Anti-Homelessness in Our Cities

The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (NLCHP) and the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) released a report last week, Homes Not Handcuffs, tracking the criminalization of homelessness as a growing trend across the country. The report focuses on specific city measures from 2007 and 2008 that have targeted homeless persons, such as laws that make it illegal to sleep, eat, or sit in public spaces. The report includes information about 273 cities.

Los Angeless is ranked the country's meanest city (for a full article on information about LA read this article from Reuters). Some examples of why are:
"L.A.'s so-called Safer City Initiative was singled out in the groups' report as the most egregious example of policies and practices nationwide that essentially punish people for failing to have a roof over their heads.

Others include making it illegal to sleep, sit or store personal belongings on sidewalks and other public spaces; prohibitions against panhandling or begging; and selective enforcement of petty offenses like jaywalking and loitering."

Across the board, though, according to their survey:

• 33% prohibit “camping” in particular public places in the city and 17% have citywide prohibitions on “camping.”
• 30% prohibit sitting/lying in certain public places.
• 47% prohibit loitering in particular public areas and 19% prohibit loitering citywide.
• 47% prohibit begging in particular public places; 49% prohibit aggressive panhandling and 23% have citywide prohibitions on begging.
The trend of criminalizing homelessness continues to grow. Based on information gathered about the 224 cities that were included in our prohibited conduct charts in both our 2006 report and this report:

• There has been a 7% increase in laws prohibiting “camping” in particular public places.
• There has been an 11% increase in laws prohibiting loitering in particular public places.
• There has been a 6% increase in laws prohibiting begging in particular public places and a 5% increase in laws prohibiting aggressive panhandling.

The resulting legal penalties compound other barriers, say the report's authors, since a criminal record makes it even harder for a homeless person to reemerge from destitution. As more formerly working- and middle-class families spiral toward homelessness, the irony of these “quality of life” ordinances grows starker.

But the criminalization of the homeless, who happen to be disproportionately people of color, isn't just an unfortunate sign of the times.

For a more detailed report from Racewire read here.