Police are shaping and enforcing homelessness policies. It’s making the problem worse, researchers say.
As cities throughout the U.S. grapple with the rising number of people experiencing homelessness, many have asked police to enforce local laws against camping, sitting on sidewalks, and sleeping or eating in public, according to the brief. Pressure to use police to address homelessness often comes from residents and businesses that complain about the sight of unsheltered homelessness, it states.
‘Street crisis team’ aims to curb police involvement in homelessness response in San Francisco
In San Francisco, a “street crisis team” of trained practitioners will now respond to non-emergency calls involving people experiencing homelessness through a yearlong, $3 million pilot program announced by Mayor London Breed last week. Law enforcement has historically responded to these calls, and the new Homeless Engagement Assistance Response Team is part of a larger city effort to reduce the need for police to be the primary response for people experiencing a crisis on the street, according to last week’s news release. Decreasing the use of police can reduce cycles of incarceration, which are expensive for cities and harm people experiencing homelessness, said Charley Willison, an assistant professor of public and ecosystem health at Cornell University who co-authored a new policy brief on the role of police in cities’ responses to homelessness.
Report: Police response to homelessness is inherently punitive
Clearing encampments and arresting those living on the streets might temporarily remove homelessness from the public eye, but it doesn’t help unhoused residents retain housing or recover their longterm stability. Even so, a new policy brief from the researchers behind Boston University’s annual Menino Survey of Mayors finds the majority of American cities still rely on police departments to address homelessness.
America Has Decided That Homeless People Aren’t People
Last week, when 30-year-old Jordan Neely was choked to death on an F-train in New York City, video circulated showing the hands of passengers holding him down as Neely, who was homeless at the time, flailed his arms and legs. Neely had been yelling at passengers, though no video has circulated about the events leading up to his killing. He reportedly said that he was “fed up,” hungry, and thirsty, a witness named Juan Alberto Vasquez told CNN. The city medical examiner ruled his death a homicide. The Manhattan District Attorney is investigating the killing but has not yet pressed charges.
Few Mayors Connect the Dots Between Zoning and Homelessness
Last January the Boston University Initiative on Cities, drawing on data from the 2021 Menino Survey of Mayors, reported that only 1 in 5 mayors felt they had more than “moderate” control over homelessness in their cities. Six in 10 pointed to limited funding as the biggest barrier, and close to 7 in 10 had the view that zoning was a barrier of little or no consequence, despite the impact of zoning codes on housing development.