Loitering and the Homeless
One Montgomery County municipality is considering a new loitering ordinance in response to a situation involving a homeless person.
Whitpain Township was preparing on Tuesday evening to vote on a loitering ordinance that would outlaw "lingering aimlessly" without "lawful business," which Township Manager Roman Pronczak said was spurred by the township's recent experience with a man who was sleeping in a bus shelter.
"It's clear that these laws are specifically targeted at a particular class of people," said David Kairys, a professor of Constitutional Law at Temple University, who called the proposed Whitpain ordinance "constitutionally questionable."
Across the country, loitering laws and other measures taken by municipalities in response to highly visible homeless populations have had mixed results.
In February, a federal court ordered New York City to pay $15 million in damages to about 22,000 people who had been improperly arrested under a 1965 loitering law that courts had previously found unconstitutional.
In Austin, TX, city officials were considering the removal of park benches from a recently beautified streetscape because homeless people had begun sleeping on them, according to a report by local ABC affiliate KVUE.
Closer to home, a controversial ban on feeding homeless people in Philadelphia was blocked by a judge this summer.
The National Coalition for the Homeless has decried such laws as efforts to "criminalize homelessness," claiming that people who are cited or arrested under these laws gain criminal records that make it more difficult for them to find jobs and housing.
Kairys said laws of this type surface more often during difficult economic times, when homeless populations tend to spike. The population of unsheltered homeless people in the United States increased two percent between 2009 and 2011, according to a report issued earlier this year by the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
Julia Dorothy Natalia Zion
2:53 pm on Tuesday, September 18, 2012
See...The problems with loitering laws is that it pushes people out of one area and into another without finding these people places to go. It treats people like vermin and not like people. So what if someone was sleeping in a bus shelter. Just because it's one of the richest townships in the county does not give Whitpain Township the right to criminalize being homeless. Find them places to go. Give them alternatives. Don;t just make it illegal, fine them money they can't afford or put them in jail. That's not the answer. The answer is more funding for CHOC in Norristown or similar shelters around the area, yet shelter funding is getting smaller and smaller while funding for prisons is going up. Very sad.
SMYRNA-X
4:55 pm on Tuesday, September 18, 2012
It is very sad. Bums sleeping where ever they land, looking for food, causing disturbance's. Most hobos fall into two catagories- chemical depenace (drug/alcohol), or mental issues. Police should be involved with these individuals but, dropping them off with socail services not the courts.
mike b
8:43 am on Wednesday, September 19, 2012
I agree with your thoughts...but calling humans bums and hobos?
Starr snith
5:21 pm on Tuesday, September 18, 2012
I think thats ridiculous there should be more shelter for the homeless why cant we help everybody all these abanded houses and empty building could be shelter for homeless instead of investing money into unnecessary things help the ppl and maybe thisvworld wouldnt be so crazy
mr grinch
7:20 pm on Tuesday, September 18, 2012
In America, people have the freedom to choose to be homeless. We also have the right to be anywhere, anytime we choose providing we are not trespassing on private property.
Laws/proposals like these disgust me.
SMYRNA-X
12:32 am on Wednesday, September 19, 2012
What stupid concepts of the homeless you guys have. Millions of dollars are spent on federal/state/local levels. Simply buying homes and placing them in them does not address underlying causes of thier condition. These people have serious social problems, ie why they are hobos in the first place. "Choosing to be homeless!" Your kidding, right? These people do need help. By merely stepping over them saying they can be vagrants any where they what is just dumb. Should they be allowed to sleep on the sidewalk in front of your house, bothering your family (begging/poss violence,) and creating an uneasy feeling within your nieghborhood? Police involvement is important due to danger of these people, but police should be a bridge to the socail services that exsist.
mr grinch
7:12 am on Wednesday, September 19, 2012
No, Im not kidding.
Just as you may choose to have a dwelling, many prefer not to.That is not to say there are underlying issues for others and they may need help.
gerhard sweetman
8:01 pm on Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Zone out cheap housing and you get what you dont want. Zoning is against human rights eg liberty. Zoning drives up prices & lowers supply. Milt Freeman econonics 101
Willie. B. Goode
1:09 am on Thursday, September 20, 2012
To me someone looking for a handout to buy booze etc. is a bum. Most of these people need mental help and when places like Byberry etc. we're closed down they had nowhere else to go. Have you noticed that since the ' Campaginer in Chief started his dictatorship' the homeless problem only got worse. Sadly we as a society have and always will have bums and hobo's.
Bill Star
8:43 am on Thursday, September 20, 2012
Matthew 25:31-46
I saw Fartman kissing Rush Limbo
2:54 pm on Thursday, September 20, 2012
yea Billy Star( I think I saw you in a movie on skinamax ) Instead of quoting nonsense give a homeless guy a hot dog. Even Tom Fartman knows that, I heard he was giving $5 to pretty boys on weeknights, that what I read somewhere.
Curmudgeon
3:07 pm on Thursday, September 20, 2012
Back in the 1970's you liberals closed up places like Byberry because they were "horrible places". What did that do?? put many mentally ill and drug dependent people on the streets. Now that you created the problem, which has been festering for 40 years, you have more ineffectual solutions that are supposed to make us feel bad about ourselves. I for one do not. I can only save one person at a time. My family comes first. In these times, why don't you crybaby liberals take in some homeless, remember, charity begins at home!! WHAA WHAA WHAA
I saw Fartman kissing Rush Limbo
3:19 pm on Thursday, September 20, 2012
Smile you old goat. The best way you can save your family is to go away. You make Tom Fartman seem reasonable. You should do everyone a favor and stop posting. Old kooks like you give old people bad reps.
Curmudgeon
5:39 am on Friday, September 21, 2012
Nice response, real intellegent. You deny the obvious, so that makes it untrue. Go back to your alternate universe.