This is Yves. I don’t like the term ‘unhoused’ as opposed to ‘homeless’ or, better yet, the British term ‘sleeping rough’. Describing this desperate situation in sanitized terms seems completely wrong. this desperate condition. The article casually describes programs in Houston and Chattanooga that have reduced homelessness. If you know more about these or other policies that have made a difference, please share your feedback with us.
By Farrah Hassen, JD, writer, political analyst and assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Cal Poly Pomona. Originally published on Common dreams
As the cost of housing has exploded, so has the number of people experiencing homelessness. And unfortunately, instead of trying to house people, more States And cities criminalize people simply because they don’t have a safe place to sleep.
According to the National Homeless Law Center, almost all statesrestricts the behavior of homeless people. In Missouri, sleeping on state land is a crime. A new law in Florida prohibits people from sleeping on public property and requires local governments that do not have beds for unhoused people to set up camps far from public services.
Laura Gutowski, of Grants Pass, Oregon, lives in a tent near the house where she resided for 25 years. Shortly after the unexpected death of her husband, she found herself homeless. “It all kind of piled up at once,” she said. Oregon Public Broadcasting. “I turned my world upside down.”
The underlying problem is how we treat those struggling to meet their basic needs in the richest country in the world.
Grants Pass, like most cities today, lacks enough shelter beds to accommodate its unhoused population. It is now the subject of a case before the Supreme Court: Subsidy passesv. Johnsonwhich began when Grants Pass began ticketing people for sleeping in public, even when there weren’t enough shelter beds.
People can be fined hundreds of dollars and face criminal charges “simply for living without access to shelter.” said Ed Johnson, advocate for unhoused residents of Grants Pass. The Supreme Court’s decision will have far-reaching consequences as communities grapple with rising homelessness and housing costs.
If the court rules in favor of Grants Pass, local governments will gain more power to clean up homeless encampments and penalize those sleeping on the streets, which will only exacerbate the problem.
Alternatively, the court could enjoin these “camping” bans and remove criminalization as an option. In 2018, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals took this route in Martin v. City of Boisewhich detained that it is “cruel and unusual punishment” to criminalize homelessness when people have nowhere else to go.
According to federal governmentlast year, 653,100 people experienced homelessness in a single night in the United States, a 12% increase from 2022. Nearly half of these people sleep outside.
Researchers found that homelessness is primarily linked to unaffordable housing, compounded by lack of adequate health care and a social safety net. With half of all renting households now spend more than 30% of their income When it comes to housing, more and more people today are one emergency situation away from becoming vulnerable to homelessness.
Fining, arresting and imprisoning people for lack of housing is never the solution – and it worsens existing housing inequities. Nor is moving people without providing them with permanent alternative housing. Unpayable fines perpetuate the cycle of poverty, and a criminal record makes it even more difficult to obtain employment and decent housing.
Furthermore, the cost of criminalizing people living without housing is higher than the cost of housing them, both morally and socially. financially. Instead of kicking them while they’re struggling, housing assistance combined with other volunteer services helps lift them up.
Using a “Housing first“approach, Houston, Texas, reduction of homelessnessby almost two thirds in a decade. Chattanooga, Tennessee, homelessness halved in 2022-2023 by connecting more people to housing, scaling up homelessness prevention efforts, and creating more affordable housing.
Other useful measures include increased housing subsidies, rent controls, a tenant tax creditand guarantee access to health services.
The underlying problem is how we treat those struggling to meet their basic needs in the richest country in the world. Criminalizing people who are involuntarily homeless and in poverty is inherently cruel.
For the United States to truly resolve this crisis, we must transform our approach and recognize that housing is a fundamental human right, not a commodity. Everyone deserves to live in a home with peace, security and dignity.
