SOCIAL JUSTICE BLOG
Read and share extraordinary stories from the frontlines of social change
Impact Fund Grantees Combat Injustice & Score Major Victories in 2023
As we approach the end of 2023, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on our grantees’ incredible accomplishments. This year, Impact Fund grantees achieved meaningful change for a wide range of communities experiencing injustice, including incarcerated people, racial justice protesters, mobile home residents, unhoused people, and more. We were honored to help support these cases, which demonstrate how impact litigation can be an effective tool to hold powerful entities accountable.
Arrested Just For Being Homeless
Janet Bell, a resident of Boise, ID, became homeless more than ten years ago, but it was only after she was arrested for sitting outside that she took the city to court.
Janet, who lost part of her left arm, and nearly her life, from an infection that she caught living outside received her first of multiple citations simply for sitting on a riverbank with another individual. Janet, like most homeless people, couldn’t afford to pay the tickets and eventually she was arrested. The city targeted many other homeless individuals in this manner.