The Crime of Homelessness

April 26, 2024

I wrote the following letter to the editor. The Los Angeles Times saw fit to publish it today.

“The U.S. Supreme Court may allow municipalities to crack down on homeless encampments within their jurisdiction. This would effectively make homelessness a crime.

This attitude is nothing new. Nearly 100 years ago, G.K. Chesterton wrote:

‘For our law has in it a turn of humor or touch of fancy which Nero or Herod never happened to think of: that of actually punishing homeless people for not sleeping at home.’

We live in a culture where we idolize the rich and despise the poor. We penalize the poor not for any particular offense, but simply because they bother our consciences by their very existence.”