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 being homeless and unsheltered even more dangerous. The criminalization of homelessness refers to policies, laws, and local ordinances that make it illegal, difficult, or impossible for unsheltered people to engage in the normal everyday activities that most people carry out on a daily basis, or in activities that help make them safer. These are known as life-sustaining activities, and criminalizing them makes it effectively illegal to be unsheltered, often without providing a sustainable alternative.

Behaviors that can be penalized under this system can include sleeping, resting, actively or passively requesting donations, jaywalking, and even simply existing in public (sometimes known as “loitering”). When their existence is considered a crime, people experiencing homelessness can be punished with expensive tickets and citations, “sweeps” which force them to evacuate the areas they’ve come to know as a home, and even arrest and incarceration.

Costly and Counterproductive

Criminalization policies give local law enforcement free rein to apply consequences, often arbitrarily, and sometimes violently. By bringing unsheltered people into frequent, unnecessary contact with law enforcement officials, criminalization invites avoidable dangers into their lives. Enforcing the criminalization of homelessness also unfairly drains taxpayer resources, with with some estimates appraising enforcement efforts (including the cost of incarceration) in an average mid-sized city at over $3 million annually, as seen in Colorado.

These efforts also make it harder for people to exit homelessness. Having a criminal record can make it harder to secure employment, housing, and other resources, and it makes a return to homelessness highly likely. In short, these policies may penalize homelessness, but they do nothing to reduce it.

Read the full article about criminalizing homelessness by Tianna Kelly at the National Alliance to End Homelessness.