U.S. Laws Criminalizing Homelessness Mount, Even As Courts Strike Them Down

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U.S. Laws Criminalizing Homelessness Mount, Even As Courts Strike Them Down

Rather than redoubling efforts to address growing rates of homelessness and hunger since the 2008 financial crisis, many local governments seem intent on criminalizing aspects of homelessness such as panhandling and sleeping in cars.

Four homeless men warm themselves on a steam grate by the Federal Trade Commission, blocks from the Capitol, during frigid temperatures in Washington. (Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
WASHINGTON — Homelessness increased across the country over the past year even as substantial demand for emergency shelter was unmet, according to a major report published this month on behalf of some 1,400 U.S. mayors.

Across 25 major cities surveyed by the U.S. Conference of mayors, 43 percent saw an increase in homelessness over the past year, and overall numbers climbed by around 1 percent. In addition, almost three-quarters of these cities’ social services were forced to turn away homeless families with children, due to a lack of emergency beds available.

The areas surveyed include most of the largest cities in the United States. The U.S. Conference of Mayors represents municipalities with populations of 30,000 or more, and has been offering these annual assessments for more than three decades.

Perhaps most problematic issue in the new findings is the forward prognosis and apparent lack of substantive response. Officials in nearly 70 percent of the cities surveyed reported expecting to see either the same or heightened need for emergency shelter in the coming year. Likewise, no city expects to see a decrease in the need for emergency food assistance, and officials in two cities reported expecting “substantial” increases.

Yet resources allotted to combating homelessness and hunger are universally expected to either stay the same or decrease. More than a quarter of cities are expecting a cut in resources for emergency shelter, while nearly half are expecting similar reductions in the provision of emergency food assistance.

These trends can largely be traced to the downturn in the U.S. economy since 2008. While subsequent years have seen a substantial increase in the number of jobless and, in turn, homeless families and individuals, so too have the post-recession years continued to seriously impact on public coffers and government budgets. Meanwhile, federal “stimulus” monies made available in the aftermath of the economic crisis have, by now, largely dried up, even as broader social programming has been cut back.

“It is important to understand that the face of hunger and homelessness has changed as the national economy has contracted … there are many people who were never vulnerable in the past, but who find themselves vulnerable now,” Helene Schneider, the mayor of Santa Barbara, said last week at the report’s launch….more here

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U.S. Laws Criminalizing Homelessness Mount, Even As Courts Strike Them Down