The United States is in the midst of an unparalleled affordable housing and homelessness crisis. The most conservative estimate puts the number of individuals forced to live unhoused each year at around 580,000 nationwide, while the episodic nature of homelessness means that this number is likely much higher and perhaps closer to 5 million. At the same time, there is a critical shortage of affordable housing in the United States and there are only thirty-six units of rental housing for every 100 households with extremely low incomes across the nation.

In response to this crisis, various jurisdictions across the United States have introduced some form of a right to shelter. For instance, a comprehensive right to shelter has existed in New York City since the 1970s, with some 75,540 people spending a night in a city-provided shelter during March 2023. Other more limited right to shelter legal regimes exist in Washington, DC, which provides shelter in severe weather conditions, or in Massachusetts, which provides shelter to eligible families. Similarly, the Ninth Circuit’s 2018 decision in Martin v. Boise upholding the constitutional rights of individuals experiencing homelessness provides the potential contours for a limited right to shelter built around Eighth Amendment jurisprudence.