The National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) is a national network of people who are currently experiencing or who have experienced homelessness, activists and advocates, community-based and faith-based service providers, and others committed to a single mission. That mission, our common bond, is to end homelessness. Toward this end, the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) engages in public education, policy advocacy, and grassroots organizing. We focus our work in the following 4 areas: housing justice, economic justice, health care justice, and civil rights. 

We are committed to creating the systemic and attitudinal changes necessary to prevent and end homelessness. At the same time, we work to meet the immediate needs of people who are currently experiencing homelessness or who are at risk of doing so. We take as our first principle of practice that people who are currently experiencing homelessness or have formerly experienced homelessness must be actively involved in all of our work.

The Bringing America Home Campaign
This national, broad-based initiative is dedicated to the goal of ending homelessness. The Campaign is founded on the principles and action of public education, grassroots organizing and support for progressive policies and legislation. It is founded on the principles that people need affordable housing, livable incomes, health care, education, and protection of their civil rights. The Bringing America Home Campaign is composed of a variety of efforts that address these causes of homelessness.

National Homeless Civil Rights Organizing Project
In response to increasing civil rights abuses, NCH is coordinating a locally-based national movement to protect the civil rights of people who are homeless. Find out what you can do to help prevent and combat the violation of homeless people's civil rights.

Homeless Empowerment Project
The vision of the Homeless Empowerment project is empower those who have or are experiencing homelessness through trainings and skill-building workshops on issues such as “knowing your rights” and Lobbying 101 so that they can advocate for themselves.  To educate the public by dispelling the stereotypes and misconceptions that exist today and to create bridges between the National Coalition for the Homeless and other organizations working to end homelessness.

Faces of Homelessness Speakers' Bureau
The Faces of Homelessness Speakers’ Bureau is a program of the National Coalition for the Homeless that is comprised of people who are or have been homeless and works to educate the public about homelessness and what can be done to end it. This approach is a unique and necessary tool because it establishes a significant platform for those whom homelessness affects directly to talk personally about their experiences. Additionally, the Speakers' Bureau creates opportunities for members to advocate for themselves and others, as well as build the necessary bridges with the rest of society so that we may work cooperatively to end this disgrace called homelessness.

Homeless Challenge Project
A Candidate Homeless Challenge is when, socially and civic minded, passionate, concerned people join with local advocates, activists, and most importantly currently and formerly homeless people CHALLENGE their candidates, incumbents, and public officials to dress down, give up their everyday privileges and take the plunge into the world of homelessness.

The "You Don't Need A Home to Vote" Voting Rights Campaign
Since 1992, this campaign has already registered thousands of homeless people in all 50 states. The campaign seeks to protect and promote the right of homeless people to vote.

Hate Crimes/Violence Prevention Project
Over the past several years, advocates and homeless shelter workers from around the country have received news reports of men, women and even children being harassed, kicked, set on fire, beaten to death, and even decapitated. Over the last three years alone (1999 through 2002) there have been 123 murders of people without housing by housed people, 89 victims of non-lethal violence in 98 cities from 34 states and Puerto Rico. The National Coalition for the Homeless calls on Congress for a General Accounting Office (GAO) investigation into the nature and scope of violent acts and crimes that occur against people experiencing homelessness. NCH also supports the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2003.

National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week
Co-sponsored annually by the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness, National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week will be held November 16-22, 2008. Here's how you can become involved! *Click here to read the 2008 Awareness Week manual.*

National Homeless Persons' Memorial Day
Since 1990, NCH has sponsored National Homeless Persons' Memorial Day on or near the first day of winter (December 21) to remember our homeless friends who have paid the ultimate price for our nation's failure to address the issue.This year the National Health Care for the Homeless Council (NHCHC) has joined us in co-sponsoring this event. Learn how you can participate in this year's Homeless Persons' Memorial Day. *Click here to download the 2007 Memorial Day manual.*

Universal Living Wage
The Austin, TX-based group Living Wage formula is based on the premise that if a person works 40 hours a week, then he/she should be able to afford basic housing.

Ongoing Program Activities
Grassroots Organizing: NCH places a great deal of importance on the fact that persons who are or have experienced homelessness must be actively involved in the resolution of homelessness. Towards this end, NCH has initiated several different projects in an effort to build a national movement to end the violations of the civil rights of persons who are homeless.

Policy Analysis and Advocacy: NCH provides analyses of proposed public policy initiatives to determine their impact on those who are experiencing homelessness or are at risk of becoming homeless. We also provide up-to-date information on federal initiatives to state and local groups whose constituents will be impacted by these initiatives. One strength of NCH is its ability to define and initiate needed remedies, and commit to the design and implementation of long-term and outcome-oriented resolutions to end homelessness.

Technical Assistance: In order to increase access to services and programs for people with little or no income, it is necessary for state and local agencies and providers to possess a thorough knowledge of the appropriate services and programs available. By building partnerships among providers and advocates who are working in specific regions, we can work collaboratively and thus more effectively on moving people out of poverty and homelessness.

The seed that was to become NCH was planted in 1981 when the founder, Robert Hayes, filed a lawsuit on behalf of an unsheltered homeless man in New York City. The lawsuit was settled out of court. Homeless people won the right to shelter in New York City, a right which still exists today. One result of this successful litigation was that people who worked at emergency food and shelter programs in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s saw the need for, and benefit of, organizing and advocacy. As a result the Coalition for the Homeless in New York City (CFH) was formed, followed by many other local and state wide homeless coalitions.  Through the collaborative efforts of these coalitions, the National Coalition for the Homeless was formed in 1982, with headquarters in New York City, and opened its Washington, DC office in 1985.  

Over the past twenty-sixyears NCH has been a driving force in the fight to end homelessness for all people.  The major accomplishments include authoring and successfully passing the McKinney/Vento Homelessness Assistance Act in 1986/87 as well as co-sponsoring the Housing Now! March in 1989 that brought a quarter of a million people to DC to demand affordable housing.  NCH continuously works to educate Congress on the national needs of people experiencing homelessness, which has lead to legislation on the education of homeless children, as well as voting rights, hate crimes against the homeless and increased funding for homeless programs.