Two Homelessness Criminalization Bills Appear to Die in NC General Assembly

By Billy Cerullo, NLIHC Housing Advocacy Organizer 

Housing and homelessness advocates in North Carolina are celebrating the defeat of two bills that were introduced in the General Assembly during the 2025 legislative session that would have criminalized homelessness in the state. H781 would have established new requirements on, but no funding for, local governments to set up state-sanctioned homeless encampments up to a year with state oversight while H437 would have assigned accountability (with the risk of felony charges for noncompliance) to the hundreds of nonprofit and local government providers of housing and services to unsheltered North Carolinians when drug trafficking occurs in the area around their facilities. The language in both bills appears to come from the Cicero Institute, a Texas-based firm that has filed similar bills in other states before and after the Supreme Court’s decision in the Grants Pass v. Johnson case last year.  

The campaign to defeat the two bills centered on educating both the public and state-elected officials on current services provided to those experiencing homelessness and the importance of bolstering those services rather than subverting them. NLIHC state partner, the North Carolina Coalition to End Homelessness (NCCEH) spearheaded the effort to defeat the two bills and coalesced local, state, and national organizations.  

“While Cicero describes itself as a think tank, its policies promote industries that potentially profit from criminalizing poverty,” said Dr. Latonya Agard, executive director of NCCEH.  

NCCEH also coordinated proactive weekly strategy meetings that included 62 community leaders from across the state’s 12 Continuums of Care (CoCs), secured public testimony of veterans and four bishops overseeing 1,200 churches across the state, and promoted a state sign-on letter including 142 local leaders who opposed the two bills.  

Most importantly, the coalition centered the voices of those with lived experience of housing insecurity by ensuring they had frequent opportunities to give direct testimony on their experiences in opposition to the two bills.  

In addition to direct action, the coalition also provided pertinent data to state legislators and had consistent media coverage of the two bills that coincided with the reporting of a tragic result of a similar bill that was passed in the Florida Legislature. The situation in Florida was presented as a cautionary tale to NC legislators who were already dubious about the similar bills introduced in their state’s General Assembly.  

“States that adopted Cicero laws find they are funneling more public money into incarceration, so while these bills could lead to the financial enrichment of out-of-state investors of privatized jails and prisons and monitoring technologies, they will worsen conditions for North Carolinians without housing,” Agard said. 

Although both bills languished in committee and appear to be defeated, there is little doubt that similar legislation will be introduced in the future. Following the Grants Pass v. Johnson decision and the president’s recent executive order, organizations like the Cicero Institute will likely continue to be emboldened to introduce statewide bills criminalizing homelessness. Regardless, advocates in NC are poised to continue educating state lawmakers on existing programs to curb homelessness to effect meaningful solutions to the housing crisis in the state.