Getting Kicked When You Are Down: The Criminal Law and the Homeless in the United States

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Author
Califf, Conor
Subject
Washington and Lee University, Shepherd Poverty Program
Homelessness
Homeless persons -- Legal status, laws, etc.
Homelessness -- Government policy
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Conor Califf is a member of the Class of 2015 of Washington and Lee University School of Law. Capstone; [FULL-TEXT FREELY AVAILABLE ONLINE] In recent years, both local and federal efforts to solve the homelessness epidemic have concentrated on criminalizing the chronic population, currently about 84,000 nationwide.
In this paper I intend to examine how this process has developed in the United States. I intend to highlight what the problem is factually by showing what these laws are, arguments for their existence and counters to these arguments. I will analyze certain ways which homeless litigants could challenge these modern laws and ordinances constitutionally by examining previous precedents which could back their respective cases. I will then conclude by suggesting an alternative approach to criminalization which has proved effective in the United States.