New Federal Bill to Ban Registrants from Homeless Shelters

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) has introduced legislation that would bar registered citizens from entering federally funded shelters. It’s called the ‘Safe Shelters for Survivors Act of 2026’.

The proposal overlooks a glaring and uncomfortable reality. A disproportionate share of the homeless population is made up of people on the registry — not because they choose homelessness, but because a dense web of laws makes stable housing and employment extraordinarily difficult to obtain. Residency restrictions carve entire cities into exclusion zones. Employment barriers close doors before an application is even considered. And even where the laws does not explicitly prohibit housing or work, the stigma attached to the registry often does the job. Landlords refuse to rent. Employers decline to hire. The outcome is not surprising.

Here’s the paradox: registry laws create homelessness, and then new laws punish the very homelessness those policies helped create. Proposals like this one would cut off access to shelters — the very places designed to keep people off the streets. What, exactly, is the intended result?

In states like Florida, the contradiction is even more stark. Florida has some of the strictest residency restrictions in the nation, and local ordinances have produced well-documented housing instability. Now add Section 125.0231, Florida Statutes — enacted in 2024 through House Bill 1365 — which criminalizes public sleeping and camping. Consider the sequence… restrict where someone can live so they wind up homeless, deny access to shelters so they have to sleep on the streets, and then criminalize sleeping outdoors. Where is that supposed to lead? If a person cannot legally reside in broad swaths of a community, cannot enter a shelter, and cannot sleep outside, what option remains other than incarceration?

You can contact Rep. Mace here: https://mace.house.gov/contact. If you get a meaningful response (not an auto-responder), you can share it below.


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19 thoughts on “New Federal Bill to Ban Registrants from Homeless Shelters

  • February 20, 2026

    Don’t waste time on bill sponsors. Mace is just another Lauren Book.

    Look at the committees the bills are assigned to, and target the chairs of the committee. They decide what advances.

    BTW, Mace introduced this bill last year as H.R.1205 – Safe Shelters Act of 2025. Not sure why she felt the need to reintroduce the bill since Congress runs on 2-year cycles and the current cycle is 2025-2026 other than trying to get attention. In December 2024, Mace introduced the so-called “Safe Shelters Act of 2024,” (HR 10398), but time ran out on this bill.

    I’m sure they’ll try bringing back the death penalty bill too.

    Thankfully they haven’t gained traction yet but we need to be prepared just in case.

    Reply
    • February 21, 2026

      Not sure why she felt the need to reintroduce the bill

      Just like what we’re currently experiencing with the outrage “wave riding.” They’re using “the files” as momentum to increase the animosity towards us. She’s obviously attempting to jump start it in the midst of all the Epstein outrage. Lawmakers are calculating and exploit everything for leverage.

      Reply
  • February 20, 2026

    Focusing on the political reality for a moment, I offer the following:

    This proposal is nothing more than Rep. Mace putting forth a bill that will help her in her race to be the Governor of South Carolina. She is leaving Congress at the end of this term to make the run. She is also a handful of Republicans who forced a vote on the Epstein files, a vote the Speaker clearly did not want.

    More importantly, she has the rest of this Congressional session to do something that she has never done before. Yes, that’s right, as of early 2026, Representative Nancy Mace has sponsored zero (0) bills that have been signed into law during her time in Congress, according to GovTrack.us. While she has introduced numerous pieces of legislation, none of her sponsored bills reached the president to be signed into law.

    There is no Senate companion bill, she is leaving Congress, she has a poisonous relationship with the Speaker of the House who decides what legislation gets put up for a vote, she is batting .000 on her legislative ability, and there are very few legislative days left before the November elections.

    It is always good to be aware of the nonsense that gets proposed and it can be useful to use this as an opportunity to educate people, it is also good to be aware of the politics surrounding these issues. This is one that I am not worried about, at least not at this point.

    Reply
  • February 20, 2026

    That’s pretty much what this country has been doing for awhile now. Politicians are constantly trying to have people incarcerated, it’s what feeds the revolving door, it’s what helps line their pockets, and it’s what helps them get elected thru tough on crime persona. When people finally realize that politicians are actually crooks themselves, it’s already a done deal.

    Reply
  • February 20, 2026

    I knew FAC was going to post this lol. I read this about 2 hours ago

    Reply
  • February 20, 2026

    She’s been contacted. Will she care or respond? Who knows. In the end all of these “civil regulatory schemes” are just that, “schemes” to get people back to jail and prison whenever possible. It’s disheartening and disgusting the way other humans will treat other humans. But lest we treat the “president” or his friends in such ways. Nope, we house, insure, and swoon over them.

    Reply
    • February 20, 2026

      She is projecting her issues she has with an ex onto anyone and everyone in her run for her state top seat which she is woefully behind in the poll on.

      Reply
  • February 20, 2026

    WTF is the matter with these people??!! I’m surprised they don’t state it honestly: “We’re not going to kill you… But we’ll happily let you die!” (As we ban you from medical care, housing, etc.) 😡😡😡

    Reply

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