Anti-homelessness legislation

Anti-homelessness legislation can take two forms: legislation that aims to help and re-house homeless people; and legislation that is intended to send the homeless to homeless shelters compulsorily, or to criminalize homelessness and begging.

Man sleeps on the street.

International law

Since the publication of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Charter of the United Nations — UN) in 1948, the public perception has been increasingly changing to a focus on the human right to housing, travel and migration as a part of individual self-determination rather than the human condition. The Declaration, an international law reinforcement of the Nuremberg Trial Judgements, upholds the rights of one nation to intervene in the affairs of another if said nation is abusing its citizens, and rose out of a 1939–1945 World War II Atlantic environment of extreme split between "haves" and "have nots." Article 6 of the 1998 Declaration of Human Duties and Responsibilities declares that members of the global community have individual and collective duties and responsibilities to take appropriate action to prevent the commission gross or systematic human rights abuses.[1] The modern study of homeless phenomena is most frequently seen in this historical context.

Laws supporting the homeless

Laws supporting homeless people generally place obligations on the state to support or house homeless people.

United Kingdom

The 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act required parish unions to supply houses for workers but these unions purposely made these work houses unattractive in order to discourage workers from applying for housing.[2] This Act also made casual wards known as "spikes" available for thoses who needed temporary housing in return for their labor.[3] It was estimated that approximately 30,000 to 80,000 people used the spikes in the early 1900s in Great Britain.[3]

Scotland
See also: Scottish homelessness

The Homelessness etc. (Scotland) Act 2003 was legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament that set the goal of providing permanent residence to those deemed unintentionally homeless.[4] Following, the Homeless Persons (Unsuitable Accommodation) (Scotland) Order 2004 was passed in 2004. This order made it so that, unless exceptional circumstances were present, any familial unit including children or an expectant mother was not placed in "unsuitable temporary housing".[4] Scotland's most recent anti-homelessness legislation is entitled The Housing Support Services (Homelessness)(Scotland) Regulations 2012, and it came into full effect on June 1, 2013. These regulations require local authorities to assist the homeless in a variety of ways, including help in adjusting to a new living situation, debt counseling and managing a personal budget.[5]

United States

1987 McKinney Vento Act ---

A change created by the amendments of 1992 was the creation of the Access to Community Care and Effective Services and Support program (or ACCESS); this program was created in order to assist the homeless people who had both serious mental illness issues, as well as substance abuse problems and lasted a total of 5 years.[6]

The Fair Housing Act passed in 1968 was designed to protect those who were traditionally discriminated against by housing agencies because of their race, gender, religion, familial status, and disability.[7] Some states and cities also gave homeless people equal access to housing accommodations regardless of their income. Although this Act did not specifically refer to the homeless population, the main beneficiaries of this law were homeless individuals.[7]

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, also known as the ADA states that people with disabilities must be given appropriate housing accommodations that meet their special needs.[7] Additionally, people with disabilities should be given the chance to interact with people who do not have disability.[7]

Laws criminalizing behaviors engaged in by the homeless

Use of the law that criminalizes the homeless generally takes on one of five forms:[8]

  • Restricting the public areas in which sitting or sleeping are allowed.
  • Removing the homeless from particular areas.
  • Prohibiting begging.
  • Selective enforcement of laws.
  • Selective creation of laws.[9] (The French novelist Anatole France noted this phenomenon as long ago as 1894, famously observing that "the law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges".)[10]

England and Wales

The 1977 Housing (Homeless Persons) Act greatly restricted the homeless housing requirements so that only individuals who were affected by natural disasters could receive housing accommodations from the local authorities.[11] This led to the rejection of the majority of homeless applications received by the local government. This Act also made it difficult for homeless individuals without children to receive accommodations provided by local authorities.[11]

United States
Further information: Homelessness in the United States § Criminalization of homelessness

Homeless people find it harder to secure employment, housing, or federal benefits with a criminal record, and therefore penalizing the act of being homeless makes exiting such a situation much more difficult.[8] Although the court's opinion in Jones v. City of Los Angeles (see above) was vacated, the result suggests that criminalizing homelessness may be unconstitutional. Similarly, in response to growing reports of hate crimes, some state governments have proposed the addition of "people experiencing homelessness" to their hate-crimes statutes.[12]

Anti-homeless architecture

Anti-homeless architecture is an urban design strategy that is intended to discourage loitering, camping, and sleeping in public.[13] While this policy does not explicitly target the homeless, it restricts the ways in which people can use public spaces, which affects the homeless population.[14]

Anti-homeless spikes on a shop ledge.

This strategy can take many forms, including:[15]

  • Reducing the number of sitting areas in public spaces.
  • Installing bolts and spikes in flat surfaces in order to make sleeping on them uncomfortable.
  • Installing dividers on metal benches to prevent sleeping.
  • Metal teeth and bars on ledges to prevent sitting.
  • Boulders placed in parks to prevent homeless encampments.

