Title: Homeless Bill of Rights - Wikipedia
Headings: Homeless Bill of Rights
Homeless Bill of Rights
Contents
Overview
Criminalization of Homelessness
Controversy over Legislation Affecting the Homeless
Legislation in the United States
Rhode Island
Illinois
Connecticut
California
Colorado
See also
References
External links

Content: These measures penalize individuals from performing necessary, life-sustaining practices (such as sleeping) outside of the private domain, and disproportionately impact unhoused populations who have no choice but to occupy public space for these activities. Surveys by the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) have documented the impacts of such anti-homeless legislation by interviewing over 1,300 unhoused individuals. Of those interviewed, 81% of individuals reported being "harassed, cited or arrested for sleeping", 77% said they had been "harassed, cited or arrested for sitting or lying on the sidewalk", and 26% "knew of a safe place to sleep at night". As The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty concludes its report on the " criminalization of homelessness ": Laws that criminalize visible homelessness are immoral and offend our basic human instincts. They are contrary to the fundamental religious and political principals from which the American people seek guidance, and their existence demonstrates that we have fallen vastly short of our religious and foundational aspirations. Homeless Bills of Rights seek to amend local codes that outlaw loitering, vagrancy, sitting or lying on the sidewalk, begging, urinating, eating in public, and other behaviors that disproportionately affect homeless people. Most homeless advocates agree that the issue of homelessness can only be alleviated if there is a focus placed on changing laws that criminalize homelessness. Controversy over Legislation Affecting the Homeless
The "Beds Not Bars" slogan suggests that society must help homeless people instead of outlawing their behavior. Skid Row in Los Angeles is sometimes mentioned as an area that would deteriorate if homelessness was not regulated
Opposition to legislature that supports the rights of unhoused individuals primarily comes from state and city officials, housed citizens, and varied business interests.