Violence Against the Homeless Accountability Act of 2013

Violence Against the Homeless Accountability Act of 2013 - Amends the Hate Crime Statistics Act to include crimes against the homeless in the crime data collected by the Attorney General under such Act.

[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1136 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1136

 To amend the Hate Crime Statistics Act to include crimes against the 
                               homeless.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 13, 2013

Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas (for herself, Ms. Lee of California, 
Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Mr. Danny K. Davis of Illinois, Ms. Norton, Ms. 
     Wilson of Florida, Mr. Rangel, Mr. Hastings of Florida, Mrs. 
  Napolitano, Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Lewis, Mr. Gutierrez, and Ms. Loretta 
    Sanchez of California) introduced the following bill; which was 
               referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Hate Crime Statistics Act to include crimes against the 
                               homeless.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Violence Against the Homeless 
Accountability Act of 2013''.

SEC. 2. INCLUSION OF HOMELESS.

    Section 1(b) of the Hate Crime Statistics Act (28 U.S.C. 534 note) 
is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (1), by inserting ``homeless status,'' 
        after ``sexual orientation,''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(6) As used in this subsection, the term `homeless 
        status' with respect to an individual, refers to an individual 
        who--
                    ``(A) lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate 
                nighttime residence; or
                    ``(B) has a primary nighttime residence that is--
                            ``(i) a public or private place not 
                        designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular 
                        sleeping accommodation for human beings, 
                        including cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned 
                        buildings, substandard housing, bus or train 
                        stations, or similar settings;
                            ``(ii) a supervised publicly or privately 
                        operated shelter designed to provide temporary 
                        living accommodations, including motels, 
                        hotels, congregate shelters, and transitional 
                        housing; or
                            ``(iii) housing of other persons in which 
                        the individual is temporarily staying due to 
                        loss of housing, economic hardship, or a 
                        similar reason.''.
                                 <all>