The Oregon Department of Transportation placed large boulders in several locations to discourage illegal camping near freeways.[16] Anti-homeless spikes were installed in London, England, and New York City in order to make homeless activity more difficult.[14][17] Anti-homeless architecture is a common tactic in major cities. Local governments often employ anti-homeless architecture practices following complaints from local business owners, due to the common perception that the presence of homeless individuals lowers property prices and discourages business traffic.[18]

Critics of anti-homeless architecture claim that it targets an already vulnerable population, and that it hides the effects of homelessness, rather than meaningfully addressing it.[19]

Perception of Homelessness and Policy Implications

United States

The authors of a 2017 study on homelessness stated that homeless people have a higher incidence of sickness, with their most common health problem being skin problems. Homeless people also have a lack of access to sanitation, leading to poor hygiene. These characteristics are noticeable and may trigger reactions of disgust from onlookers who are inclined, at an evolutionary level, to be pathogen-averse. This leads the general public to keep their physical distance from homeless people, and promotes exclusionary policies. As an example, these authors state that while the majority of the general public support subsidized housing for homeless individuals, they do not want that housing in their own neighborhood.[20]

But the public also maintains concern for the homeless, supporting increases in federal spending on homelessness programs. In fact, when surveyed, the public supports spending on homelessness over other social problems by consistently putting the homeless in the top third of their spending priorities.[21]

Respondents to surveys also feel that 55% of homeless people are addicted to drugs or alcohol, and that 45% of homeless people have been to jail before. The majority of U.S. residents surveyed also think that homeless people make neighborhood worse, and that their presence brings down the profitability of local businesses.[21]

See also

References
  1. "DECLARATION OF RESPONSIBILITIES AND HUMAN DUTIES". Globalization. 2 (2). November 2002.
  2. Lund, Brian (2016). "Homelessness politics". In Lund, Brian (ed.). Housing politics in the United Kingdom. Power, planning and protest (1st ed.). Bristol University Press. pp. 207–232. doi:10.2307/j.ctt1t89499.12. ISBN 978-1-4473-2710-3. JSTOR j.ctt1t89499.12.
  3. Kennett, Patricia; Becker, Saul (2003). "The production of homelessness in Britain". Comparing social policies. Exploring new perspectives in Britain and Japan (1st ed.). Bristol University Press. pp. 173–190. doi:10.2307/j.ctt1t89g4j.16. ISBN 978-1-84742-565-2. JSTOR j.ctt1t89g4j.16.
  4. Homelessness statistics in Scotland:2006-07 > Part 1 The Scottish Government Publications, accessed March 30th 2008
  5. ceu@scotland.gsi.gov.uk, Scottish Government, St. Andrew's House, Regent Road, Edinburgh EH1 3DG Tel:0131 556 8400 (2013-06-03). "HOUSING SUPPORT DUTY TO HOMELESS HOUSEHOLDS - GUIDANCE FOR LOCAL AUTHORITIES". www.gov.scot. Retrieved 2017-11-26.
  6. Steadman, Henry J.; Cocozza, Joseph J.; Dennis, Deborah L.; Lassiter, Margaret G.; Randolph, Frances L.; Goldman, Howard; Blasinsky, Margaret (2002). "Successful program maintenance when federal demonstration dollars stop: the ACCESS program for homeless mentally ill persons". Administration and Policy in Mental Health. 29 (6): 481–493. doi:10.1023/a:1020776310331. PMID 12469702. S2CID 6409067.
  7. "Preventing and Alleviating Homelessness". Homelessness Handbook. Homelessness Handbook (1 ed.). Berkshire. 2007. pp. 291–338. ISBN 9781933782034. JSTOR j.ctt1jd952s.9.
  8. Amster, Randall (2008). Lost in Space: The Criminalization, Globalization, and Urban Ecology of Homelessness. New York: LFB Scholarly. ISBN 978-1-59332-297-7. OCLC 221150739.
  9. Cunningham, Kelly (1999). Out of Sight—Out of Mind?. DIANE Publishing. p. 90. ISBN 978-0-7881-8276-1.
  10. France, Anatole (1894). "VII". Le lys rouge (in French). Ils y doivent travailler devant la majestueuse égalité des lois, qui interdit au riche comme au pauvre de coucher sous les ponts
  11. Becker, Saul (2017). "Homelessness". In Lund, Brian (ed.). Understanding housing policy (Third edition). Understanding Housing Policy (Third Edition) (REV - Revised, 3 ed.). Bristol University Press. pp. 155–178. JSTOR j.ctt1t89dc6.14.
  12. Lichtblau, Eric. "Attacks on Homeless Bring Push on Hate Crime Laws". Retrieved 2018-06-15.
  13. Chellew, Cara (2019-06-13). "Defending Suburbia: Exploring the Use of Defensive Urban Design Outside of the City Centre". Canadian Journal of Urban Research. 28 (1): 19–33. ISSN 2371-0292.
  14. Petty, James (2016). "The London Spikes Controversy: Homelessness, Urban Securitisation and the Question of 'Hostile Architecture'": 67–81. doi:10.5204/ijcjsd.v5i1.286. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  15. Hu, Winnie (2019-11-08). "'Hostile Architecture': How Public Spaces Keep the Public Out (Published 2019)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  16. Monahan, Rachel (June 19, 2019). "Oregon Officials Deter Portland Homeless Campers With a Million Dollars' Worth of Boulders". Willamette Week. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
  17. Legro, Michelle (November 1, 2018). "The City That Will Never Let You Sleep". Topic.
  18. Waters, Rob (February 18, 2019). "No Place Left to Go: Business Districts Keep Homeless Populations on the Move". nextcity.org. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  19. Andreou, Alex (2015-02-18). "Defensive architecture: keeping poverty unseen and deflecting our guilt". the Guardian. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  20. Clifford, Scott; Piston, Spencer (June 2017). "Explaining Public Support for Counterproductive Homelessness Policy: The Role of Disgust". Political Behavior. 39 (2): 503–525. doi:10.1007/s11109-016-9366-4. hdl:2144/31477. S2CID 151539353.
  21. Link, Bruce G.; Schwartz, Sharon; Moore, Robert; Phelan, Jo; Struening, Elmer; Stueve, Ann; Colten, Mary Ellen (August 1995). "Public knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about homeless people: Evidence for compassion fatigue?". American Journal of Community Psychology. 23 (4): 533–555. doi:10.1007/BF02506967. PMID 8546109. S2CID 26492219. ProQuest 1295917392.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.