Mickey’s Mission: Remembering Structural Solutions to Eliminate Homelessness

In the 1980s, austerity and severe social safety net cuts coincided with the emergence of “new homelessness.” This article examines this policy-induced crisis through the life and work of Houston Congressman Mickey Leland. Grounded in the experiences of his constituents and aligning with the critical housing scholarship of his time, Leland diagnosed homelessness as a structural issue. Leland’s Homeless Person’s Survival Act included a national right to shelter, low-income housing preservation, and rent relief. Though not adopted at the time, this legislation still offers a radical blueprint to eliminate homelessness at the root of housing insecurity.