Hi, Connor. The title of this article says kick the homeless out, but where? Into the ocean? It’s hard to know after the Supreme Court effectively criminalized homelessness.
The latest census puts the number of homeless people in the United States at about 653,100, which is probably an underestimate. About a third of them are in California. report A study released last year by the University of California, San Francisco — the largest and most representative study of homelessness in the state in 30 years — found that economic factors, including low wages, sudden and unaffordable expenses and rising housing costs, are the main causes of homelessness.
If we locked up all the homeless for “camping” tomorrow, we still wouldn’t hide the problem, because for every homeless person we put back into stable housing, there are even fewer homeless people because of health care costs, low wages, rental cartels, etc. take their place.
Robert Rosenberger is currently president of the Philosophy and Technology Association, and his work in the philosophy of technology explores the habitual relationships people have with the devices they use every day, with applications to design and policy. conversation.
If you have no place to live and are arrested for sleeping rough, are you being punished for something you did or for being homeless?
June 28, 2024, The U.S. Supreme Court decided 6-3 The city of Grants Pass, Oregon, says it can ban camping even if there are no available shelter beds in the area. Critics say the policy is a form of “cruel and unusual punishment” and Eighth Amendment It violates the U.S. Constitution. Lower courts agreed, saying it is unconstitutional to arrest someone for engaging in a normal, necessary human activity like sleeping, when they have nowhere else to go.
But Friday’s ruling overturned that ruling. The court found that such laws are not considered cruel because they are not intended to inflict “fear, distress, or humiliation.” They are also not uncommon. And the majority noted that the laws criminalize behavior, not homelessness.
Advocate for the homelessbut, Discuss these types Anti-camping laws effectively criminalize homelessness, and some worry that if the Supreme Court ruling is overturned, it could lead to tougher city measures against homelessness. Treating the homeless like criminals.
As Professor of Philosophy who studies homelessnessI think it’s important to understand camping bans as part of a broader effort to get homeless people out of their homes. Cities have taken steps to help homeless people. From evacuation shelters to food distribution centersBut cities also use a variety of tactics to keep homeless people out of public view.
Perhaps most telling is theHostile ArchitectureMy research focuses on “discriminatory public spaces”, a term that often refers to public spaces that are designed in a way that discriminates against certain vulnerable groups. The most common examples are objects that create physical barriers to the everyday activities of unhoused people.
Adversarial Design
A common example is adding spikes to shelves to prevent people from leaning or sitting on them. However, spikes are often visible and their purpose is obvious. Causing controversy.
Another common form of hostile architecture is the less attention-grabbing bench. Redesigned to be more difficult Or to prevent it from being used as a sleeping space. This is achieved through a variety of design schemes, from bucket seats and seat dividers to armrests, that prevent people from lying down.
A variety of other physical obstacles exist: trash cans often have hooded designs or external casings with built-in locks to deter trash pickers.
Other designs change the landscape entirely. Bollards and You can bring rocks To Divide the camping spaceFences can be used to block off protected areas such as highway underpasses.
Adversarial design isn’t always about objects, sometimes it also involves actions.
Businesses and churches have been routinely criticized Spraying with water Potential sleeping space, sometimes automatic Sprinkler systemNoise pollution is another strategy: blasting. Loud music or Unpleasant sounds To clear out potential loitering areas, a sweet-natured children’s song plays in a park in West Palm Beach, Florida. “Baby Shark” was played Along with other children’s songs every night.
Legal scholar Sarah Schindler They argue that this type of adversarial design should be recognized as a form of regulation. She says“Regulation through architecture is as powerful as law, but it is less clear, less identifiable and less familiar to courts, legislators and the public.”
Like laws, hostile architecture can have the effect of regulating people’s behavior. However, unlike laws, instances of hostile architecture are not subject to any kind of official scrutiny and often go unnoticed.
What’s there and what’s not
As you learn about hostile architecture, you start to see examples of it everywhere, but perhaps more importantly, you also start to notice the absence of certain items and services in public spaces.
Rather than adding armrests to the bench, The bench can be easily removed. Trees can be cut down To prevent people from loitering in the shade, entire cities There are no public toiletsHowever, the option at private facilities is only available to paying customers. Public space researcher Carla Cherliu These disappointing things are called “Ghost Amenities.”
But hostile architecture is just the tip of the iceberg: beneath the surface there are a range of laws targeting specific behaviours. Storage of Personal Information item In publicThere are laws against loitering, begging, vagrancy, etc. Sitting or lying down in public places – The so-called “sit-and-lie-down” rule. Anti-camping rules often apply not only to tents, but also to the use of any kind of covering, such as blankets.
flat Providing food For the homeless It is illegal in Some citiesIf the person or entity does not have a permit.
The National Homeless Law Center The increase in such laws Across America. In the review In a study of 187 cities between 2006 and 2019, the center found that sit-and-lie-down laws increased 78 percent and laws banning vagrancy, loitering, and prowling increased 103 percent. Camping bans also increased 92 percent.
Informal policies can also act as de facto bans on homelessness. For example, Police put pressure on the homeless To Move together.
Many of the shelters are not open during the day, leaving unhoused people to wander around. Keep moving all day long.
Sometimes the shelter itself can be a barrier preventing people from using the shelter’s services. Patterns of discrimination Oppose policies banning LGBTQ+ customers or pets.
The Supreme Court Gamble
In themselves, many of these laws and regulations may seem uncontroversial, or at least unimportant, but how much should we care about parks with benches with armrests or rules against sleeping?
But taken as a whole, these things work together to potentially remove homeless people from public spaces entirely. None of them literally criminalize homelessness, but in the eyes of critics, these laws and design patterns have the same effect.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor was one of three people to dissent from the majority’s decision. Grants Pass vs. Johnsonraised similar ideas, arguing that the city’s camping ban punishes people experiencing homelessness and “forces the most vulnerable in society to make the impossible choice between staying up or getting arrested.”
