Illegal to Be Homeless: The Criminalization of Homelessness in the United States - 0 - Illegal to be Homeless The Criminalization of Homelessness in the United States Illegal to Be Homeless: The Criminalization of Homelessness in the United States - 1 - Published by the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, with outreach and organizing by the National Homeless Civil Rights Organizing Project. Acknowledgments From the National Coalition for the Homeless: The following individuals are part of NCH’s Civil Rights Work Group and they all contributed to the publication of this report: Barbara Anderson, Martha Are, Adam Arms, Cheryl Barnes, Anita Beaty, Alicia Beck, Ed Bell, Paul Boden, MacCanon Brown, Pat Cleman, Callie Cole, Chuck Currie, Brian Davis, Elisa Della-Piana, Josh Diem, Whirlwind Dreamer, Bob Erlenbusch, Gerardo Gomez, John Halpin, Kathleen Hasegawa, Sherrie Kay, Lynn Lewis, Tim Love, Molly Lyons, Della Mitchell, Glorin Ruiz Pastush, Nick Phillips, Pallavi Rai, Mara Raider, Wayne Richard, Geraldo Rivera, Delena Stephens, Michael Stoops, Sandy Swank, Richard Troxell, Laurel Weir, Joshua Welter, Pete White, Anthony Williams and Jodie Wright. The National Coalition for the Homeless would like to thank the following NCH staff members/interns who contributed to the research, writing and layout of this report: Jimmy Heath, Michelle Lee, Tina Lloren, Nick Phillips, Joshua Welter and Michael Illegal to Be Homeless: The Criminalization of Homelessness in the United States - 2 - Stoops. Jimmy Health and Tina Lloren worked on this report as Mickey Leland/Bill Emerson Hunger Fellows assigned to us from the Congressional Hunger Center. Special thanks goes to Anita Beaty, NCH board member from Atlanta, who served as the primary editor of the report. Spanish translation of the Executive Summary was done by Nancy Estevea of the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness. Photographs courtesy of Jimmy Heath and Jim Hubbard. Cover design courtesy of the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness Artwork (page 147) by Tammy deGruchy And thanks to the countless number of people who helped make this report happen, but we forgot to mention in these acknowledgments. The following organizations provided funding for this report: Division of Church & Society, World Hunger, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America; Hunger Action, United Church of Christ; Marianist Sharing Fund, National Coalition for the Homeless, Poverty, Justice and Peace Fund, Dominican Sisters of Illegal to Be Homeless: The Criminalization of Homelessness in the United States - 3 - Springfield Illinois; Presbyterian Church (USA), Sidney Stern Memorial Trust, and the Social Justice Fund, Sisters of Saint Francis of Philadelphia. From the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty: The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty would like to acknowledge the contributions of its staff to this report: Maria Foscarinis, Laurel Weir, Pallavi Rai, and Kelly Cunningham-Bowers (formerly of the Law Center). The Law Center also thanks Candace Beck of Howrey Simon Arnold & White, L.L.P. for her assistance. Finally, the Law Center is especially grateful to the Oakwood Foundation for its funding of the Law Center’s Civil Rights Project, which has made this work possible. Illegal to Be Homeless: The Criminalization of Homelessness in the United States - 4 - TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (English and Spanish) I. INTRODUCTION: A. Working Definition of Criminalization B. The Housing-Income Gap C. The Income/Employment Crisis D. The Health Care Crisis E. The Emergency II. METHODOLOGY III. CRIMINALIZATION AS PUBLIC/SOCIAL POLICY: A. Expediency B. Economic Motivation C. Racism D. Political Rationale IV. COSTS OF CRIMINALIZATION: A. Economic B. Social C. Political D. Individual Illegal to Be Homeless: The Criminalization of Homelessness in the United States - 5 - V. RESPONSES TO CRIMINALIZATION VI. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: A. Education and Communication B. Organizing and Direct Action C. Legal Remedies D. Policy Advocacy VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDICES: I. The Cities II. The Case Law III. Prohibited Conduct Chart IV. Incident Form for Documentation of Civil Rights Abuses (English and Spanish) V. Survey Questions VI. Shelter/Transitional Housing Capacity Chart VII. Fair Market Rents VIII. NHCROP Regional Field Sites IX. Civil Rights Work Group Members Illegal to Be Homeless: The Criminalization of Homelessness in the United States - 6 - Illegal to Be Homeless The Criminalization of Homelessness in the United States Executive Summary I. Introduction The following report will document that people experiencing homelessness are subject to basic violations of hoto by Jim Hubbard Jim hoto by their civil rights through the p 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 Illegal to Be Homeless: The Criminalization of Homelessness in the United States - 7 - 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 Illegal to Be Homeless: The Criminalization of Homelessness in the United States - 8 - 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. II. Background The National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH), established in 1984, is the oldest national organization founded to advocate on behalf of people who are homeless. NCH is comprised of local and statewide homeless coalitions, service providers, faith-based organizations, grassroots activists and people experiencing homelessness. The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (NLCHP), established in 1989, works toward solutions that address the causes of homelessness, placing homelessness in the larger Illegal to Be Homeless: The Criminalization of Homelessness in the United States - 9 - context of poverty. To this end, the NLCHP employs litigation, legislation, and education of the public as critical strategies. NCH and the NLCHP, nearly 20 years ago, began to hear reports from communities throughout the United States that local responses to increasing homelessness were the arrest and police harassment of individuals experiencing homelessness through the selective enforcement of existing laws and the passage of laws targeting people experiencing homelessness. This report is the latest effort to document unconstitutional local practices that, when