State Rep. Ismail Smith-Wade-El has Day of Action for the Unhoused
Rep. Ismail Smith-Wade-El November 18, 2025 | 2:06 PM
HARRISBURG, Nov. 18 – A longtime ally of the unhoused in Pennsylvania, state Rep. Ismail Smith-Wade-El spent Tuesday at the state Capitol advocating for his legislation to decriminalize homelessness in Pennsylvania and raise awareness of the growing prevalence of homeless students in the commonwealth.
“Since my days working with the unhoused in Lancaster, I have acted out of a belief that housing is a human right,” Smith-Wade-El, D-Lancaster, said. “The most effective remedy for homelessness is a home, not fines or incarceration that only dehumanize our fellow Pennsylvanians. Make no mistake, the criminalization of the homeless aims to make the prison-industrial complex—which has long profited off the vulnerability of poor Black and Brown people—richer.
“If the U.S. Supreme Court will not do its job, if the Trump administration defunds homelessness programs instead of doing its job, then it is up to the Pennsylvania General Assembly to do ours. We will not send our neighbors to prison; we will bring them home.
“The current attacks on the homeless by the U.S. Supreme Court and the Trump administration threaten the very ideals of equality on which our nation was founded. An attack on the rights of the homeless is ultimately an attack on our rights to justice and liberty for all.
“At a time of skyrocketing housing and rental prices, stagnant wages and rising inflation, most Pennsylvanians are just one household crisis away from destitution themselves. In short, we are all at risk of homelessness. We must stop thinking of homes as a wealth asset but rather as a material good needed and deserved by all.
“Pennsylvania is the birthplace of American liberty. The fight for our unhoused neighbors is a fight for the rights and freedoms on which our country is built. Today we come together to bend the arc of government to the pursuit of justice for all and call on Pennsylvania’s 2558 municipalities to ensure that each of our neighbors has a home,” he said.
The morning began with Smith-Wade-El and state Sen. Nikil Saval, D-Phila., introducing their companion legislation in the Pennsylvania House (H.B. 2028) and Senate (S.B. 1089) that would decriminalize homelessness across the commonwealth.
Smith-Wade-El and Saval’s Shelter First Act legislation would allow people experiencing homelessness to conduct life-sustaining activity in public spaces when no reasonable, alternative options for housing are offered or available. Municipalities would be required to provide adequate indoor spaces for people experiencing homelessness before the municipality could enforce any ordinance that would criminalize living outside.
“The Shelter First Act is a fierce rejection of the criminalization of the unhoused being perpetrated by the U.S. Supreme Court and the Trump administration, which will only exacerbate the homelessness crisis by condemning the unhoused to an endless cycle of heavy fines, arrests, and incarceration, perpetuating their poverty,” Smith-Wade-El said. “We must counteract this violence done to our fellow citizens by recognizing everyone’s innate human dignity and ensure that every Pennsylvanian’s right to a place to sleep is protected. Our communities will be stronger and safer for it.”
The legislation addresses the fallout from the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson (2024), which held that a city ordinance criminalizing involuntarily unhoused people who set up encampments on public property does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause. Smith-Wade-El said this punishing decision criminalized the over 770,000 homeless people living in the United States simply for being poor and unable to afford housing costs.
Since the June 2024 U.S. Supreme Court decision, cities nationwide have introduced 320 bills criminalizing unhoused people, of which 220 have passed. In July 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order calling for the long-term incarceration of homeless people.
Smith-Wade-El said the Trump administration’s recent cuts of more than half of the 2026 funding for HUD’s Continuum of Care program’s permanent housing assistance would intensify the homelessness crisis by threatening to make 170,000 people homeless.
In the afternoon, Smith-Wade-El joined state Rep. Gina H. Curry, D-Delaware, in celebrating the adoption of H.R. 337 designating November 17 – 21 “Pennsylvania Education for Students Experiencing Homelessness Awareness Week” in Pennsylvania.
The resolution also designates November 21 “Red Shirt Day” in Pennsylvania. Red Shirt Day is observed annually to spread awareness of children and youth experiencing homelessness.
Smith-Wade-El and Curry hosted a news conference and fireside chat on the topic of youth homelessness to help educate attendees and the public about the issue, its causes, and possible solutions. Representatives from the School District of Lancaster’s Transition Team, Valley Youth House, and The Homeless Children’s Education Fund joined them for both events. The fireside chat was moderated by Sonia Pitzi, director of Lincoln Intermediate Unit 12 of New Oxford.
“Our resolution is a call to awareness and a call to action,” Smith-Wade-El said. “It makes Pennsylvanians aware of the youth homelessness crisis in PA, which has exploded in the past 10 years from just over 19,000 students to exceeding 50,000 today. It calls on us to recognize that the resources for homeless youth are even more limited due to federal funding cuts. It calls on us to act by planning for and supporting assistance programs so that our homeless youth have continued access to a quality education, as is their right. If we don’t do anything, student homelessness will ultimately turn into adult homelessness—a prison of endless struggle and insecurity.
“Housing is the surest way for people to gain security in their lives. We must act now for our homeless community and for Pennsylvania.”
Interested people can watch video from the news conference here and the fireside chat here.