The Economic Consequences of Homelessness in The US

to a baby boy and currently has a room at a shelter. But, because the shelter is within
the “stay away” area, she is at risk of re-arrest.
In Houston, Texas, Spencer Stevens became homeless in 2015 after losing his job as a
forklift operator. He has congestive heart failure, which prevents him from taking
another manual labor job. Living under the highway median, he cooks meals on his
griddle. If legal challenges fail, he could be arrested for both living and cooking there.
Houston has made it illegal to block a sidewalk, stand on a roadway median, sleep on
public property or in a makeshift shelter, or have a heating device in public.
Every day, law enforcement officers across the country issue tickets to those
experiencing homelessness as they engage in basic, life-sustaining behaviors, like
sleeping on the streets or cooking a meal in public on a griddle. Prosecutors then
frequently charge those individuals with crimes. By relying upon law enforcement to
address an issue that should more appropriately be considered as falling within the
domain of public health, communities are expending a tremendous amount of public
money unnecessarily and ineffectively, and exacerbating the underlying causes of
homelessness. Below, we discuss the destructive and often devastating human and
financial costs of criminalizing homelessness in America.
1. Homelessness is a chronic problem.
Experts believe that as many as two million people in the country experience
homelessness at some point in a given year, with about 500,000 living without a home
Page 165 of 289