Smith-Wade-El legislation to end the criminalization of homelessness in PA reported out of committee

Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus April 28, 2026 | 10:21 AM

HARRISBURG, April 28 – The PA House of Representatives took a step toward decriminalizing homelessness in Pennsylvania by reporting state Rep. Ismail Smith-Wade-El’s Shelter First Act (H.B. 2028) out of the House Judiciary Committee on Monday.

Smith-Wade-El’s Shelter First Act legislation would allow people experiencing homelessness to conduct life-sustaining activities in public spaces when no reasonable alternative options for housing are offered or available. Municipalities would be required to provide adequate indoor spaces for people experiencing homelessness before they could enforce any ordinance that criminalizes living outside.

State Sen. Nikil Saval, D-Phila., has introduced a companion bill in the state Senate.

Smith-Wade-El’s advocacy grew out of his experiences managing a homeless shelter in Lancaster.

“Many of the shelter’s residents had jobs they went to day after day but still were struggling to find a home of their own thanks to low wages, rising inflation, and an affordable housing crisis—a perfect storm,” Smith-Wade-El, D-Lancaster, said. “The criminalization of the unhoused will not solve the homelessness issue in our commonwealth. Instead, it will exacerbate it by plunging these vulnerable people into a never-ending cycle of heavy fines, arrests, and incarceration. It’s a tax on being poor.

“Jailing our unhoused population is a losing proposition for everyone, as it will just drain state and community resources necessary to police and incarcerate the unhoused.

“The Shelter First Act is a fierce rejection of cruelty against the unhoused and would break this pernicious, life-destroying punitive cycle,” Smith-Wade-El said. “It will make our communities stronger and safer by ensuring that everyone’s dignity and rights—including their right to a place to sleep—are respected.”

The legislation addresses the fallout from the United States Supreme Court ruling in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson (2024), which held that a city ordinance criminalizing involuntarily unhoused people who set up encampments on public property does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause. This punishing decision criminalized the over 770,000 homeless people living in the United States simply for being poor and unable to afford housing costs.

Since the June 2024 Supreme Court decision, cities nationwide have introduced 320 ordinances criminalizing unhoused people, nearly 220 of which have passed. In July 2025, President Trump issued an executive order calling for the long-term incarceration of homeless people.

The full text of Smith-Wade-El’s co-sponsorship memo can be viewed here.

House Bill 2028 now moves to the full House for consideration.