While the recent Supreme Court decision may have made it “legal” to criminalize those experiencing homelessness for merely existing, from an ethical and moral standpoint it is clearly cruel. Criminalization serves to exacerbate homelessness, creating criminal records that make it harder to connect people with services needed to obtain housing.
Furthermore, while encampments can pose dangers, clearing them without available shelter creates additional problems reaching people to provide needed resources and ensuring they can retain the documents to access them.
We cannot arrest our way out of this situation. To resolve homelessness in our community, we need to continue with integrated, services-first approaches including homelessness prevention via rent support, sufficient emergency shelter, and adequate affordable and permanent supportive housing.
I urge our city to continue to support this: choosing proven services and support over criminalization is the right thing to do.
— David Kibrick, Santa Cruz
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