Showing posts with label unemployed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label unemployed. Show all posts

Friday, August 21, 2015

Sleeping on the Streets: DOJ Challenges the Constitutionality of Anti-Homelessness Ordinances

by Nomad

Otherwise ignored by mainstream media, the Washington Post picked up an interesting news article the other day regarding homelessness and a DOJ challenge the local ordinances against vagancy.  


To Be Without a Home, Like a Complete Unknown
Boise, like many US cities, passed an ordinance which banned sleeping or camping in public places. That city is by no means unique.

The usual knee-jerk reaction to a visible and embarrassing problem has been to find a way to make it a criminal offense. The idea is basically if we can't prevent it, we can make it illegal and then we can make it invisible.

According to last year's report from the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, a survey of 187 cities found that:
  • 24% of cities impose city-wide bans on begging in public.
  • 76% of cities prohibit begging in particular public places.
  • 33% of cities make it illegal to loiter in public throughout an entire city.
  • 65% of cities prohibit the activity in particular public places.
  • 53% of cities prohibit sitting or lying down in particular public places.
  • 43% of cities prohibit sleeping in vehicles.
  •  9% of cities prohibit sharing of food
A recent study by UC Berkeley School of Law noted that more Californian cities have enacted more anti-vagrancy laws than in any other part of the country. with Los Angeles and San Francisco topping the list.
The laws restrict anything from panhandling to sharing food with a homeless person to sitting in public spaces.