I recently had a friendly, but heated, debate on the topic of homelessness. I realized during our conversation that while I thought their argument was baseless and inhumane, I had little in the way of information and solutions to stand on. Enter this blog post. I’m spending some time to research what homelessness is, what causes it, and what solutions exist for it. I want to arm myself with information so that I might be able to more calmly present an argument that appeals to humans more noble instincts.

What is homelessness?

The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned. - Maya Angelou

Homelessness is the absence of a safe, recurring place to call one’s own, most fundamentally defined by the lack of a reliable place to sleep. This encapsulates transitional housing, living in a vehicle, sleeping in a shelter, in the open or an encampment.

What is an encampment

An encampment

Why homelessness?

Cost.

Legality of Homelessness

Core topics

Affordability Propagandization (compassion fatigue) Poverty is not Immorality Homeless by Choice Human Resilience Solutions

Notes

Criminalization of homelessness via City of Grants Pass vs Johnson in June 2024.

a city ordinance criminalizing involuntarily unhoused people who set up encampments on public property does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause.

What does this mean? A municipality may bring criminal charges, fees, etc… against any unhoused person sleeping on public property. This overturned the standing Martin v. Boise which ruled it illegal to punish homeless for public camping when there is insufficient shelter beds available, citing such punishment as cruel and unusual under the 8th amendment. Is it not cruel to punish someone for being impoverished with further impoverisment?

Homeless, insufficient shelter beds, inability to mobilize and go somewhere else, faced with a fine, unable to pay it, criminal charges because inability to pay, additional difficulty to find a job. Kicking someone when they’re already down. Vagrancy laws in victoria era. Improvement in US Government lyndon b johnson. post ww2 era booming and richest country in world, HUD. Then - Ronald Reagan “moral majority”. Lower taxes on rich, trickle down economics. Dereg, privitization, destruction of social programs. Increase poverty and homelessness. Private sector subsidized housing. “Welfare Queens”. “Homeless people are homeless by choice” - Ronald Reagan. Priced out of city, reliable vehicle, commuting. Affordable housing. 40 yrs. Free market in housing isn’t working. Stockpiling of land by private equity. AirBnB problems.

Unusual hearing by the supreme court of the various circuit courts decisions because the majority of the circuit courts observe the long-standing Martin v. Boise - so why was this case heard by the supreme court?

Before covid, homelessness levels on a decline. Covid moratoriums, massive increases in homelessness back to post 2008 numbers.

55% of renters unable to pay rent within standards that rent not exceed 30% of their gross income. 63% unable to afford a $500 emergency - one emergency or missed paycheck from homelessness.

Many homeless people are working >1 job(s).

Homeless numbers unreliable and likely higher because it doesn’t account for those without a home who do not sleep in shelters.

Encampments are not a solution. Removal not a solution - they will reappear.

Affordable housing, -> tough love (not applied to epstein), takes time to build housing.

No bathrooms, no cleaning, no means of dignity. Indecent exposure charges. Few public restrooms. Few clean restrooms, increased health issues. Addtl costs for cities to clean and manage disease.

“arrest and relocation”

“hostile architecture”, cost of building hostile architecture should be redirected to housing.

Crimincal punishment for anyone helping homelessness. Charitable feeding criminalized. Food-sharing bans. Sanitation & Public health “concerns”. Crimializing them instead of supporting them?

Government bad actors. Laws & policies, artificial housing shorting. Largest lobby is the National Assn of Realtors. Internment camps as a suggestion. No incr HUD budget. No pursuing punishment of predatory housing. Underfunding. Powerful lobbying interests buying our politicians.

“deviant, criminal, individual behavior”, thus criminal. On the streets because of their own poor criminal behavior. “Temporary/Embarassed” millionaires.

Underlying problems.

Compassion Fatigue.

Political and Public Will

“Homlessness is not a moral failing, it is a systemic failure”

Solutions

Go somewhere else. Is this not cruel and unusual to require someone to ‘just leave’? Where should they go, where can they go? Fixing a problem vs. ‘making it go away’.

Many municipalites do not have sufficient funding to make affordable housing - if they do, there are vocal lobbying groups who benefit from housing.

FHFA house price index. Subsidies, doesn’t build and makes mortgages cheaper, incentivizes building cheaper homes. HUD is a joke, no urban dev. Several prior iterations for heads of HUD were ineffective and inexperienced in these areas. Section 8 houseing vouchers hard to get, once you get get them you can be discriminated against. Sec 8 non-entitlement program.

Difficult for federal gvt for uniform rules, land-use under purview of state.

Child tax credit. Moratoirum hit and child pvoery 3x’d in trump term. S8 vouchers entitlements. Increase construction workers available by importing skilled workers or unskilled and trained.

HUD can be housing expert and make recommendations, federal incentives for buildings.

Get money out of politics.

what can we do as individuals? Donations to housing services, and shelter services. national alliance to end homelessness.

Housing Not Handcuffs.

Not a problem that will go away with more policing.

intensive engagement model, w/ clean hand-offs

References

Harvard Law Review, City of Grants Pass vs Johnson Suprement Court, City of Grants Pass, Oregon vs Johnson 8th Amendment

Invisible People Invisible People Podcast Federal Housing Finance Agency