More and more cities and states in the US are making homeless encampments a crime. As homelessness is rising in the country, low-income people are left with fewer options.
Are homeless encampments a crime?
As per the National Homelessness Law Center, over 100 jurisdictions have bans in place against homeless encampments. Recently, high-profile measures are in place for targeting the issue in several western US states and cities. As per federal data, 582,462 people were experiencing homelessness on a single night in January. Experts believe more people will be experiencing the problem as housing costs rise.
However, advocates believe if visible unsheltered homelessness keeps growing, leaders may have an easier time creating laws criminalizing basic needs. Hence, sleeping and finding shelter may be deemed criminal. “The danger is that the worse the housing situation gets, the more people we see on the streets, the more will be the push for these punitive policies,” stated Eric Tars. Tars is the legal director for the National Homelessness Law Center.
More on the rising problem
Several US states are passing laws that make it illegal to sleep in tents or on public property. Missouri. on January 1 implemented a state-wide ban on sleeping or residing on state land. People assume “homeless people are infinitely mobile and they’ll go somewhere else. But most people, contrary to this notion of vagrancy and transience, are homeless in the community where they were once housed,” explained Tars. Additionally, such laws are restricting state funding for helping people find permanent accommodations.
In July 2022, Tennessee became the first US state to make living in a tent or sleeping on state-owned land a felony. Later in November, the city council of Portland, Oregon voted for approving a ban on people living in tents. While it suggested shifting them to six city-sanctioned mass homeless encampment centers, they are capped at 250 residents. Such policies, as per experts are making homelessness much worse.