Last week, the Law Center released our latest national report (https://www.nlchp.org/documents/Housing-Not-Handcuffs) on the criminalization of homelessness, which reviewed trends in 187 cities over the past ten years. Laws criminalizing living in vehicles (https://www.nlchp.org/documents/Housing-Not-Handcuffs) have increased 147% over that period, more than any other category.
Other findings include a 69% increase in city-wide bans on public “camping” (https://www.nlchp.org/documents/Housing-Not-Handcuffs) and a 52% increase in city-wide bans on sleeping in public. Criminalization is rising across the country at the same time that the crisis in affordable housing is deepening. In many cities, even emergency shelter is in short supply. Local leaders are under pressure to “do something” about homelessness, and increasingly they turn to the criminal justice system (https://www.nlchp.org/documents/Housing-Not-Handcuffs. ).
We know that criminalization doesn’t work, and in fact is counterproductive, saddling people with criminal records that make it even harder to exit homelessness. Courts have struck down such laws as unconstitutional, and the U.S. Department of Justice agrees. Research shows that criminalizing homelessness costs more than ending it through housing and services.
Media across the country is taking notice of the criminalization of homelessness, including a story in the NYT about our recent report and a piece in Think Progress. For a full list of media coverage to date, please see the media page on our website.
Last week, together with over 100 organizations, the Law Center launched a new campaign for Housing Not Handcuffs. Our goal is to redirect law and policy away from criminalizing homelessness, and towards housing homeless people. We’re calling on policymakers at the federal, state and local levels to promote policies to increase access to housing, protect housing rights, and stop criminalization.
You can help by endorsing the campaign, signing up for the HNH listserv here: ways to get involved, and spreading the word through social media -- Facebook and Twitter. Learn more about the campaign here
www.nlchp.org). Please keep this discussion and action going in your family, neighborhood, community, church assemblies and MAKE THAT CHANGE! #ThinkProgress
Posted By: agnes levine
Wednesday, November 23rd 2016 at 11:23AM
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