![handle is hein.journals/usfor56 and id is 1 raw text is: Housing Injustice as a Barrier
to Reproductive Justice
ByNORAH CUNNINGHAM*
To me it is pretty clear that whatever serves as an obstacle to the whole of
a woman's freedom and self-determination, like economic injustice, racial
and sex discrimination, affects her reproductive freedom. Injustice in
housing is a reproductive justice issue .... Not only should homelessness
be regarded as a reproductive justice issue because of its direct impact on
women's health, but because of its impact on the overall physical, mental,
spiritual, political, economic, and social well-being of women.'
Introduction
VWE ARE MOTHERS, WE ARE WORKERS, WE ARE HUMAN BEINGS, and
we deserve housing. Our children deserve housing. Housing is a human right.
- Moms 4 Housingz
On November 18, 2019, a collective of formerly unhoused mothers,
who would become known as Moms 4 Housing, entered a vacant, unlocked
home in Oakland, California, and planted the seeds of their own housing
justice movement.' The house had been purchased by a home-flipping
* J.D., 2020, University of San Francisco School of Law, magna cum laude, Public Interest
Law Certificate; B.A., 2017, University of California, Santa Cruz, Community Studies and Sociology.
Norah currently works in the public interest field in her role as an attorney at Justice At Last, an
organization providing free wrap around legal services to survivors of human trafficking in the Bay
Area. She would like to thank USF Law Professors Bill Hing, Yvonne Lindgren, and Julie Nice, as
well as USF Law Review Volume 56 staff, particularly Editors Amy Metzgar and Laura Odujinrin.
1. Injustice in Housing Is a Reproductive.Justice Issue, ABORTION GANG (Sept. 8, 2010),
https://abortiongang.wordpress.com/2010/09/08/injustice-in-housing-is-a-reproductive-justice-issue/
[https://perma.cc/7CR6-EYHQ].
2. MOMS4HOUSING, https://moms4housing.org/ [https://perna.cc/5N99-PYL5].
3. I will use the term unhoused rather than homeless to refer to people without homes
to diminish the character stigmas attached with being unhoused. I will use the phrase experiencing
homelessness to give weight to the barrers folks experiencing homelessness have faced in
overcoming these stigmas. For a further discussion on this terminology, see Peter Lee, Homeless or
Unhoused?, INSIDE OSL (Jan. 14, 2014), http://blog.oslserves.org/?p=38 [https://perma.cc/
6NC5-TTM6].
4. Brentin Mock & Sarah Holder, A Group ofMothers, a Vacant Home, and a Win for Fair
Housing, CITYLAB (Jan. 28, 2020, 6:54 AM), https://www.citylab.com/equity/2020/01/moms-4-
housing-eviction-oakland-homeless-crisis-real-estate/605263/ [https://perma.cc/FQ52-74F3].
1](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/usfor56&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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