Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Violence Against the Homeless Accountability Act of 2013”.
Violence Against the Homeless Accountability Act of 2013
A BILL
To amend the Hate Crime Statistics Act to include crimes against the homeless.
Sec. 2 Inclusion of homeless
Section 1(b) of the Hate Crime Statistics Act (28 U.S.C. 534 note) is amended—
in paragraph (1), by inserting “homeless status,” after “sexual orientation,”; and
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.”