THE LINK BETWEEN VIOLENCE AGAINST HOMELESS PEOPLE AND THE CRIMINALIZATION OF HOMELESSNESS:

There is a documented relationship between increased police action and the increasing numbers of hate crimes/violent acts against homeless people.  “It seems that disturbed violent people take a cue from their cities’ responses to homelessness and become emboldened with more violent attacks if the city has portrayed homeless people as the cause of unemployment, decreasing property values, or vacant storefronts,” said Michael Stoops, acting executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless.

For eight years (1999-2006), the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) has tracked a frightening increase in crimes targeting homeless people perpetrated by young people and severely disturbed individuals.  These are well-documented violent attacks on a vulnerable population that result in injury and in many cases death.

Advocates from around the country have cited the relationship between municipal actions to restrict visibility of homeless people and hate crimes/violence.  This overly broad enforcement of the law or laws passed by city governments specifically targeting homeless people are documented in The National Coalition for the Homeless and The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty’s report entitled, A Dream Denied: The Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities (January 2006). The report also ranks the 20 “meanest” cities in the U.S. for violating the civil rights of homeless people.