California Homeless Bill of Rights Proposed
One of our most viewed stories in the past year on SeeCalifornia.com was a feature, Helping Homeless Succeed. Current laws to remove the homeless from public view are popular in California tourist destinations, residential areas and business & entertainment districts, especially. Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies are spending more and more of their time trying to cope with complaints. Now a proposed piece of legislation meant to keep cities and towns from rousting the homeless, Assembly Bill 5, has been introduced as a Bill of Rights providing legal protection to people engaging in life-sustaining activities on public property. Sleeping, panhandling, urinating, congregating, and collecting and possessing goods for recycling, are components of the bill which would give homeless residents the right to possess personal property on public lands, sleep in cars that are legally parked, receive funds through public welfare programs and receive legal counsel when cited. Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco introduced the bill.
HOMELESSNESS
- Up to 1% of U.S. population or 3.5 million people experience homelessness in a single year, and about 1.37 million of the total homeless population are children under the age of 18.
- 23% are families with children.
- 5% are minors unaccompanied by adults.
- Issues that lead to homelessness include: Home foreclosure, evictions, women (sometimes with children) fleeing domestic violence, veterans, economic crises, youth released from foster care at age 18, teenagers who flee or are thrown out by parents, natural disasters that destroy homes, deinstitutionalization from state mental health systems, redevelopment and gentrification, and people who are evading law enforcement, have served time in prison, have abused drugs and alcohol, or have a history of mental illness.
