The 10 Worst Places To Be Homeless

Laws criminalizing basic human behavior, such as eating, sleeping or sitting in public places, are increasingly cropping up across the country even as homelessness is on the rise, according to a report released Tuesday by advocates for the homeless.

"We are in the midst of a growing human rights crisis right here in the United States," said Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, which released the report in collaboration with the National Coalition for the Homeless.

The report singles out specific geographic areas with a top ten list of the "Meanest Cities." Los Angeles was named the meanest city in the U.S., primarily for its aggressive policing of homeless folks on Skid Row (and also for restrictions on sitting or lying down on sidewalks). The runners up for inhospitality to the indigent are St. Petersburg and Orlando, Fla., where the city council actually made it a crime to share food with homeless people in parks. One person has already been arrested for doing so. Since then, a federal court found the law unconstitutional and the city is appealing the decision.

Municipal meaness is increasing nationwide, said the report's authors during a conference call with reporters. Tulin Ozdeger of the NLCHP cited a 7 percent increase in laws prohibiting "camping," an 11 percent increase in laws prohibiting loitering, a 6 percent increase in laws prohibiting begging and a 5 percent increase in laws prohibiting aggressive panhandling in the 224 cities surveyed both in this report and its 2006 predecessor.

Laws prohibiting camping are aimed at tent cities, like the one Sacramento, Calif., that earlier this year spawned a national fuss, even though pitching tents has been a basic human response to homelessness for as long as tents have existed. In places like Olympia, Wash., and Portland, Ore., impromptu tent cities have grown into city-sanctioned movements.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development reported last week that while the number of homeless individuals seeking shelter remained constant for 2008, the number of families seeking shelter increased 9 percent from 2007. As Ozdeger, Foscarinis and the National Coalition for the Homeless Director Michael Stoops point out, the latest data are a year old and don't reflect the latest trends in worsening unemployment and foreclosure rates.

The 191-page report praises some cities' initiatives to address issues surrounding homelessness, such as donation meters that allow people to give without supporting panhandling and efforts to provide permanent supportive housing. Measures that criminalize behavior associated with homelessness, the study notes, often run afoul of the Constitution.

Here's the top ten meanest cities:

1. Los Angeles, CA
2. St. Petersburg. FL
3. Orlando, FL
4. Atlanta, GA
5. Gainesville, FL
6. Kalamazoo
7. San Francisco
8. Honolulu
9. Bradenton
10. Berkeley

The report, titled "Homes Not Handcuffs: The Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities," is available from the Coalition's website (PDF).

HuffPost readers: Do you know a family coping with homelessness? Has your family had to stay in a shelter? Tell us about it -- email [e-mail].

Comments

[rabiddog6708]

Read this great article on why the recession may be worse than most people think (or are being told by the media:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Nine-Reasons-the-Economy-is-usnews-1021116601.html?x=0&.v=1

[dzent1]

Matthew 25:40-46 (New International Version)

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

[quasar]

After we have done everything we can to see that those who have the least have at least a chance to be independent, there will still be those without a home. Therefore, I think all cities should have shelters that are monitored for (violent) criminal activities but are otherwise just places for any one who for whatever reason needs a place to sleep. These places need to be clean, safe, warm, dry and numerous enough to handle a percentage of any given population (maybe .25%). If these "transient hostels" were scattered around the country in all cities of over, say, 50,000 it would greatly decrease the higher concentrations found in larger cities and give these transients more choice of where they want to be - if only for a little while.

These hostels could also serve as first point of contact for all the other services that a city provides but they must remain open to all comers with a minimum of "intervention" outside of what the people who use it choose to get involved with.

Most current shelters are much too restrictive and, although cheaper than jail, still too expensive for their purpose, namely, to provide shelter to anyone who needs it.

[boomer59]

What.....B­erkeley on this list???? I don't get it, I have a daughter who lives there and I visit often, there are homeless people everywhere there and I've never seen them being harassed, arrested etc. In SFO the panhandlers are the ones who need to be restrained, not the homeless, they are constantly in your face and you can tell they are not homeless!

[Flavor]

You forgot St. Louis, who find it disturbing to look at the homeless. Let me tell the bloggers something else that we need to take into consideration, a lot of our homeless are veterens, some who have flashbacks of wars, they have fought in, and now people who can walk and talk freely don't want to help them. Most of them would not hurt a flea they just bundle together and help each other out, they share what little they have with each other and they do more of showing love than some americans do. When I read this article where some get fined for sharing something with the homeless it made me not want to visit Florida, In St. Louis there is an advocate by the name of Larry Rice this man will go under highway and byways to help these people, every dime goes to furnish food, water, toothpaste, bathtowels, blankets, ect... for the homeless and of course the city has fought this man tooth and nail because he cares and tells them to their face they put money only on the rich. You tell our children to fight for their rights, well where is the rights for the homeless veterens. I am choosing a new way to vote from now on, I want people who will stand for what is right and don't care what the naysayers think. Where is the justice?

