The Economic Consequences of Homelessness in The US

Begging in Public (Panhandling)
According to the 2014 National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty report, there
was a 25 percent increase in anti-panhandling laws between 2011 and 2014.
In 2014 in Denver, police arrested 300 people for panhandling. In New York, police
arrested a homeless man after he asked a police officer if he had a dollar to spare.
Jason Metts of Fayetteville, North Carolina, reports that he is disabled and can’t work.
“To survive,” he told a reporter, he has started panhandling. Police have arrested him
seven times. “I’m not stealing, I’m not robbing people, and I’m not approaching
anybody. Those that give to me roll down their windows, I’m not scaring them,” Metts
stated.
Encroachment — storing property in public ways
Laws across the country make it illegal for
individuals to place property on public ways. For
those with no home, there is no other place to
store their belongings.
In San Diego, police cited Army veteran Eric
Arundel several times after he placed his tarp,
bedding, clothing, medication, and toiletries on the
sidewalk.
He suffers from pneumonia and uses the tarp to stay warm. Also in San Diego, police
cited Jeff Hayes for encroachment, even though he had nowhere to store his
belongings. Hayes became homeless as a result of suffering from multiple sclerosis,
which made it impossible for him to work.
He had no criminal record until receiving the encroachment charge. He then missed his
court date because he was in the hospital for sepsis. Both Arundel and Hayes are
plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit challenging the law.
Living in Vehicles
City laws often preclude people from sleeping in their parked cars during certain hours
of the night.
Nearly 7,000 people live in their cars in Los Angeles, but the city recently enacted
regulations banning parking “for habitation purposes” on residential streets from 9 p.m.
to 6 a.m. New ordinances also make it illegal to live in a vehicle parked within a block of
schools, daycare facilities, and parks. Santa Monica, Malibu, and Culver City have
similar bans in place, as does San Diego.
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