{"id":22020,"date":"2023-09-18T09:00:07","date_gmt":"2023-09-18T13:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=22020"},"modified":"2024-01-08T10:31:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-08T15:31:00","slug":"how-to-fight-the-criminalization-of-homelessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/how-to-fight-the-criminalization-of-homelessness\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Fight the Criminalization of Homelessness"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><h2><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Homelessness Is So Horrific It Should Be a Crime \u2026 And It Is<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Sadly, however, the people going to jail over<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/illinois-seeks-to-achieve-functional-zero-homelessness\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0homelessness<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0are not the shifty landlords pulling off illegal self-help evictions. They aren&#8217;t the corporate magnates who decided to keep wages stagnant while raising rental rates by astronomical proportions. Charging half a million dollars for an average-sized house seems downright criminal, but\u00a0<\/span><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">sometimes justice isn&#8217;t just<\/span><\/em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">You might think the prisons are absolutely brimming with the sly executives who filed over\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/full\/10.1177\/23780231211009983\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">200,000 illegal evictions<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0while the moratoriums were still in place. This assertion, however, is incorrect.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The people currently going to jail over homelessness are the same people living through it, struggling with it, and sometimes failing to survive it.<\/span><\/h4>\n<h3><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The Criminalization of Homelessness in Brief: A Look at Victim-Blaming Legislation<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;It&#8217;s cruel, and it&#8217;s abominable to allow our neighbors to live on the streets in the richest country in world history, with no access to shelter and no access to medical care.&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0&#8212; Will Knight on the unfathomable cruelty of\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/why-do-cities-respond-to-homelessness-with-criminalization\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">criminalizing homelessness<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">According to research presented by the\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/homelesslaw.org\/first-national-study-of-state-laws-criminalizing-homelessness-released\/#:~:text=Almost%20every%20state%2C%2048%20in,living%2C%20or%20sleeping%20in%20vehicles.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">National Homelessness Law Center<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, you can find anti-homeless legislation in practically every state in the US.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Laws designed to keep the homeless population in jail can be difficult to spot because they don&#8217;t expressly mention their target. These hostile pieces of legislation are misleadingly classified as &#8220;quality of life ordinances,&#8221; and they are often enforced under the guise of public safety.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The sad truth is that right now, on any given night, in every far-flung region across the country, a homeless person can go to jail, receive a citation, or, in some extreme cases, become a tragic victim of police brutality, all because they were:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Camping in a public park<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Sitting in a public space<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Storing their belongings on a public street<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Sleeping in a vehicle<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Standing in the same place for too long<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Engaging in various life-sustaining activities and more<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">These ordinances are examples of victim-blaming legislation because they penalize the people they proclaim to protect.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">To stop perpetuating the vicious cycle of homelessness, we have to come together and fight homeless criminalization.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">We spoke with Will Knight, the Decriminalization Director for the National Homelessness Law Center. He filled us in on how to fight the <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/a-look-at-anti-homeless-legislation-awaiting-action\/\">criminalization of homelessness<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Step 1: Educate the Public on the True Facts About Homelessness<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;I think your work is one of the best ways,&#8221; said Knight, referring to Invisible People&#8217;s reporting on the subject. &#8220;We need to educate each other. We need to call out the false narratives and the demonization and the vilification of homeless communities everywhere that we see it.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">This first step is of the utmost importance.\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/medias-use-of-harmful-words-exacerbates-homelessness\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">False narratives about homelessness<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0abound. They range from misrepresenting the most prevalent underlying causes of homelessness and emphasizing personal choice over structural policy to misrepresenting individual members of the homeless population by portraying them as criminals, addicts, or violent psychopaths.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">All these stereotypes are untrue and harmful because they influence the public, who, in turn, influence the policies and legislation. This leads to a scenario where criminalization of homelessness prevails over other, more effective strategies like Housing First and financial intervention.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Step 2: Establish Common Ground with Our Unhoused Neighbors<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;We need to find our common ground and our human empathy for people who are suffering, for vulnerable people who need our help, which is something we all have common ground on,&#8221; Knight explained. &#8220;Something I found everyone agrees with is that people should not be subjected to living in these conditions. It&#8217;s cruel and abominable to allow our neighbors to live on the streets in the richest country in world history with no access to shelter and medical care.