Homelessness Is A Crime

145 homeless people live on the streets of Greenville County, South Carolina. They need help. Homeless is greater than it's ever been. Over a million public school students in America are homeless. 50 million Americans experience food insecurity. Poverty is exploding. And 3 million people will be homeless in any given year. For most, it's a brief phase in their lives. Only a minority are chronically homeless. They try to help themselves but it's very difficult, for some, even impossible. No one chooses to be homeless. No one wants to lose their job or suffer from a major illness. But, sometimes when they do, they lose their homes and end up on the street. Consumed by the stress of not knowing, they face violence from each other and from outsiders. And it is going to get a whole lot worse.

They need help. It's going to take love and compassion. Instead, America is growing colder. In most American cities, homelessness is a crime. Communities are cleaning up the streets by making it virtually illegal. You can be fined hundreds of dollars for giving food to a hungry person. The fines are intended to prevent government-run anti-homelessness programs from being diluted. But what would it hurt to give a homeless guy a few bucks? Who cares what  he spends it on? Maybe, just maybe, he’ll actually spend it on food (homeless people do eat)? Maybe, he really is desperately trying to change his situation.

The idea that people without shelter can be treated as criminals is tough for me to understand and I'm not alone. The United Nations doesn't understand it either. They have criticized the United States for criminalizating homelessness, raised concerns of discrimination and cruelty and of degrading treatment. This is what America has come too? And for what? Yes. Homelessness is a crime. Systematically providing housing and food for the homeless costs society less than leaving them on the street. Laws that criminalize charity do nothing at best. America! We can do better.