PHOTO/C.S. Gilbert
Panelist Kirsten Clanton addresses the crowd at the Searching Out Solutions forum on homelessness.
Criminalization of homeless is costly, doesn’t work, say experts
By C.S. GILBERT
KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER
In a three-hour forum on Thursday, four disparate experts deftly tap danced to different tunes on the theme of homelessness, coming up with many suggested moves but only one clear, perhaps foregone finale: Only permanent housing will end the plight and blight of the homeless.
The forum, sponsored by the Monroe County Homeless Services Continuum-of-Care, was dubbed Searching Out Solutions (SOS) and moderated by the Rev. Dr. Randy Becker. It presented almost-local (Miami), regional, state and national voices: Amy Sawyer, U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness; Kirsten Clanton, Southern Legal Counsel based in Gainesville; Benjamin Waxman, pro bono attorney, Pottinger vs. City of Miami, Florida American Civil Liberties Union; and David Peery, a plaintiff in Pottinger who had once been homeless. All but Sawyer hold J.D. degrees.
Criminalization of the homeless is expensive, pointed out Sawyer, given the financial costs of jail and the courts and “is not reducing homelessness, not providing services” that would lead to a “permanent solution.” She noted historical use of the Poor House and insane asylums to isolate problem populations, institutions that were dismantled from the 1950s to the 1980s.
The problem began with lack of affordable housing, said Sawyer. Responsibility was often taken for emergency shelter and food, but no housing. The Hearth Act mandated federal, state and local collaboration to find a solution, that being permanent housing.
Clanton emphasized the unfairness of criminalizing life functions such as urination and sleeping, lacking public facilities that would not be criminal in our homes. She spoke of “rolling out of bed at 4:55 a.m.” to go to observe and speak with the homeless as they began their day shortly after 5 a.m. –and had to wait till public rest rooms opened at 8:30 a.m.
She reported the same problems in cities and counties across the state, but said, “they’re not talking to each other. They want to solve the problem now, so say, ‘Let’s pass another ordinance’ and send law enforcement out . . . to at least lower the visibility.” She cited the cost to jails, hospitals and courts of treating homelessness as a criminal problem, rather than as a social or human problem. “Ordinances have no impact on boosting the economy,” she said. “They just increase costs. . . Housing saves the community millions of dollars.”
A constitutional lawyer, she spends most of her time on homelessness and poverty, she said, based on the First, Fourth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. “I could have 100 lawyers challenging ordinances all over the state. Unfortunately, I don’t have 100 lawyers.”
Waxman became involved as a volunteer attorney with the ACLU’s ultimately successful lawsuit, Pottinger vs. City of Miami which was filed in 1988. “The homeless are no different than us; they are parents, children, sons . . . (with) dreams like ours,” Waxman said. “Pottinger exemplified what Amy and Kirsten have been saying; it established a just baseline of rights and took 15 years. . . .If those (human) resources and finances were directed at finding a solution, we’d be at a very different place today,” he said.
Criminalization is “expensive and ultimately ineffective quick fix to the problem” made out of frustration,” he said. “It doesn’t work. Decisions made out of frustration are the worst I’ve ever made, for example in parenting.
“The ACLU lawsuit, Pottinger vs. City of Miami, was filed in 1988 because police were targeting the homeless in an attempt to drive them out of the city,” explained Waxman, a part of the ACLU team. “They were targeted, with their belongings being taken and destroyed.” The suit tried to capture constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment, violation of due process and equal protection. The city failed to prove it had “a compelling interest” in ignoring these protections for a class of people with a high level of disabilities and diseases such as addictions, said Waxman. The city’s appeal resulted in “a 20-month mediation and settlement in which both sides left unhappy, he continued.
In 2013 Miami moved to roll back protections, which resulted in “another year of litigation and another mediated settlement; things essentially remained the same,” he concluded.
Peery first sought “to debunk the myth, dispel the misinformation. I was homeless, in spite of a J.D., due to a false arrest, destruction of property, loss of a job,” he said. Key to all homelessness is “lack of family and social support. Words are important,” he continued. “Homeless is not really a noun, it’s an adjective. . . It’s mostly transient. . . (People) bounce back, usually the professionals. I’ve seen doctors, lawyers, engineers. It’s not some type of unique situation. ‘There but for the grace of God go you.’
“It’s different for the chronic,” he conceded, but insisted that it is a myth that people flock to an area like Key West. They are “everyplace.” And “outlawing feeding will not stop the problem; it will lead to more going through trash and eating diseased food, leading to more illness. Life on the streets is traumatic, emotionally, mentally, physically,” he reported. “They are going to be here regardless of ordinances. Give them a home. Give them a case manager able to provide global solutions, (including) therapy. The real fear is property values (but these people are) not trash you can throw away. You really have to face funding issues and give them a home.”
From personal observation, Peery claimed police ignore Pottinger. “That is wrong and highly offensive.” He expressed admiration for the forum, having not often seen “communities come together with their ears open. I hope you can come away with a feeling of empathy . . .(because what is happening now) is inhumane, costly and unconstitutional.”
Key West Mayor Craig Cates agreed that criminalization is a waste of money and, while intentions were good, providing housing for the homeless was “almost impossible down here.” He noted that the city had 2,000 working poor who were homeless, and “we can’t put the (chronic) homeless before them.”
Anchors Aweigh manager Mark Sullivan noted that an anonymous survey of the local 12-step clubhouse’s members showed that 36.6 percent were homeless or in transitional housing “Those in the program are doing great, (but even) crash space allows stability to get a little discipline in their lives and can really turn it around.”
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“There but for the grace of God, go I”, applies. This is a NATIONAL dilemma brought about by forces way beyond Key West city limits. It is symptomatic of failed austerity measures by the “tough love” tax dodgers and their shills in Washington DC, a complicit corporate media and the general dumbing and numbing of Joe and Jane Q. Public. For every complex and nuanced problem we face, complex and nuanced solutions can be found if there is the political will and activism.
So many Americans are a paycheck away from homelessness, so let us work at getting people back on their feet instead of dismissing them as “other” and washing our hands. I applaud these efforts and would like to see more federal public money going to helping my fellow Americans instead of tax breaks for billionaires.