One reason why Congress has been willing to provide greater assistance is the increased visibility of homelessness during this same period. Encampments have spread to new places. Many downtown districts have less traffic and fewer workers, making people who are […]
Category: Criminalization
Alternatives to Criminalization
As described in part one of this series, unsheltered homelessness presents a unique aspect of danger: the criminalization of homelessness puts those living outdoors at constant risk of potentially dangerous interactions with police. Shifting the response to unsheltered homelessness from […]
Is Being Homeless a Crime?
Living on the streets means constantly being vulnerable – to the elements, to illness and hunger, and to the very group who should be there to protect you: law enforcement. Far-reaching efforts to criminalize homelessness make the already-precarious state of […]
Homelessness and Black History: Criminalization
This is the third installment in a series of posts examining the link between historical racism and modern homelessness. Prior posts can be found here and here. Homelessness and incarceration are intricately linked, in myriad ways. People who are homeless are more likely to interact […]
Police Violence, Homelessness, and Black Lives
No charges filed. Such was the verdict in the case of Charley Leundeu Keunang, a Black Cameroonian emigrant who lived in LA’s Skid Row until being shot to death by three police officers in March 2015. The same decision was reached […]