Argumentative Essay : Am I A Criminal?

Homelessness is much more than not having a home. Most of the time, homelessness is not having any hope and chance. It is a crisis that continues to impact millions of American people every day. A crisis that gives them no choice but to sit on the streets and try to survive each day with extreme optimism. However, they are being criminally punished for such actions that they have no choice but to do it. The innocuous action of sitting on the streets and sleeping on the streets somehow is viewed as a criminal act. A number of resources wasted for criminalizing such harmless action are gratuitous. The government has two branches of law regarding homelessness in the United States. One branch is helping the homeless people to access shelter, food, and etc. The other branch is outlined to criminalize homeless people. Homeless people who do not have any place to go are forced to live on the streets in order to survive. Criminalizing homeless people reveals that it is actually quite inefficient, expensive, and most importantly it infringes the rights that they are entitled to.

Homelessness has been an issue of much dispute throughout time, regardless of whether it is in present day Portland, Maine or in the ancient city of Rome, Italy. People have been trying to aid the wanderers for a very long time, but clearly, have never found a good solution to the problem. People are sick and tired of walking out of their door in the morning and finding a vagrant, still reeking of alcohol which they purchased with a good Samaritan’s donation, on their stoop. The people fortunate enough to have a home and a good job should not have to suffer when they walk down the street past hobos begging for a few dollars. It is not fair that the wealthy have to interact with the dregs of society on a

Every New Yorker has the right to a safe and affordable place to live in. New York’s shortage of affordable housing has reached a crisis point. Poor and elderly people throughout New York City are at a greater risk of homelessness and forced low-income residents do not have food or medical care to stay in their homes. A sinful structure of homelessness in New York City is New York’s shortage of affordable housing. Millions of New Yorkers are desperate to find affordable housing and tens of thousands are forced to live either in dirty shelters or on the streets. Recent data indicates that nearly 60,000 people, including more than 23,000 children, stay in the city’s main homeless shelter system (Guelpa). A small amount of poor renter households received a housing subsidy from the local government. Little assistance is being provided which means that most poor families and individuals that seek assistance

Homeless people are not always the victims that the media have portrayed them to be. The alarming fact is that many of the homeless are there by choice. Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to portray all homeless people as lazy people who dont want to take care of themselves. This couldn't be further from the truth. In my experience with the homeless they are usually either in bad health, addicted to drugs, mentally ill or a combination of any of these. To compound matters worse, they are usually without any type of legitimate income to support themselves.

Adoption of laws and policies that punish homeless people rather than addressing the problems that cause homelessness is an ineffective approach. Penalizing people for engaging in innocent behavior – such as sleeping in public, sitting on the sidewalk, or begging – will not reduce the occurrence of these activities or keep homeless people out of public spaces when they have no other place to sleep or sit or no other means of living. With insufficient resources for shelter and services for homeless people, enforce punishment for unavoidable activities is not only pointless, it is inhumane (Brown,1999, July/August). Relying on law enforcement officials and jails to address homelessness and related issues, such as mental illness and substance abuse, that are more appropriately handled by service providers, causes problems and widespread frustrations within the criminal justice system. Police officers are not adequately trained to respond to the situations that arise, the criminal justice system does not provide the necessary treatment

Communities often make more of an effort to chase out or hide the homeless rather than take steps that might eliminate the causes of homelessness. Laws usually include prohibiting loitering in public areas such as parks and train stations. Police officers sometimes take aggressive actions against homeless individuals to enforce homeless regulations (“Dealing With” 8-9). Communities that try to regulate the homeless have a negative impact on public support for rehabilitation programs. Laws that target the homeless support the view that it is not homelessness that is the problem but the people who are affected by it. Money that could be used to fund homeless agencies is instead used to bring homeless citizens to

Many of the anti-homeless polices that have been previously mentioned focus on improving the quality of life for the community rather than reducing the causes of homelessness and for these reasons it is imperative that these anti-homeless policies be reformed. Reforming these polices can be tricky due to the way they are framed. For example, no one is going to advocate that public urination should be allowed. A more effective argument would be to advocate for increased public spending on public restrooms. This is just one example of how allocating public funds away from criminal justice and towards public services could help improve the issue of

When you see the homeless what do you think about? Do you see them and feel disgust or are you someone who wonders how and why they are where they are, or maybe, you are one of the few who want to help and who are able to. In the U.S., more than 3.5 million people experience homelessness each year and that number is growing. They are families with little children, people who are trying to escape domestic violence, people with mental illness, veterans who have served our country, and many more. From what I read in Jonathan Kozol’s “Untouchables” city officials in various places are only coming up with short term solutions, that aren’t helping the homeless. City officials are just trying to get rid of the homeless from their cities or area. I think it’s time that more individuals and groups, really gets involved and figure out a way to help those who are already homeless, and stop future people from becoming homeless. We have to come up with ways to help the homeless readjust and get back into the world.

