Since the Great Recession, many American cities have sought to eradicate homelessness not so much by giving people shelter, but by making it illegal to be homeless.
Citywide bans on things that homeless people need to do to survive are on the rise, according to a new report by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty. Key findings from the center's survey of 187 U.S. cities show that since 2011:
Citywide bans on camping in public have increased by 60 percent.
Citywide bans on begging have increased by 25 percent.
Citywide bans on loitering, loafing, and vagrancy have increased by 35 percent.
Citywide bans on sitting or lying down in particular public places have increased by 43 percent.
Bans on sleeping in vehicles have increased by 119 percent.
"Despite a lack of any available alternatives, more cities are choosing to turn the necessary conduct of homeless people into criminal activity," Foscarinis continued. "Such laws threaten the human and constitutional rights of homeless people, impose unnecessary costs on cities, and do nothing to solve the problems they purport to address."
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The federal government's most recent annual headcount shows homelessness declining 9 percent from January 2007 through January 2013, with 65 percent of the nation's 610,042 homeless people staying in shelters on a given night that month. Unsheltered homelessness declined by 23 percent over those years, according to the government's count.
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"Mr. Smith was cited for illegal camping and was jailed for a total of 100 days," the report says. "Due to the arrest, he lost his tent, his stove, and the fishing equipment he relied upon to live."
Maybe I'm misunderstanding, so maybe someone can tell me: Why would sleeping in a vehicle be illegal? If you have a right to be in the car and you have nowhere else to sleep, why would that be illegal?
Maybe I'm misunderstanding, so maybe someone can tell me: Why would sleeping in a vehicle be illegal? If you have a right to be in the car and you have nowhere else to sleep, why would that be illegal?
I think it's stupid but I guess it would be like being parked somewhere illegally. While the car you're in is yours, unless you're parked in front of your own home you are on someone else's property.
One thing people don't understand is that a large number of homeless people are arrested nightly, given a cot and a free meal and released in the morning. It is a very common practice.
Also, you can go to any 24 hours store and park and sleep there and never be bothered. Walmart is notorious for letting people sleep in their parking lots and that's a small part of why their clientele is economically lower class.
I mean it's dangerous I guess but it's not hurting anyone else
