New Municipal Ordinances Regulating Homeless People (From Police and the Homeless: Creating a Partnership Between Law Enforcement and Social Service Agencies in the Development of Effective Policies and Programs P 29-41, 1997, Martin L. Forst, ed. - See NCJ-167769)

• NCJ Number: 167771
• Author(s): M Foscarinis; R Herz
• Date Published: 1997
• Length: 13 pages
• Sale Source: Charles C. Thomas
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter outlines some of the ways municipalities and counties have drafted legislation to control homeless persons in their communities.

Abstract

Actions commonly taken against homeless people include: banishment; sweeps, clearing from a specific area people judged undesirable; sitting ordinances, i.e., homeless persons can remain in an area only so long as they are able to remain standing; and anti-panhandling ordinances. Some cities have embarked on programs which are proactive alternatives to such neo-vagrancy policies: educating downtown merchants to help them better recognize behaviors which require social services as opposed to law enforcement responses; imposing modest business taxes to fund facilities and services for homeless people; training police officers to deal with homeless people in a constructive way; providing city-run alternative accommodations for homeless people residing in public places; and giving vouchers instead of cash to panhandlers. A common thread which runs through many of these alternatives is cooperation between cities and businesses on one hand and homeless people and their advocates on the other. These same groups are usually polarized by criminalization campaigns. Notes