Illegal to be Homeless

The Criminalization of Homelessness in the United States

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 documents the pattern and practice of civil rights violations against homeless people and outlines effective strategies to organize and litigate for constitutional protections.

The report argues that criminalization is not only a local issue but also a federal one.  The pattern of unconstitutional behavior in local police departments and other city agencies has enormous economic and social costs, but does nothing to alleviate the actual cause of homelessness.

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