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Establishing commonality with our unhoused neighbors should be easy. After all, we are all human beings, and most working-class Americans are one measly paycheck away from homelessness. It&#8217;s a harsh reality, but it&#8217;s one worth holding up a mirror to as a reminder of how close we truly are.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Step 3: Advocate for Accessibility<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">One of the biggest issues of homelessness is not just the lack of housing but also, importantly, the lack of access to other basic needs. We can fight the criminalization of homelessness by fighting for alternatives like making housing and other needs accessible for all.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;I already mentioned the lack of access to shelter and medical care, but there are so many other things our unhoused neighbors can&#8217;t obtain. Often no access to food or other resources necessary for human beings to live cripples members of the homeless community, giving way to illnesses and deaths.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;Hydration deaths happen a lot of the time, too, because this population cannot access sanitary water. Helping educate each other about the humanity of our most vulnerable neighbors means advocating for accessibility to the most vital, most basic of needs,&#8221; Knight said.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Step 4: Advocate for Policies that Prioritize Housing as a Human Right<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;Educating each other about policy, speaking about why criminalization is more harmful and, for what it&#8217;s worth, more costly, is imperative to combatting the criminalization of homelessness,&#8221; said Knight. &#8220;That&#8217;s another big false narrative that our politicians are too cowardly to stand up for good policy. They are merely acting in the voters&#8217; interests.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;Criminalization policies are easy to sell politically because of the narrative of the danger that homeless people pose, which is false. And because they can pitch criminalization policies and tell the voters that they have no fiscal impact, which is also false, they peddle this harmful message to the masses.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Expounding on the cost of enforcing anti-homeless legislation, Knight said, &#8220;The police response to homelessness actually comes at a huge cost. The cost of the legal process, from courts and prosecutors to defense attorneys, combined with the cost of caging people so they&#8217;re out of sight and out of mind, is astronomical.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;In Phoenix, Arizona, for example, it costs roughly $45,000 per person per year to put somebody in a jail cell. In some other places, it&#8217;s a little bit less than that, but still in the realm of about $30,000 per year,&#8221; he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;If somebody doesn&#8217;t have special needs, that&#8217;s how much it costs to put them in a prison cell for a year. And for less\u2026 much, much less than that, we could provide the humanitarian services, shelter, and housing first that is empirically proven to actually redress and solve homelessness, and to help people get back on their feet.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;The difference is politicians get to lie about the fiscal impact of one approach while ignoring the more effective solution entirely. And we have a social and cultural problem and addiction, a fetish almost, with using police and handcuffs and jail cells to solve our social problems.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;Homeless criminalization is an easy thing to support for people who are ignorant about the reality of these policies and how they impact all of us, especially the vulnerable people at the center of them,&#8221; Knight explained. &#8220;Whereas, on the other hand, pitching humanitarian policy does have to come with an upfront cost because we haven&#8217;t been doing that. In fact, we&#8217;ve been dismantling support for vulnerable unhoused people since at least the Reagan era, when we dismantled HUD almost completely.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">In other words, negative public opinion and increased punitive responses to homelessness go hand in hand. Something else also goes hand in hand &#8211; The dismantling of social services and the lack of affordable housing fueling the homeless crisis.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<h3><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Step 5: Advocate for Affordable Housing Instead of Imprisonment\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;You can draw a direct line from the dismantlement of social services necessary to help vulnerable unhoused people from the Reagan era through to today,&#8221; Knight warned.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;You can also, just as easily draw a direct line to the increase of homelessness, meaning visible street homelessness, which translates to unsheltered people living out in public, and the dismantling of those policies, the collateral commoditization of housing, which has increased the cost, and the unavailability of affordable housing. At the end of the day, that lack of affordable housing is the actual number one reason for homelessness in the first place!&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Urge Your Local Legislators to Prioritize Housing Over Handcuffs<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The criminalization of homelessness is popular amongst politicians because it appears to be what the public wants. To fight this cruel penalization and effectively address the homeless problem, we must all reach out to our local legislators and urge them to prioritize policies that make housing an irrevocable human right.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Homelessness Is So Horrific It Should Be a Crime \u2026 And It Is Sadly, however, the people going to jail over\u00a0homelessness\u00a0are not the shifty landlords pulling off illegal self-help evictions. They aren&#8217;t the corporate magnates who decided to keep wages &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/how-to-fight-the-criminalization-of-homelessness\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":22022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[7141,12669,515,16753],"coauthors":[8785],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22020"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22020"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22827,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22020\/revisions\/22827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22020"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=22020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}