The Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) and USA-Canada Alliance of Inhabitants (USACAI) have declared April 1st a bi-national day of action to protest the ongoing criminalization of poor and homeless people in our communities.
Locally, in Charlotte, the Camping Ordinance became enforceable on January 30th. The Charlotte City Attorney defines camping as, "the use of city property for living accommodation purposes such as sleeping, or making preparations to sleep (including the laying down of bedding for the purpose of sleeping), or storing personal belongings, or placing any tents or a temporary shelter on city property for living accommodation purposes."
In truth, city ordinances frequently serve as prominent tools towards criminalizing homelessness. In response to the camping ordinance, one of my homeless clients said, " I don't know what will happen to me once the ordinance is passed. They (City Council,) don't care about homeless people, and they don't care where we go just as long as we aren't their problem."
Our city leaders need to come to terms with the fact that homeless and poverty are both urban issues. When local ordinances push the homeless away from urban areas, it prevents the homeless from being able to obtain the resources that they need. Additionally, our city leaders need to stop hiding behind new initiatives that claim to "help" the homeless, when other measures are in place that severely harm the homeless.
Recently, Charlotte launched a new initiative called: "The Year of Our Neighbors." Tomorrow, they will launch "Beyond Casseroles," a coalition of eight agencies engaged with homelessness and affordable housing, already working to broaden the role of the faith community in fighting the problem. During the launch of the new initiative, Mayor Foxx said, "There are ongoing efforts in Charlotte that are already best of class." "The convention provides momentum on a lot of fronts to work harder and faster," says Foxx. If that were true, visibly poverty and homelessness would not exist and my organization, Serve Charlotte's Homeless, a one hundred percent privately funded organization, wouldn't need to assist the homeless. On average, I see around 400 street homeless individuals that walk around Uptown, aimlessly -- with no where else to go. Visible poverty in itself is a sign of failure. It indicates that our city isn't adequately assisting Charlotte citizens.
In addition, there are major issues with the city's affordable housing program, as it funneled millions of federal dollars to developers to build affordable homes. And, years later, all the money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's HOME fund has been spent, but 83 houses have not been delivered. One project failed to produce a single home.
A few days ago, an 85-unit building for chronically homeless individuals opened its doors. The center is called Moore Place and the housing unit is definitely a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, an 85-unit building is not enough to rectify the homeless crisis. Greater measures need to be implemented to ensure that the homeless are not displaced from Center City. No one benefits from the criminalization of homeless individuals. It is more cost effective by far to help them versus continuing to punish them for being poor.
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