Criminalization of Homelessness in America

SOC 331: Social Justice and Ethics April 6, 2015
Criminalization of Homelessness in America
Every country faces homelessness in one form or another. Homelessness in America has been an ongoing problem over many decade. Homelessness is not racist or biased as anyone can find themselves without the financial means to provide adequate shelter and food. While there are many definitions for homelessness the most common is “a person who "lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence” (www.pbs.org). Those who are susceptible to homelessness consist of but not limited to children, teenagers, adult men and woman, veterans, mentally unstable and elderly people. Homelessness is not just the problem that the homeless person faces but the problem that we all as citizens of the United States face ethically, morally with the proper forms of justice. Throughout this paper we are asked to evaluate different perspective and responses in regards to the American problem of homelessness. In doing so virtue ethics, distributive, commutative and retributive justices will be used in evaluating the responses. ‘Virtue ethics is an ethical theory that evaluates the morality of the person doing a given act, rather than the act itself. Virtue ethics thus emphasizes that the various virtues and whether a person reflects those virtues in his or her actions are crucial to moral evaluation” (Mosser, 2010). The text book Social and Criminal Justice in Moral Perspective breaks down the definition of distributive justice between moral concepts, legal concepts and…..The moral concept of distributive justice pertains to the distribution of goods or services whereas the legal concept is fairly distributing services. “Commutative justice refers to fair exchange – through contract, covenant, or other agreement – that fulfills the rights and responsibilities of all parties involve” (Dreisbach, 2013). The three principles of retributive justice are: that those who commit certain kinds of wrongful acts, paradigmatically serious crimes, morally deserve to suffer a proportionate punishment; that it is intrinsically morally good- good without reference to any other goods that might arise- if some legitimate punisher gives them the punishment they deserve; That it is morally impermissible intentionally to punish the innocent or to inflict disproportionately large punishments on wrongdoers (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2014). Before evaluating the perspective and responses to homelessness using the provided information about the causes of homelessness need to be explored. Money and finances are one of the leading causes of homelessness. Many believe that those who are homeless do not work or live on the streets spending their days begging for money using a cardboard box made into a sign. However in the most general sense about one-fourth of the homeless population actually does work and earn an income. The problem is that while they work, the job pays minimum wage to low wages which does not provide an adequate income for them to afford to pay rent or mortgages and utilities leaving them and their families without a home. Lack of a job market also contributes too many men and women being left without a job and financial means to support themselves and their families. Other financial issues that contribute to a person or family being homeless being homeless is high amounts of debt due to medical expenses. Addiction related illnesses such as drug addiction and or alcohol addiction can lead to the destruction of a person’s financial situation. Addictions are very costly and leads to high amounts of debt and in abilities to pay debt alongside paying for housing and expenses. Illnesses and mental illnesses leads to the lack of income or inabilities to work to provide for themselves and or families. The amount of money they must use for prescriptions and or medical treatment and expenses results in their inability to obtain adequate housing forcing them to live on the streets or in shelters. The saddest thing is that many veterans end up being homeless due to the wounds they received while in combat or the mental illnesses due to the trauma they seen or went through while serving the country. Their wounds and disabilities leave them without the ability to find adequate work to provide them financially. Other contributors to homelessness are tragedy or death of a loved one and natural disasters. Time and time again many young people live off the financials of a parent or parents due to their inability to support themselves. When death hits their financial support they are often left with the financial burden left behind by the deceased and their own financial problems. Natural disasters such as floods, fires, tornadoes etc. can lead to the destruction of homes and many resources leading to a life lived in the streets or shelters.
While homelessness is pretty common and expected there are laws and legislations that criminalize homelessness. “In the past decade, cities have increasingly moved toward enacting and enforcing laws that specifically criminalize homelessness in response to their concern about the use of public space. Cities enact and enforce these criminal laws as "quick-fix" solutions to remove homeless people from sight, rather than addressing the underlying causes of homelessness” (Brown, 1999). According to Brown a “Out of sight – out of mind study was done to determine legislation around the United States of homelessness. Many of cities had laws that pertained to panhandling, being fed, and or sleeping in public areas such as streets, parks or under bridges. Instead of curing the problem of homelessness the cities and government takes quick fix measures eliminating the issue from public’s eye and hiding the problem; like sweeping dirt under the rug, we cannot see it but we know it is their approach.
Anti-homeless responses seems to be the only response for the issue of homeless. Many states have implemented many laws and policies pertaining to the homeless. One must also evaluate just how just and constitutional the laws and policies are. Below I will describe many state ordinances and cases pertaining to homelessness. In the state of Massachusetts there is the law of “wandering abroad and begging” which is a law that prohibits a homeless person from asking for money and or food from passerby’s on the street. However according to the Supreme Court of Mass., it is against the first amendment of free speech as a conversation taken place between the homeless person and passerby is protected by the constitution. Many other laws prohibit a person from sitting, sleeping or eating in public. “In Pottinger v. Miami, a federal court held that punishing people for sleeping in public when they had not alternative place to sleep violated their right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment and violated their right to travel (Brown, 1999). Other states and cities impose fines for those who are found to be sleeping or sitting in public places. In Fort Lauderdale Florida and other cities it has even became illegal to provide food to homeless people also known as anti-compassionate acts. Around 6 months ago a 90 year old man by the name of Arnold Abbot along with two other pastors were charged for feeding the homeless in Florida which became the topic of many news outlets.
