Punishing Poverty

The Criminalization of Homelessness, Litigation, and Recommendations for Solutions

Individuals experiencing homelessness are often subject to basic violations of their civil rights because of unconstitutional application of laws, arbitrary police practices, and discriminatory public regulations. Regulations that target behaviors associated with being homeless, such as sleeping, cooking, storing personal belongings in public spaces, etc, are unconstitutional because they target people based on their housing status, not for criminal actions.

This report includes case studies of various cities and their laws.  It includes the cities that have the meanest streets, but it also includes cities that have enacted proactive programs and services that provide homeless people an alternative to engaging in so-called criminal behavior.

This report argues that regulations that criminalize homelessness are poor public policy and that they are an inappropriate response to the problems they seek to address. Instead, government officials should tackle the problem of homelessness in a constructive, fair, and lasting way.

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