LAW
Why Criminalizing Homelessness is a Cruel, Unusual, Racist Policy
“Sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime” — Justice Sotomayor
Efforts to criminalize homelessness are cruel and unusual, but they’re also inherently racist in American society. In the months after the Civil War, for instance, The Vagrancy Act of 1866 treated Black freedom as a crime. Simply by being unemployed, someone could be arrested and forced to labor, thereby undermining their hard-fought freedom. Not only did the law expect bootless Black people to pick themselves up by their own bootstraps, but it also punished them for their bootless status. Modern-day efforts to criminalize homelessness have the same objective — to punish people for circumstances beyond their control.
Weeks ago, Americans applauded the heartwarming story of Elijah Hogan, a Black New Orleans teenager who, despite experiencing homelessness for a year and a half, became valedictorian of Walter L. Cohen High School. Perhaps many wanted to focus on this positive, heartwarming story, someone with a happy ending. Hogan, who will attend Xavier University next fall semester, will no longer experience homelessness because of his academic scholarship and the charitable donations of concerned citizens who learned about his story of perseverance. Nevertheless, many…