While many people in the public respond to the homelessness crisis as not being their problem, or why should they have to support them. “The Central Florida Commission of Homelessness released a new study showing that, when accounting for a variety of public expenses, Florida residents pay $31,065 per chronically homeless person every year they live on the streets” (Keyes, 2014). This is due to the criminalization of being homeless, illnesses and medical expenses. However to support a homeless person by giving them at the most a roof over their heads would cost residents “$10,051” (Keyes, 2014). Although the government has not been totally reluctant to provide assistance for homeless people as there have been many homeless shelters opened and operated by the federal, state and local governments. The problem however is not the shelter itself but the amount of people who need to be sheltered. In many cases there are far too many people looking for a place to sleep and not enough beds to go around. By the early 2000’s there was of 50 thousand homeless shelters being operated in America. All shelters operate on a first come first serve basis, leading too many being forced to spend the nights in the streets. Leading towards the illegal acts mentioned above and punishable under certain laws and ordinance.
As mentioned prior we are do evaluate virtue ethics, distributive justice, commutative justice and retributive justice pertaining to the epidemic of homelessness. Virtue ethics of all scenarios, perspectives and problems is based around the person who is homeless not the act of being homeless and how they became that way. Regardless of how or why a person is homeless they still need help in one way or another to get back onto their feet so that they can become stable again and obtain a home or place of residence along with providing a financial means for themselves and or family. Many policies pertaining to begging and or panhandling would be classified as part of virtue ethics. The person is doing what they feel is the morally right thing to do at the time to provide for their family and or selves. Now if the person decided to use the money obtained from generous people to buy alcohol or drugs would not be considered virtuous or morally right. Outlawing this or criminalizing panhandling or begging also falls under distributive justice as not all good and services are provided equally as they should. In terms to let’s say Christmas time, many people stand outside many local businesses asking for donations of money to be donated to the salvation army, or other instances where people ask for donations to go towards juvenile diabetes research and or children’s hospitals. In the same sense all people are begging for money in one way shape or form, it seems though that those who are homeless are criminalized for doing such; also to be associated with retributive justice.
In the case of Pottinger v. Miami qualifies under an unjust retributive justice. As moral ethics and social justices forbid cruel and unusual punishments for a committed crime as also worded in the 8th Amendment. Furthermore being punished or imprisoned for being homeless is certainly not just. In most cases people have become homeless due to a financial crisis which is in large part contributed to the government, debt accumulations due to lack of sufficient pay and or income and a large part up until recently unaffordable health care. In the case of Arnold Abbot and criminalizing his response to homelessness is also considered unjust in regards to virtue ethics, distributive justice, commutative justice and retributive justice. Abbot was a giver and could be considered to be virtuous person as he tried to help the homeless on many account however punished for doing so due to retributive justices. He faced fines, forced to pay restitution in a way and potentially faced prison for simply helping someone out. However paying the city of Ft. Lauderdale will not end homelessness nor should he be forced to do so along with other cities who force those who are homeless to pay fines up to 50 dollars is considered to be unjust retributive justice. Public response of homelessness is not virtuous by any means thus does not poses virtuous ethics. Nothing morally good can come about if they do not help out. If homeless people were provide shelter and or a roof over their heads and caring about the population the amount of money spent would be reduced and gods would be distributed equally as part of distributive justice.
Over the 30 years will the next generations view the responses to homelessness as being just or unjust? I believe over the next 30 years there will be a better handle on the issues of homelessness. There may be laws helping regulate the issue of homelessness but not criminalizing it as it is happening today. There will be sufficient amounts of housing available for veterans along with civilian homeless men and woman along with their children. In the future the next generations will not view the justices of homeless today as being just as we do not view them as being just.
References
Bassuk, E.L. (2010). Ending Child Homelessness in America. The National Center on Family Homelessness American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. Vol. 80, Issue 4.
Brown, K. (1999). Outlawing/Criminalizing Homelessness. Retrieved from: http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/106/brown.html
Conlon, K. & Shoichet, C.E. (2014). 90 year old Florida man charged for feeding homeless people. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/04/justice/florida-feeding-homeless-charges/index.html
Dreisbach, C. (2013). Social and criminal justice in moral respective. San Diego, CA. Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Foscarinis, M. (1991). The politics of homelessness: A call to action. National Law Center of Homelessness and Poverty, Washington Dc.American Psychologist. Vol. 46, Issue 11. Keyes, S. (2014). Leaving Homeless Person on the Streets: $31,065. Giving them Housing $10,051. Retrieved from:http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/05/27/3441772/florida-homeless-financial-study/
Mosser, K. (2010). Ethics and Social Responsibility. San Diego CA. Bridgepoint
Education Inc.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2014). Retributive Justice. Retrieved from: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justice-retributive/