Is there a human right to housing? And, if there is, what are the implications of such a right for unhoused persons, governments, and the broader community? In his talk, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg (https://www.cityofsacramento.org/mayor/) discusses incorporating this right into law and the implications of the right for housing policy at the state and local levels.

California is facing a crisis of tens of thousands of unhoused persons. It’s a crucial time to explore new ideas and practices about a powerful ethical and legal idea by one of the state’s leading policy experts on homelessness.

Brief responses to the mayor’s talk by Tristia Bauman of the National Homelessness Law Center (https://homelesslaw.org/) and Andrea Urton of HomeFirst Services of Santa Clara County (https://www.homefirstscc.org/).

Mayor Darrell Steinberg is one of Sacramento’s most accomplished public servants, having served as a City Councilman before being elected to the State Assembly and State Senate. As a state legislator, Steinberg championed economic development, education reform, building sustainable communities, and major investments in healthcare and education. Darrell was the first Sacramentan to serve as President of the State Senate in more than 125 years and was elected the 57th mayor of Sacramento in 2016.

Moderator: David DeCosse, director, religious and Catholic Ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics (https://www.scu.edu/ethics/) at Santa Clara University (https://www.scu.edu

Introductions: Boo Riley, associate professor, religious studies, College of Arts and Sciences at Santa Clara University

The event is co-sponsored by the Santa Clara University Unhoused Initiative, the Santa Clara University School of Law (https://law.scu.edu/), and the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics (https://www.scu.edu/ethics/).