Criminalizing poverty is a natural result of getting our values from property rights and from running our nation like a business.
We have heard from some politicians that harsher laws will keep us safe, but, as we have built higher walls and brought more violence to bear against the poor, we have not felt safer. In fact, “the land of the free” already puts more of its people behind bars than any other nation. And, still, we still grow more fearful with every passing day.
No one wants to see people living under our bridges and sleeping in our alleys and in the doorways of our cities, But, policies of cruelty toward the unsheltered have not, and cannot, make our cities safer. Criminalizing homelessness does nothing to eliminate the causes of poverty and greatly aggravates its symptoms.
Running a nation like a business will never work because the poor cannot afford to buy anything. They are not shareholders nor customers. So, the United States is already a police state for the poor and homeless. And, as laws have increased the distances between us, Americans have only grown more terrified.
If, as some politicians claim, those without homes are a health risk, the answer isn’t to force them to die outside of our sight. Such cruel indifference will not make our world one bit safer. And sending people without housing to jail will leave them with even fewer coping options than before.
But there is a better way. We are one human family. Our destinies are interwoven whether we like it or not. The answer to poverty is better education and a living wage, not stricter austerity measures. The answer to disease is universal health care, not gated communities. The answer to homelessness is housing, not incarceration.