[progressivegreg]

Grand Rapids, Mi. should also be on that list! A church was setting up porta johns for the homeless to use (instead of using alley's) and they were stopped by the city. So if you urinate "in public" you are ticketed and it's considered a "sexually deviant" action. Now you're a "sex offender" required to register as such here in Mi. Once that is on your record you can't get withing so many feet of a school. Our homeless mission is too close to a school so these people cannot get shelter from the cold during the winter. It works great, we had a homeless man freeze to death in a junked car last winter and NOTHING WAS DONE TO MODIFY THE LAW!!! I think that rates top ten status!

[Chaimirija]

Maybe they should pass a mandate requiring everyone to purchase a home

[prettyinpink]

Better yet just give them one-that's where we are headed anyway.

[cruisepuppy7452a]

Now being homeless is a crime. Hello, they created this mess we didn't. God forbid if it hits them in the face that families have lost everything and end up in the streets. What did they think would happen? Being poor isn't a crime, losing a job isnt a crime. Our newspapers were hellbent on treating the poor as street urchins, instead of offering up solutions to the problems. Instead of building a damn baseball town, we need subsidized housing, medicaide for the poor, shelters that are not just doable, but in front of us, and we say NO? Is this the USA that we treat our own people so poorly? Its inexcusable that in this country, to be acting like monsters to our own people. People who put CEO's in their hotel sized homes, cars, their mistresses in Palm Springs with thier botox. Folks, being poor isn't a crime. FIGHT Back. You still have rights as Americans regardless of income or social status. Its time for the public to do as the French do and riot in the streets. By the way, that isn't a crime either, its called free speech.

[prettyinpink]

You are right. The liberal politicians have created this homeless mess by trying to provide a larger and larger "safety net". The only thing that LBJ's great society has created is an entire class of people that work harder to stay on public assistance than if they had a real job. These policies contribute to teen pregnancies, and the breakdown of the family. Here in MI if you are 15 and pregnant all you have to say is that you don't know the father and you will get everything -housing, food, medical care.

My nephew was laid off. I asked him where he was looking for a new job. He responded with "why-I have 70 weeks of unemployment. there is no hurry. I plan on enjoying my time off."

[boomer59]

...and then you woke up....

[David]

It's nice to see New York NOT on the list.

[wdw505]

why?

[itolduso]

We live in a country where more & more workers cannot earn enough to feed their families or provide shelter for themselves, and do not have access to decent, affordable health care...... where wounded veterans are left adrift & untreated when their service to us has ended, hundreds of thousands wander our streets - forgotten & ignored...­... where tens of thousands of skilled & professional workers have seen their jobs eliminated, their pensions dumped, & their retirement savings accounts plundered & lost. We have seen our federal leaders rescue & reward those most responsible for these situations, and our state leaders divert our tax dollars to political cronies & donors. And now we debate & deride the desperate actions of city leaders, our neighbors.­..who every day struggle and suffer with us, who work with dwindling resources to provide for those in need while also trying to maintain the safety of their own streets & parks, to keep & attract businesses & tourist's dollars, to keep our city safe & functioning for all. If we want to start calling out the "meanest" & the "worst", for just this once, let's actually blame the ones in power, instead of just the victims.

[Montgriz]

In LA, most of those people are immigrants who could go home but don't....t­hey are treated fairly well irregardless of what this story says....

[ndnndpendent]

If there is one Republican on this planet....­.that means there will always be poor and homeless..­..capitali­sm has to grind someone under its blades....

[Montgriz]

you conveniently overlook the millions killed by leftists in the USSR early years....

[GerryS]

as if there really is a good place to be homeless--­----------­---

[progressivegreg]

a warm climate, Michigan sucks in the winter

[wdw505]

laughing..­..........­..........­.is there a good place to be homeless..­......

[isolow]

+1 LOL!

[Montgriz]

Honolulu

[davidwayneosedach]

This is a list every homeless person should have. If they are in one of these cities move out to a better one.

[robinhood1]

San Francisco is not that bad, considering its temperate climate. Can you imagine being homeless in a Buffalo snowstorm? Go to sleep and freeze to death.

[Choicelady]

Apparently it happens there and every cold-weather city at least once every year. In hot weather cities, it's heat that kills the homeless and even those with flops - those are exempt from air conditioning, so people die. Our love of "the lifestyles of the rich and famous" is SO out of touch with reality, and our apparent need to blame our neighbors for our collective woes even worse. Let's indeed call out the officials - Kevin Johnson, sports figure turned mayor of Sacramento, gets kudos for the Sacramento homeless problem which are TOTALLY undeserved. He's done nothing other than to call for "tough love" whatever THAT means. We still have no place for the 2800 men, women and children who sleep rough every night. Disgusting lack of concern. Every city needs to find a place for a decent tent city or some other form of PERMANENT housing. The idea that people choose this way of life is absurd. And waiting until they are "housing ready" is ridiculous - do we wait to feed people until they are "food ready"? Self-directed and managed tent cities with trash, water, toilets all would make a huge difference, and affordable housing for real people - couples, families, and people with pets - would make even more. Sacramento's homeless are pretty cool people even with their problems. They already are my neighbors. We have little to fear from them. Let's put humanity before prejudice and DO something positive to end the problem.

[Montgriz]

UH, have you been to SF???? It gets damn cold.....i­t isn't LA..

[inorbit]

I'm surprised San Francisco is on that list as there seem to be quite a few homeless in that city.