On any single night in America, there are 610,042 people without a home (SIRS). Just think about how much space that would take up in prisons for people who are not causing a crime but are just without a home.Criminalization of homelessness is becoming a popular and widespread topic throughout the US. States all over America are beginning to make laws that prevent homeless people from living in public spaces. Homelessness may be temporary, chronic, or perpetual. The growth of homelessness within and outside of cities puts a new strain on shelters and has led to an increase in panhandling and loitering. Some people think these aspects of homelessness should be criminalized. Those who disagree say criminalization would only worsen the problem

The fact that there’s laws out there for being homeless is just pitiful and low. Every human has rights and just because he or she is homeless does not mean you can take away their rights. Homeless people should not be criminalized because they have nowhere to go. Yes there are homeless shelters but not all homeless shelters are open for them to stay in. Read into things about homeless shelters and go there. There not as amazing as there cut out to be. Some homeless people say they would rather go back to the streets than to stay at homeless shelters. If one were to look in some of these homeless shelters today they would think the same. Some of them are just disgusting and downright horrible. Why do people expect someone to actually sleep in a place where it is not sanitary.

Homelessness seems to constantly trigger debates among our society. It has since caused a complex social problem between U.S. citizens and multiple cities worldwide. Cities across the nation have passed a law that criminalizes the act of feeding the homeless, has restricted simple acts of compassion, and have required the purchase of permits to utilize public areas. According to Robbie Couch,” The outlet reports that, incredibly, at least 33 municipal bans on publicly handing out food have been enacted across the U.S. between January 2013 and April 2014, reflecting a sharp increase in communities with such restrictions…. This past February, Columbia S.C., began requiring groups of 25 people or more to purchase permits allowing them to utilize the city’s parks.” I know many will probably agree and say something along the lines of “By restricting the feeding of the homeless, it would motivate more homeless individual to get off the streets”. Houston Mayor Annise Parker stated, “Making it easier for someone to stay on the street is not humane”. Feeding bans are allowing an increase in chronic hunger, allowing stereotypes that are ill-treating those who are experiencing homelessness and allowing homeless individual’s mental, physical, and emotional health to weaken as time progresses.

Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts that housing is a fundamental component to a decent standard of living, yet few city governments--even in the most developed economies--have proven themselves capable of ensuring such a basic right to their constituents (United Nations, General Assembly). Ranked 49th among the 50 U.S. states for its number of housing units per capita, California has notoriously struggled with chronic shortages in its urban housing market. With 118,142 homeless people recorded in 2016, California holds almost 22% of the nation’s homeless population (Fact Sheet: Homelessness in California 1).

Why should we care about homeless people? That’s the kind of attitude you can witness that people have towards the homeless. Homelessness is a pretty common occurrence which might be a reason for people’s indifference towards it. People are unaware of the circumstances surrounding the homeless, which can lead them to believe their situation is like that because of their own personal choice. That is not entirely true and it’s an issue that should be addressed properly. Everyone should have the right to a stable place to live in that meets a their needs. Society’s attitude towards the homeless needs to change. They need to realize how serious being homeless is and look for ways to end it, such as taking an initiative and volunteering and or donating to shelters.

There are many things that have to be taken into consideration for homeless people in general. A couple of those would be that homeless people can have severe health problems or human waste that is not contained. These health problems can vary from cardio-respiratory diseases, tuberculosis, skin diseases, nutritional deficiencies to the spread of HIV/AIDS (“homelessness,” n.d.). There are even statistics that show homeless people are more likely to commit a crime. This will put added stress on our already overcrowded prison

People drive or walk past a homeless person almost every day without thinking twice about the plight of that person or they may even unconsciously turn their heads the other way in disgust. Homelessness simply put, means without a home - therefore homelessness is an equal opportunity state that can happen to anyone. Even though we have seen some economic prosperity over the years, statistics show that the number of homeless remains very high. With this in mind, communities need to come together at the state, city, and individual level to come up with solutions to mitigate the spreading of this problem.