Criminalization of the Homeless Community - 2622 Words

CRIMINALIZATION OF THE HOMELESS COMMUNITY Many individuals experience homelessness do not have certain needs, including affordable housing, adequate income and health care. Some homeless persons may need additional services such as mental health or drug treatment in order to be securely housed. This research paper will discuss what homeless means, various ways in which individuals become homeless, trends, laws that effect the homeless , and do decriminalization of the homeless community help or hinder the situation. To be homeless means a person is considered homeless who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence; and... has a primary night time residency that is: (A) a supervised publicly or privately operated†¦show more content†¦Enactment and enforcement of laws that punish people for begging or panhandling in order to move poor or homeless persons out of a city or downtown area. Enactment and enforcement of laws that restrict groups sharing food with homeless persons in public space Enforcement of â€Å"quality of life† ordinances related to public activities and hygiene (e.g. public urination) when no public facilities are available to people without housing. Adoption of laws and policies that punish homeless people rather than addressing the problems that cause homelessness is an ineffective approach. Penalizing people for engaging in innocent behavior – such as sleeping in public, sitting on the sidewalk, or begging – will not reduce the occurrence of these activities or keep homeless people out of public spaces when they have no other place to sleep or sit or no other means of living. With insufficient resources for shelter and services for homeless people, enforce punishment for unavoidable activities is not only pointless, it is inhumane (Brown,1999, July/August). Relying on law enforcement officials and jails to address homelessness and related issues, such as mental illness and substance abuse, that are more appropriately handled by service providers, causes problems and widespread frustrations within the criminal justice system. Police officers are not adequately trained to respond to the situations that arise, the c riminal justice system does not provide the necessary treatmentShow MoreRelatedHomelessness And Poverty And Homelessness1699 Words   |  7 Pagesasleep, to store your belongings, or to stand still? For most of us, these scenarios seem unrealistic to the point of being ludicrous. But, for homeless people across America, these circumstances are an ordinary part of life. (National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty 7) While a portion of today’s society turns a blind eye to the subject of the criminalization of homelessness, an even larger quantity of people are not aware of the situation that is happening in every major city of America. For thoseRead MoreFunding For The Homeless Shelter861 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"In January 2015, 564,708 people were homeless on a given night in the United States† (National Alliance to End Homelessness). People become homeless due to a numerous amount of reasons, but the problem comes down to the low number of affordable housing and â€Å"the limited scale of housing assistance programs† (National Alliance to End Homelessness). Coming from a small town in Northwest Iowa and never encountering a homeless person, the homelessness issue in Iowa City was brought to my attention uponRead MoreHomelessness : An Aspect Of Society1300 Words   |  6 Pagesabout the constant growth of homelessness. Through economic policies and community advertisem ents, the government can control the issue of individuals who are facing poverty. There is a list of certain rights that every natural born citizen is granted once they are born. This conveys no matter what social or economical state the citizen is, his or her rights cannot be taken away, but must be protected by the government. Homeless citizens then do maintain these undeniable rights and remain under theRead MoreTaylor s Campaign : The Homeless1690 Words   |  7 PagesThe Homeless Kristal Lopez California State University, Fullerton Sociology 371 Section 02 Abstract Homeless are people who do not have the basic necessities to survive which leads them to living on the streets. In places like Santa Monica there are many homeless and rather than the city addressing the problem they are just making it like it doesn’t exist. Forcing the homeless to fix the situation when they are not able to get through. Middle class Santa Monica residents see the homeless as aRead MoreLegislative Bill : An Effective Tool For Advocacy Essay1734 Words   |  7 Pagespredecessor, the Right to Rest Act. The Right to Rest Act was the first bill to be introduced in March of 2015 and came to the attention of Representative Melton through the nonprofit organization Denver Homeless Out Loud. The concern grew out of enforcement of ordinances that harmfully impacted homeless individuals, such as the urban-camping ban enacted in Denver in May of 2012. The urban-camping ban, in effect, criminalized homelessness. The bill is aimed at establishing necessary rights for indi vidualsRead MoreLegislative Bill : An Effective Tool For Advocacy Essay1627 Words   |  7 Pagespredecessor, the Right to Rest Act. The Right to Rest Act was the first bill to be introduced in March of 2015 and came to the attention of Representative Melton through the nonprofit organization Denver Homeless Out Loud. The concern grew out of enforcement of ordinances that harmfully impacted homeless individuals, such as the urban-camping ban enacted in Denver in May of 2012. The urban-camping ban, in effect, criminalized homelessness. The bill is aimed at establishing necessary rights for individualsRead MoreWeakness Of Homelessness1232 Words   |  5 PagesStrength. There are health centers for homeless to aid in not only their health, but their outreach programs set them up in the right direction. Like in this case study, the center assisted him in signing up for health insurance and food benefits. Some programs, give homeless the psychological help. Weaknesses. Unfortunately, homeless must want to not live on the streets and give up the additions to recreational and prescription drugs and alcohol. They tend not to because they feel ostracized, beingRead MoreArgumentative Essay : Am I A Criminal?2178 Words   |  9 PagesCriminal? Despite communities lacking sufficient affordable housing and shelter space, cities are continuing to penalize people forced to live on the streets and in public spaces and in addition include criminal penalties for violations of these laws. Instead of criminalizing the homeless and wasting millions of dollars, we should unite with advocates that are going to help protect those living on the streets and go head to head with those laws that strongly discriminate against the homeless. As humanRead MoreA Reflection On Policy Observation883 Words   |  4 Pagesis that organizations paint this image of morality and striving to help the homeless, when really what they preach compared to their actions are very incongruent. For example, Mr. Gladiator is a Muslim and he was praying outside of Kroger and was asked to leave because he was supposedly disturbing customers, but in reality he was just praying for them. This ties into commercialization where businesses will kick homeless people out of their properties establishment to appear more high quality. This