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a Homeless Reality Check

observations by
A. John Doe Homeless







Audio Presentation Here!
What could our local governing agencies have expected to accomplish by punishing and persecuting the unfortunate folks who are merely attempting to survive by living within their means. The reference made, of course, to the recently created ordinances by cities and counties throughout the country intended to make it a crime for "camping in public" as labeled by Sonoma County. However it is worded it merely skirts around the formerly abolished vagrancy laws and literally violates Civil Rights as I have been advocating since these new laws were put into place.

In April, 2006 the U.S. 9th District Appeals Court ruled that making it a crime to be homeless by charging them with a crime is in violation of the 8th and 14th Amendments. The previous link provides connection to the complete transcript. The following are the more pertinent excerpts of that transcript:

L.A., Cal., Mun. Code ss 41.18(d) (2005). A violation
of section 41.18(d) is punishable by a fine of up to $1000
and/or imprisonment of up to six months.
- Id. ss 11.00(m).



The City could not expressly criminalize the status of homelessness by making it a crime to be homeless without violating the Eighth Amendment, nor can it criminalize acts that are an integral aspect of that status. Because there is substantial and undisputed evidence that the number of homeless persons in Los Angeles far exceeds the number of available shelter beds at all times, including on the nights of their arrest or citation, Los Angeles has encroached upon Appellants' Eighth Amendment protections by criminalizing the unavoidable act of sitting, lying or sleeping at night while being involuntarily homeless.
The defense encompasses the very difficulties that Jones posits here: sleeping on the streets because alternatives were inadequate and economic forces were primarily to blame for his predicament. Id. at 390. Jones argues that he and other homeless people are not willing or able to pursue such a defense because the costs of pleading guilty are so low and the risks and challenges of pleading innocent are substantial.

- id. at 568 n.31
(Fortas, J., dissenting); the Eighth Amendment
prohibits the City from punishing involuntary
sitting, lying, or sleeping on public sidewalks
that is an unavoidable consequence of being
human and homeless without shelter in the City
of Los Angeles.
By our decision, we in no way dictate to the City that it must provide sufficient shelter for the homeless, or allow anyone who wishes to sit, lie, or sleep on the streets of Los Angeles at any time and at any place within the City. All we hold is that, so long as there is a greater number of homeless individuals in Los Angeles than the number of available beds, the City may not enforce section 41.18(d) at all times and places throughout the City against homeless individuals for involuntarily sitting, lying, and sleeping in public.



(As of one year after the Federal Court ruling... )

Some areas in California (Sonoma County, L.A., and San Francisco are included) still persist to violate Civil Rights in this manner! Apparently then, if they are not stupid, then they are so arrogant as to believe they are above the Federal Law!?




I am A. John Doe Homeless and I am still



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