{"id":12486,"date":"2018-06-20T01:22:45","date_gmt":"2018-06-20T01:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=12486"},"modified":"2018-06-21T01:25:19","modified_gmt":"2018-06-21T01:25:19","slug":"why-turning-homelessness-into-a-crime-is-cruel-and-costly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/why-turning-homelessness-into-a-crime-is-cruel-and-costly\/","title":{"rendered":"Why turning homelessness into a crime is cruel and costly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joseph W. Mead<\/a>, Cleveland State University<\/a><\/em> and Sara Rankin<\/a>, Seattle University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Increasingly, local laws punish Americans who are homeless.<\/p>\n

By severely restricting or even barring the ability to engage in necessary, life-sustaining activities in public, like sitting, standing, sleeping or asking for help, even when there\u2019s no reasonable alternative, these laws are essentially persecuting homeless men, women and children.<\/p>\n

As law professors<\/a> who study how laws can make homelessness better or worse<\/a>, we encourage cities, suburbs and towns to avoid punishing people who live in public and have nowhere else to go. One big reason: These \u201canti-vagrancy laws<\/a>\u201d are counterproductive because they make it harder to escape homelessness. <\/p>\n

Many paths to not having a home<\/h2>\n

Why do at least half a million Americans experience homelessness<\/a> at any time? <\/p>\n

Researchers find that most people who become homeless have nowhere to live after being evicted<\/a>, losing their jobs or fleeing an abusive partner<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Many emergency homeless shelters are perpetually full<\/a>. Even those with beds to spare may enforce rules that exclude families, LGBTQ youth<\/a> and people with pets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And when homeless people can stay in shelters, often they may only spend the night there. That means they have to go somewhere else during the daytime<\/a>.<\/p>\n