- “Criminalization is when somebody is fined, ticketed or arrested for performing the activities that the rest of us do in private, in public spaces like sleeping and eating or simply just existing in public spaces because they have nowhere else to go.” – Anne Oliva, National Alliance to End Homelessness
- “The policies we’re going to talk about today are just incredibly damaging, incredibly painful, incredibly dangerous to the people who are living on the streets or living in shelters or living in their cars.” – Adam Murray, ICLC CEO
LOS ANGELES — At a recent Community Conversation hosted by the Inner City Law Center (ICLC), housing and civil rights advocates from across the country sharply criticized the growing criminalization of homelessness, calling it both a moral failure and a counterproductive public policy.
The virtual discussion, moderated by ICLC CEO Adam Murray, brought together national experts including Anne Oliva of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, Donald H. Whitehead of the National Coalition for the Homeless, and Tricia Bauman of the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley. Each warned that laws punishing unhoused people for sleeping or existing in public spaces are worsening homelessness rather than solving it.
Murray opened the event by acknowledging the painful irony of the topic. “The policies we’re going to talk about today are just incredibly damaging, incredibly painful, incredibly dangerous to the people who are living on the streets or living in shelters or living in their cars,” he said. “It’s heartbreaking that we have to continue year after year to talk about these issues.”…