In Her New Book And Housing for All, The Legal Advocate Draws from Invisible People’s Storytelling to Expose the Human Toll of Bad Policy
Thirty-five years ago, the othering of people enduring homelessness was at its height. As the nation grappled with a growing homeless crisis that increasingly became more visible via shantytowns and tent cities, politicians set forth an inaccurate narrative that sought to shame homeless people rather than acknowledge and rectify the affordability crisis.
Many bought the mainstream narrative as it was sold, without question or preponderance. However, some advocates saw the harm in the charade and fought against it. One such individual was legal professional Maria Foscarinis, who abandoned a prestigious Wall Street law firm early on in her career and founded the organization we know today as the National Homelessness Law Center.
Maria Foscarinis (left), Author of “And Housing for All: The Fight to End Homelessness in America”
Behind the Pen: Who is Maria Foscarinis, Author of “And Housing for All: The Fight to End Homelessness in America”?
Maria Foscarinis is a noted author, activist, and legal advocate with decades of experience working to solve homelessness and combat criminalization. In an exclusive exchange with Invisible People, Foscarinis explained her background and expertise.
“I founded the National Homelessness Law Center in 1989 and led it until 2021,” said Foscarinis. “Our original name was the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty. As the founder, I chose that name to make clear that homelessness is an extreme form of poverty. That was contested at the time: starting with Reagan, unhoused people were portrayed as ‘different,’ even from other poor people. A popular book at the time—”Nation in Denial”— amplified that view. But the name was long and cumbersome, and by 2020, there was wide consensus that homelessness was an extreme form of poverty—we had made our point, and we shortened it.”
Rewriting the Narrative: Homelessness as a Poverty Issue
For more than three decades and via the popularity of the National Homelessness Law Center, Foscarinis managed to remind the world that homelessness is a poverty issue and not a circumstance brought about by personal flaws and failures. Hers were some of the first efforts to truly attribute a human face to the plight of living unhoused. Her organization has been instrumental in shifting not just narratives but also legislation.
Foscarinis worked diligently on ground-breaking legislative changes like drafting the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act into law and adamantly rejecting the criminalization of homelessness, a move that was controversial at the time and arguably still is to this very day.
Foscarinis has handed over the reins to the famed organization she once founded but remains an avid advocate for change.
“By the time I stepped down from leading the Law Center, I had been a national-level advocate since 1985, close to the beginning of the crisis of modern homelessness in America, and had led or been involved with much of the advocacy to end it and to protect the rights of unhoused people,” Foscarinis continued. “I also experienced firsthand how the public narrative about homelessness affects law and policy toward homeless people. Dehumanizing and blaming people experiencing homelessness allows, and often compels, policies that devalue and even criminalize their very existence. It’s a narrative that justifies the failure of the wealthiest country on earth to allow people to go without the basics all human beings need to survive.”
Her coming non-fiction book “And Housing for All: The Fight to End Homelessness in America” is slated for publication in early June. Foscarinis has appeared on popular websites such as:
- Shelterforce
- The Hill
- USA Today
- The New York Times
- The Washington Post and more
Her book is already critically well-received.
The Power of Storytelling: Invisible People’s Role in And Housing for All
Since our inception as the only nonprofit newsroom focused solely on homelessness and housing, Invisible People has collaborated with professionals from the National Homelessness Law Center, drawing from their insight and expertise. It is with great honor that this prominent organization’s founder has likewise used Invisible People as a resource for her coming book, stating verbatim, “I really value Invisible People and its critical work to reframe the narrative of homelessness. As you’ll see, stories from the site are featured throughout my book.”
Policy, Poverty, and the Press: Why Messaging Matters
Between the pages of Foscarinis’ hard-hitting political publication, themes of pain, poverty, and unjust legislative policies are interwoven with real-life stories that expose the human side of homelessness. Invisible People is unique as a resource in this way. There is no other place on social media to turn to for such a catalog of human-centric stories, nor will you find a mainstream media organization reporting on the data from as critical a perspective as ours. Herein, we see the importance of unbiased independent journalism on this topic, as well as the need to continue amplifying the voices and reportage of people with lived experience of homelessness.
“I wanted to tell the story of the evolution of modern homelessness since the early 1980s, including the work that I and other advocates have done alongside thousands of unhoused people whose egregious and unnecessary suffering has powered that work. I wanted to honor that work and those voices. The book makes the case that all human beings have basic rights, including the human right to housing. Despite the dark times we are now living, advocacy can and must continue. It is more important than ever that we keep focused on a vision of human rights for all,” Foscarinis concluded.
The Need for Honest Messaging: Talk to Your Legislators About Homelessness and Humanity
Organizations like Invisible People and the National Homelessness Law Center are pivotal to ensuring the truth about homelessness is publicly accessible. Without advocate-led newsrooms and legal teams, the only narrative most people have to go by is the profitable one being sold by politicians who seek to shift the blame without addressing the housing issue. Housing for All is not only an honest message; it is also the only way we can end the homeless crisis.
