Title: Anti-homelessness legislation - Wikipedia
Headings: Anti-homelessness legislation
Anti-homelessness legislation
Contents
International law
Laws supporting the homeless
United Kingdom
Scotland
United States
Laws criminalizing behaviors engaged in by the homeless
England and Wales
United States
Anti-homeless architecture
Perception of Homelessness and Policy Implications
United States
See also
References
External links

Content: Selective enforcement of laws. Selective creation of laws. ( The French novelist Anatole France noted this phenomenon as long ago as 1894, famously observing that "the law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges".) England and Wales
The 1977 Housing (Homeless Persons) Act greatly restricted the homeless housing requirements so that only individuals who were affected by natural disasters could receive housing accommodations from the local authorities. This led to the rejection of the majority of homeless applications received by the local government. This Act also made it difficult for homeless individuals without children to receive accommodations provided by local authorities. United States
Further information: Homelessness in the United States § Criminalization of homelessness
Homeless people find it harder to secure employment, housing, or federal benefits with a criminal record, and therefore penalizing the act of being homeless makes exiting such a situation much more difficult. Although the court's opinion in Jones v. City of Los Angeles (see above) was vacated, the result suggests that criminalizing homelessness may be unconstitutional. Similarly, in response to growing reports of hate crimes, some state governments have proposed the addition of "people experiencing homelessness" to their hate-crimes statutes.