marichiko

Why go all the way to South Africa when you can have fun in your own back yard? Here's a sample report from one of many US cities, this one being San Diego:

In August of 2003, it was reported that the Downtown San Diego Partnership and other groups have "turned their focus to making sure the homeless don’t interfere with local businesses and their customers." The partnership performs "welfare and wake-up" checks to keep people experiencing homelessness out of storefronts.

In October of 2004, Larry Milligan, a longtime activist for homeless people, asked the City Council to create a "safe site" on city-owned property, where homeless people could bed down in an area patrolled by police.

Milligan also asked the Council to order police officers to stop ticketing homeless people for sleeping in public when there are not enough shelter beds available for them. He said the tickets are making criminals of people for being homeless.

There are 2,019 shelter beds and 4,458 homeless people in the city, according to the Regional Task Force on the Homeless.

Milligan said he believes that in San Diego some homeless people are sleeping in more remote areas to avoid tickets.

Michael Zucchet, a member of the City Council and whose district includes downtown where many homeless people congregate and receive services, said he does not support a moratorium on illegal lodging tickets. He also does not support using city property as night camps

Figures from the Police Department show that 2,055 illegal lodging tickets have been issued through September of 2004, more than all of last year when 2,026 were written.

Assistant Police Chief Cheryl Meyers said the tickets are a way of "managing the homeless problem" when there are complaints from the public.

Police Executive Assistant Chief Bill Maheu added that illegal-lodging tickets are warranted when people are breaking the law. "Homelessnesss is not an excuse to commit crime," Maheu said.

John Thelen, project director of the Regional Task Force on the Homeless, said police officers have told him they try to avoid writing the illegal lodging tickets. "The problem is that there aren’t enough beds," Thelen said. "Even if you cite them for illegal lodging, where are they going to go?"

Deputy Public Defender Steve Binder said the tickets are unfair. Each ticket carries a fine of $135, which homeless people cannot afford.

"The need for emergency shelter beds or a safe zone is paramount for folks who are homeless in San Diego," said Binder, who founded a Homeless Court program to help homeless people resolve legal troubles. "The police are not bad guys. They’re being put in the middle of a very serious social problem."

http://www.nationalhomeless.org/crim...allcities.html