Antonia Fasanelli, J.D.
Antonia Fasanelli, J.D., is the Executive Director of the National Homelessness Law Center, a human rights organization that serves as the legal arm of the movement to end homelessness. Antonia became the Law Center’s Executive Director in 2021 andhas built a team of legal, policy, organizing and communications experts committed to advancing federal, state and local policies to prevent and end homelessness while fiercely defending the rights of all unhoused persons. Under her leadership, the Law Center has played a central role in opposing the current federal administration’s tactics to punish, involuntarily commit and force treatment upon unhoused persons and has prepared the legal field for a strong response to protect residents of the nation’s housing programs and the lives of unhoused persons.
Previously, Ms. Fasanelli was Executive Director of the Homeless Persons Representation Project, Inc. (HPRP), a Maryland-based civil legal aid organization committed to changing the systems that contribute to poverty and homelessness.
From 2002-2007, Ms. Fasanelli was an attorney at the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless. She led the Affordable Housing Initiative (AHI), the Legal Clinic’s project on affordable housing preservation and expansion.
From 2011-2014, Ms. Fasanelli was Chair of the American Bar Association (ABA) Commission on Homelessness & Poverty, of which she had been a Commissioner since July 2009. She is currently co-Chair of the Economic Justice Committee of the ABA Section on Civil Rights and Social Justice and was previously Chair of the Legal Services Committee for the ABA Commission on Veterans Legal Services.
Ms. Fasanelli received her J.D. magna cum laude from the Washington College of Law, American University in 2001 and her B.A. cum laude from Barnard College, Columbia University in 1996. From 2001 to 2002, Ms. Fasanelli was a law clerk to The Honorable Barefoot Sanders of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Prior to law school, Ms. Fasanelli was an Americorps*VISTA Outreach Coordinator at the Law Center.