It's true that cities in the United States are making laws that being homeless is a crime. The first question a person must ask themselves is where is the humanity in criminalizing homelessness? This is a violation of humane rights! Isn't it bad enough that people are in such despair? They are in a situation that is difficult to get out of without outside help.
There are a variety of reasons a person or family may become homeless: • Poverty • Lack of affordable housing • Job loss • Lack of health care • Mental illness • Substance abuse • Domestic violence
According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness there are 633,782 people experiencing homelessness on any given night in the US. 142,168 (22.1%) are children, 62,619 (13%) are veterans, and 269,991 (42.6%) are disabled and unable to work. The National Coalition for the Homeless says "The criminalization of homelessness refers to measures which prohibit life-sustaining activities such as sleeping/camping, eating, sitting, and/or asking for money/resources in public spaces. These ordinances include criminal penalties for violations of these acts."
They also claim that cities are confiscating personal belongings such as tents, clothing, bedding, papers, and even medication. Cities have even gone as far as to making it illegal for a person to give food to homeless individuals. In fact, people have been charged with a crime for feeding homeless people in public places. The objective of the cities is to get rid of homeless people. Where are they going to go, and how are they going to get there?
Consider this, 42.6% of homeless people are military veterans. Men and women that fought for our country and have sustained emotional and mental illness such as post traumatic stress disorder. The Veterans Administration(V.A.) has let many of our veterans down, most of the veterans that have gotten help from the V.A. only received it because someone advocated on their behalf. They are the heroes of our nation and now they are rewarded by being abandoned by our government and to be criminalized by city officials for being homeless, an affliction that they would rather not have.
U.S. citizens deserve a chance at creating a life for themselves, having a little bit of what we call "the American dream." President Obama can arrange to have the money to allow 4 million illegal immigrants into our country at an estimated cost to the U.S. of 2 trillion dollars over their lifetime. Yet, we can't do anything for American citizens that need help to get off the streets, except criminalize them for their unfortunate circumstance. If Congress did their job and worked on building a stronger economy, people would be able to get better paying jobs and could actually afford the high cost of living and may not have to be homeless in the first place. How hard can it be to figure out that we can't sustain our nation with a 1.5% to a whopping 5% tariff on foreign manufactured products, while we charge a 39.5% domestic corporate tax on manufactured products? We have shipped over 30% of our job market over seas leaving American citizens with a wage reduction of as much as 25% with the remaining jobs in the U.S. and at the same time inflation has taken it's toll. Is there any wonder why there are so many homeless people in America?
The true criminals in this situation are the elected officials that would legislate against American citizens to make them criminals for a situation that they didn't create or want for themselves. Obviously we lack real leadership in America, and there is no hope for our country when they are willing to turn on the very people that they are elected to serve. Homeless people are citizens too, and they deserve to be treated with human kindness. Arresting them and stealing their belongings is not just a lack of dignity for them, it's a lack of dignity for America.