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The U.S. Justice Department has taken a stand, saying it is unconstitutional for municipalities and local jurisdictions to pass laws essentially making it criminal to be homeless.
On any given night in America, more than 600,000 people do not have a roof over their heads.
Our U.S. correspondent Priscilla Huff reports:
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The American capital city is considered one of the epicenters of homelessness in the United States
In Lafayette Park
Just steps from where U.S. President Barack Obama lives,
some of the homeless of Washington pass their days.
Michael Farell is the Executive Director of the DC Coalition for the Homeless
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"Well locally, and I would have to expand that to include the entire Washington metropolitan area, in the most recent point in time count that was conducted back in January, there was a little under 12,000 homeless individuals who were counted. and that particular number has remained steady for the past four or five years."
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On any given night, more than 600,000 people in America do not have a roof over their heads.
In cities with a temperate climate, such as San Francisco, the numbers of homeless can be astonishing.
While San Francisco is trying to figure out how get the homeless off the streets,
other American cities - such as Boise Idadho - have passed laws essentially banning homelessness.
Maria Foscarinis is with the National Law Center on Homelessness
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"This is a trend in cities across the country and it's a very unfortunate trend. Cities are making it a crime to sit in public, to lie down in public to sleep in public to eat in public, these are things that every human being must do. And when they are applied to homeless people in the context where there is not only a shortage not only of housing affordable housing, but even emergency shelter that's in effect criminalizing their status it's criminalizing homelessness."
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But the U-S Justice Department has taken a stand
They've stated such ordinances violate the U.S. Constitution...
that you cannot make a life sustaining activity - such as sleeping - illegal
Maria Foscarinis with the National Law Center on Homelessness
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"and it's part of international law - housing is a human right. It's a basic human need and it's recognized in international law as a human right. Something everyone should have access to."
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And yet, there never seems to be enough affordable housing in the United States
In some parts of the country, the problem is
neighborhoods do not want high density housing built
that's driving up the cost of existing housing.
In Washington,
where housing prices only seem to increase daily as luxury apartments and condominums are going up all over the city,
the mayor has decided to open the emergency shelters year-round, instead of just when the weather turns cold.
Michael Farell is with DC Coalition for the homeless
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"Individuals who become homeless do so for a wide array of reasons. Most people are no more than two or three paychecks away from homelessness, if you cannot afford to pay your rent or your mortgage, then there is a very real possibility of you becoming homeless. The most recent mortgage crisis, the foreclosure crisis is really very strong evidence and so criminalizing homeless is just absolutely the wrong thing to do."
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The numbers of homeless in America have been slowly declining...
but remain complicated by the lack of resources for drug addicts and the mentally ill -
although research shows providing supportive housing with treatment is less expensive than leaving people on the streets.
The U.S. Justice Department says,
the answer is not to criminalize the homeless
Instead, across American agencies and governments,
more must be done to provide services that people need
including permanent and stable housing.
Priscilla Huff, Washington
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