Criminalization of Homelessness

Faces lined, cardboard signs. "Why lie? I need a beer." A greasy shirt, a window cleaner walking up and down at the light. Do you see them? I don't. I remember the cracks, but I can't remember the faces.

One man invited me to a homeless art show when I gave him an apple. I remember him: short white beard, baseball cap, really cool. And there is the sad boy who sits with his dog by the Walmart at Ben White and I-35, who looks away from the faces in the cars. I remember him.

The homeless can soften our hearts with compassion, remind us how lucky we are, give us wisdom, or freedom. They are there, and they affect us. They are also on the receiving end of a lot of aggression. Ex president of the UT College Republicans (a group known lately for their racist tweets) Lauren Pierce joked about killing "drag rats" to gain popularity in her campaign for College of Natural Sciences Representative ("Help me pad my resume!").

The main argument I hear from people against the homeless is that they aggressively panhandle or are rude.Well, I've been called a bitch a couple of times on the street for not giving someone money. You know who else has called me a bitch, and much worse? Young, drunk, rich, white frat boys. But you don't see city council passing ordinances against cat-calling women or loitering on 6th street after 2am. And you don't see people complaining about it like they do with the homeless.

It's not just 6th street at 2am, either. Recently, I was walking down 2nd street one evening with a friend, on the way to dinner. We were dressed up sharp, talking and laughing, having a nice night. Then, a group of young white men walks by and calls my friend a nigger. Well that just puts a damper right on your night. You know, the more I think about it, the more I think we do need to do something about the rich white menace in our streets. I mean, it's not even safe to go to dinner without fear of harassment.

Austin is home to 2,244 to 5,000 homeless people. In line with the trend of criminalizing homelessness in many other cities, Austin has steadily been enacting a series of discriminatory ordinances, such as the sit-lie ordinance, which prohibits homeless people from sitting or lying down in public places. City Council recently adopted new rules allowing homeless people with disabilities to sit down for thirty minutes at a time. Don't go overboard with the generosity there, City Council.

According to this study by The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty and The National Coalition for the Homeless, the "criminalization of homelessness takes many forms, including:

• Enactment and enforcement of legislation that makes it illegal to sleep, sit, or
store personal belongings in public spaces in cities where people are forced to live
in public spaces.

•Selective enforcement of more neutral laws, such as loitering, jaywalking, or open
container laws, against homeless persons.

• Sweeps of city areas in which homeless persons are living to drive them out of
those areas, frequently resulting in the destruction of individuals’ personal
property such as important personal documents and medication.

• Enactment and enforcement of laws that punish people for begging or
panhandling in order to move poor or homeless persons out of a city or downtown
area.

• Enactment and enforcement of laws that restrict groups sharing food with
homeless persons in public spaces.

• Enforcement of a wide range of so-called “quality of life” ordinances related to
public activities and hygiene (i.e. public urination) when no public facilities are
available to people without housing."

A 2004 study released by the Lewin Group found that housing the homeless in jail costs two to three times as much as housing them in emergency or supportive housing. If you put that money into permanent supportive housing, into helping people get off the street, it's a welfare handout, and that's just the sort of thing Christians hate to see their tax dollars going towards. So we spend more to put them in jail- at least they'll know what we really think of them.

Thirty-four year old Valerie Godoy was found beaten to death in a park on June 15th of this year. She was homeless. She grew up in Austin, studying theater at Bowie High School, only a few miles away from the high school where I studied theater. We probably graduated in the same year.

Her death has shone a light on Austin's lack of support for homeless women in particular. According to our 2-1-1 website, there is only one shelter dedicated to women and children in Austin, but there is a three week wait period for a bed. House the Homeless started a petition to create the Valerie Godoy Women's Shelter.

Austin should be a leader in rational, nondiscriminatory policy, but in 2004 was named the 10th meanest city to the homeless. The criminalization of homelessness costs us tax dollars and lives. It is time to reexamine our approach.