From the New Report of the National Coalition for the Homeless
and the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty

Executive Summary

I. Introduction
The following report will document that people experiencing homelessness are subject to basic violations of their civil rights through the unconstitutional application of laws, arbitrary police practices and discriminatory public regulations. Local governments, police departments, and local business improvement districts, from our largest cities to our most rural communities, are diverting precious public resources and funding to penalize people for being homeless. Lacking private spaces in which to carry out life-sustaining activities such as sleeping, resting, storing personal belongings, or activities associated with personal hygiene, people experiencing homelessness face the further indignity of arrest. They will still be homeless when released but leave with a criminal record and another barrier to obtaining housing. These short-sighted laws and practices may make good sound bites but only serve to invest more tax dollars in jails than in housing, health care and services.

This report documents that criminalization is not only a local issue but is also national in scope and demands a federal response. We will make the case that there is a pattern and practice of civil rights violations and unconstitutional behaviors by local government authorities including the police and other city agencies. These practices extract enormous economic, social, and individual costs and do nothing to alleviate the root causes of homelessness. The National Coalition for the Homeless, National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, and local member organizations share the concern of local business, police departments and government that there are people sleeping on our nation's sidewalks. We believe that working toward ending the causes of homelessness and not simply removing homeless people from view is cost effective, as well as just, and if presented to the general public in moral and economic terms would be widely supported.

This report will highlight both patterns of criminalization and examples of positive work being done by local governments and police departments in partnership with advocates. While we are heartened by the examples of some compassionate local government and police responses, we call on local governments to take the next step and educate communities about the root causes of homelessness, taking action to address them. We are hopeful that the following report will be a tool for local organizing and public education around the issues of criminalization and the need to create partnerships toward achieving our common goal of ending homelessness.

The findings and recommendations cited in this report are more critical than ever. The recent events of September 11, 2001, have already impacted people experiencing homelessness in several fundamental ways. Access to public space has been severely restricted in many communities. For people experiencing homelessness who live in public spaces without access to shelter, without an ID showing an address, access to public restrooms, and places to store their belongings, the implications are disastrous. The economic recession has resulted in the lay off of tens of thousands of people, and hiring in many sectors is at a standstill. The newly hired who have benefited from the economic expansion of the past several years will be among the first to lose their jobs. The resultant decrease in tax revenues means less public funding for housing and services for the very poor, and many foundations and charities report a sharp decline in donations to programs which traditionally served the poor.

V. Problem Statement
The passage of laws that target behaviors associated with the state of being homeless, such as sleeping, bathing, sitting, cooking, lying down, urinating, or storing personal belongings in public spaces are unconstitutional because collectively, they target people based on their housing status, not for behaviors that, in and of themselves are criminal . These laws and practices are designed to criminalize homelessness without mentioning the words "homeless" or "housing" because they target behaviors most likely to be conducted by people experiencing homelessness. The following report will demonstrate that people experiencing homelessness are targeted in a discriminatory manner for conducting what is generally considered private behavior in public spaces because they lack the privacy, housing or even shelter in which to conduct them.

VI. Overall Findings

• A. The systematic abuse of the civil rights of homeless people is used as a strategy to remove homeless people from sight by local governments and private business districts;
• B. 100% of communities surveyed lack enough shelter beds to meet demand and housing costs are out of reach for many, including the working poor;
• C. The lack of access to health care, including mental health and substance abuse treatment, exacerbates homelessness, and people living with mental health issues are disproportionately impacted by criminalization in many communities;
• D. Communities are diverting scarce resources from solutions for homelessness to criminalization;
• E. Replicable models are being developed in communities nationwide as a result of partnerships between people who are homeless, their allies and local government.

Recommendations

• I. Educate people experiencing homelessness, and their allies, about their constitutional rights
• II. Immediate support for local monitoring projects and data collection activities to challenge local abuses, support local best practices, and building a national resource data bank
• III. Federal action is required to investigate patterns and practices of the civil rights violations of people experiencing homelessness
• IV. Combine litigation with grassroots organizing and public education efforts

• * All people experiencing homelessness who are arrested must be advised of their right to counsel and given the phone number of an advocacy organization to track and independently document the arrest;
• * Local police-watch projects should be fully funded so that people experiencing homelessness and their allies can independently document police intervention;
• * Develop, document, disseminate and replicate successful organizing models;

V. Public Education

• * Public education activities around cost of incarceration vs. housing is critical;
• * Public support for long term solutions revolves around public education. Investment in adequate local community resources depends upon public support.