubles and a number of undesirable conditions have
still left them down and out, needing aid to survive.
I am unable to visualize sleeping in my automobile,
so I attempted it for a night. I ran the car to get it heated before I wrapped up in a blanket
on the backseat and turned off for the night time.
Right after a couple of hrs of sleeping with a nose dripping from the cold, cocooned a couple hours, and woke up at daylight with a driving want
to pee and more aches than I understood achievable.
Jogging within to use the bathroom, did not even feel the chill until the heat hit
me as a result of the front door. I can’t keep out there and deal with all my requirements,
how do homeless people today do it? A deficiency of very affordable housing, blended with slumping pay
out at the decreased end of the U.S. wage scale, has been cited by analysts as a driver of homelessness in a number of U.S.
cities.
“We are seven million units shorter of economical housing for lower-income persons – that is a large hole,” say big city leaders.
It’s not a very good business conclusion to home very poor individuals, so how can we have for-financial gain landlords using funds from the poorest and being compelled to evict individuals who cannot pay back.
Over 500,000 people in the United states of america are homeless, the poorest Americans are nonetheless battling to fulfill their most simple desires.
In a single perception the prevalence of homelessness appears to be odd, because
the national poverty level has fallen to around the similar amount as just before the recession. Yet homelessness is joined to
economic development. In some of the nation’s more appealing key towns, housing is rapidly appreciating to a
issue where by it is out of access for reduced earners.
The housing-initially method has been proven to conserve cash when as opposed with
the extra traditional product for working with homelessness.
The cost of supplying an condominium and social perform for Utah’s housing-initial customers is about $11,000 for every
year, although the value for folks dwelling on the
streets is $17,000 every year since of healthcare facility visits
and jail prices, according to the Los Angeles Situations.
Median hourly wages in the US have barely budged for decades, from $16.74 in 1973 to $17.86 in 2016, in terms of 2016 bucks,
according to the Economic Policy Institute.
But in New York, for instance, the hourly wage needed to comfortably lease a one-bedroom is $27.29.
In Los Angeles, it is $22.98. ” You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.”states Barack Obama in a speech to our nation’s youth.
Maybe we can believe of a homeless or incarcerated human being as a important long
term employee.
This couple is 1 of quite a few, performing to lift them selves out of a
prevalent dilemma, with fewer than sufficient resources.
Hi I’m staying at the Bridge House shelter in Lompoc,Ca. This shelter supposedly does random testing. A crack pipe was found earlier today and all adults have to test. I have witnesses that I was off property since 740 this morning. Came back at 820 pm.
Have had several random tests performed since I began staying here (last April). None of those tests indicated positive. I am tired of the discrimination. What can I do?
Going to request copies of the results of all prior tests. Anything else?
A letter from the person monitoring/performing test?