There are nearly two hundred thousand homeless living in Texas alone, with over five hundred thousand homeless people living in the United States, 65% live in shelters while the remaining 35% go unsheltered. With such a large population of homeless, it is unnerving to see the way in which they are treated and the lack of effort to help them. These people are having their eighth, ninth, and fourteenth amendments go unprotected, simply because of their social status. Instead of being helped by cities and politicians, they are pushed into the depths of cities by people who would rather avoid the problem than addressing it directly, they are not considered in practice, they are being punished and often are the victims of police brutality. Over the past few years, there have been cases of homeless people sta
...nding up for themselves and attempting to garner a stronger voice, but for the little victories, there are many unheard victims of this social injustice. It is time for this issue to be taken more seriously, this is not only a statewide issue, but a national one, and there are things that can be done to help provide some relief to these people.
In Martin v. City of Boise (2009) cruel and unusual punishment was used to criminalize sleeping outdoors without a proper residence, classifying it as disorderly conduct. (Sisson, 2019) the courts stated that a city cannot force a law that prohibits this behavior without proper accommodation for the people who would act on it, the courts cannot force cities to build shelters but they can ensure that there are certain rules for a city to follow.
In a similar
case: Bloom v. City of San Diego (2017) the ability for a person to reside in their vehicle when out of a home for convenience is allowed. The issue is widespread and comparing it to a city like San Diego, which borders with Mexico, and have a population of nearly one and a half million people as of 2018 according to the US census ('U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: San Diego city, California', 2018) This is a large city and the homeless population scales accordingly. The city itself operates some of its own shelters that provide decent sleeping space for a portion of the homeless population (“Homeless Services”, 2020) Though this issue is severe nationwide, in Europe, there are places that can be looked up to for quality services, one country is Estonia, a small country with a population of one million three hundred (“Estonia Population (LIVE)”, 2020) their homeless situation sees more protection for its people who while having around eight hundred sheltered per night as of 2017 they are well sheltered and fed.
There is an understanding that this is a severe issue, but addressing it appears to not have been a priority, instead cities focus on shifting the problem of how to get rid of the homeless rather than helping them. There has already been some legislation that is meant to help the homeless such as Colorado’s Right to Rest Act of 2018. (Colorado General Assembly, “Right to Rest Act”, 2018) Here in Brownsville, there are similar signs of this attempt of ridding the city of the population which to many would be trivial but have a darker reason for existing.
For example, installing armrests
or divides on benches in parks and other public areas which deny homeless the ability to sleep on them, or when driving downtown seeing storefronts with blocked entrances which would have otherwise been a space for people to sleep, and of course closing parks and plazas which prevent homeless from seeking shelter somewhere peaceful. Rather than spending money on this, it should be allocated towards actually creating a solution because attempting to hide something does not mean it does not exist. These funds could go towards city projects to create new homeless shelters in lots of old abandoned buildings and hiring staff to these facilities. Apart from just the city doing good, the people must also do their part and while the city focuses on the logistics and economics everyday citizens can volunteer at existing shelter and relief efforts. With more people participating not only do the people in need to get help but it also helps shine a light on the problem and makes it more difficult to ignore.
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