Organizational Updates & Reminders
Housing Day 2025 at the General Assembly in downtown Raleigh is tomorrow! Over 150 housing advocates from across the state will be participating in over 100 meetings with members of the General Assembly to make housing a top priority for our elected officials as they develop the state’s two-year budget and legislative priorities for the rest of the year. We are excited to see many of you and wish you safe travels for those of you who will be traveling today.
Federal Policy & Advocacy Updates
State & Local Updates
NC General Assembly
2025-2026 NC General Assembly Bill Tracker
Over 1500 bills have been filed since the long session began in January. To see which bills we are tracking check out our bill tracker for the 2025-2026 legislative session, click here.
If you’re familiar with our 2025-2026 policy agenda we will be releasing a summary in the coming weeks looking at what bills have been filed, acted on, passed that relate to our priorities and our analysis on their potential impacts.
The main bill filed last week that we want to spend some time going over is:
HB 781: Unauthorized Public Camping and Sleeping
This anti-camping bill,thought to be backed by the Cicero Institute out of Texas, was filed late last week. The bill is cosponsored by 4 Republicans (Reps. Brian Biggs, Neal Jackson, Jennifer Balkcom and Mike Schietzelt) representing parts of Randolph, Moore, Henderson, and Wake counties.
For the past few years, Cicero has been behind bills across the country that seek to criminalize homelessness. Our partners at the National Low Income Housing Coalition have a great resource that explains why bills like this are counterproductive and harmful. House Bill 781 would prohibit local governments from allowing people to sleep on public property and in public right of ways. The bill does allow local governments to approve by majority vote a specific local government-owned property to be used for up to one year for camping if they are able to meet conditions such as access to running water and restrooms, prohibiting alcohol and drugs, ensuring the safety of the property and those camping there, and coordinating with county DHHS to provide mental health and substance abuse resources. These locations have to be certified, and in doing so, the local government must attest to a number of conditions, including that there aren’t enough shelter beds available.
We should be focusing on proven solutions that meet the scale of the need, not on outdated and ineffective policies that are expensive and do not address the root of the problem – access to safe, clean, affordable housing. We will be focusing more on this topic in the coming weeks. In the meantime, if you’re interested in learning more about messaging and advocacy, the “Housing not Handcuffs” website provides tool boxes for communicating and advocating against this harmful legislation. The website also includes a “threat tracker” map that tracks state-level homelessness criminalization across the US.
