Homeless man arrested
in a shelter for being homeless
Barbara Ehrenreich has continued her op-ed columns in the NY Times. On August 9, 2009, she published “Is It Now a Crime to Be Poor?” To read her article click here.
She begins the column by stating: “Its too bad so many people are falling into poverty at a time when it’s almost illegal to be poor. You won’t be arrested for shopping in a Dollar Store, but if you are truly, deeply, in-the-streets poor, you’re well advised not to engage in any of the biological necessities of life – like sitting, sleeping, lying down or loitering. City officials boast that there is nothing discriminatory about the ordinances that afflict the destitute, most of which go back to the dawn of gentrification in the ’80s and ’90s.”
One of the primary reasons behind this may well be to help raise funds for hard pressed localities.
In defiance of all reason and compassion, the criminalization of poverty has actually been intensifying as the recession generates ever more poverty. So concludes a new study from the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, which found that the number of ordinances against the publicly poor has been rising since 2006, along with ticketing and arrests for more “neutral” infractions like jaywalking, littering or carrying an open container of alcohol.
Which leads us to the most peculiar of all situations. Arresting a homeless man in a shelter for being homeless.
The answer is not to criminalize the homeless but to end homelessness.
Ms. Ehrenreich summarizes the case: “Maybe we can’t afford the measures that would begin to alleviate America’s growing poverty – affordable housing, good schools, reliable public transportation and so forth. I would argue otherwise, but for now I’d be content with a consensus that, if we can’t afford to truly help the poor, neither can we afford to go on tormenting them.”
While we work to end homelessness, we must remain vigilant so that we do not torment or brothers, sisters, cousins and nephews who are homeless.
To read her article click here.
