New Homelessness Czar Seeks To Further Criminalize The Homeless
'Trumps Homelessness Czar Seeks To Further Criminalize the Homeless,' Eleanor J. Bader, Truthout, Feb. 9, 2020. Excerpts:
When Robert Marbut Jr. — a self-described “homelessness consultant” — was named by President Trump to head the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) in mid-December, homeless activists and their supporters shuddered, and for good reason. Marbut believes that providing people with shelter without first tackling mental or physical health challenges amounts to coddling. He has a similar opinion about providing food to people experiencing homelessness and has urged localities to stop “enabling” the homeless by providing free meals on city streets. Furthermore, he supports making it illegal to sleep in public spaces, from parks to streets. Instead, Marbut has urged a focus on policing to address homelessness.
- Photo, Washington, DC Homeless Man. Federal aid is unlikely to come from an administration hell-bent on criminalizing the homeless and encouraging police agencies to arrest them for minor offenses.-
Marbut is wasting no time in promoting this punitive agenda. On the day of his appointment he issued a statement that made clear that as head of USICH, he will encourage homeless outreach teams “that pair a law enforcement officer with a social worker to engage individuals experiencing homelessness into recovery and treatment programs.” This has been Marbut’s modus operandi since at least 2006. As the founding president of a San Antonio, Texas, shelter called Haven for Hope, a 22-acre facility that serves approximately 1,700 people a day, Marbut instituted a policy in which undomiciled individuals had to earn the right to sleep indoors. Those who failed drug tests or broke a rule had to sleep in an exposed courtyard, regardless of weather. He later advocated this policy as a consultant to social service agencies in Daytona and St. Petersburg, Florida; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Fresno, California.
..Homeless activists and their allies fear that this will criminalize those who live on the streets and make their lives immeasurably harder. Their worries are well founded..Still, it is important to recognize that even before Marbut took the helm of USICH, criminalizing the homeless had become a trend. For example, local police in Boston, Massachusetts, launched Operation Clean Sweep in August 2019, and confiscated and destroyed the wheelchairs of individuals who were both disabled and homeless. Other cities — including Baton Rouge, Chicago, Greensboro, New York, Portland, Reno, Salt Lake City and Seattle — have instituted policies to make panhandling in parking garages, parking lots or public spaces a criminal offense. Likewise, impeding a sidewalk or other walkway has led to police harassment of homeless people — and sometimes physical brutality — as well as arrest in virtually every corner of the country..
Activists Fight Back: Advocates charge that criminalizing the homeless is both cruel and misguided. They further note that ramping up law enforcement will do nothing to stem poverty, resolve the affordable housing crisis, or meet the needs of millions of homeless individuals. What’s more, the policy completely sidesteps the needs of homeless families and unaccompanied minors who are presently couch-surfing, living doubled or tripled-up, or sleeping in cars, subways, or storage units...
More, https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-homelessness-czar-seeks-to-further-criminalize-the-homeless/
* US Homeless Student Population Reaches 1.5 Million, The Highest In A Decade, The Guardian, Feb. 4, 2020,
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/feb/04/us-homeless-student-population-homelessness
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