Joshua Prasad’s Post

Raiding homeless encampments without ensuring residents have housing is cruel, costly, and only leads to more encampments being created elsewhere. Recent guidelines issued by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) dismisses this crucial fact by including two strategies that cause harm to people experiencing homelessness: encampment closures without requiring that housing be available to all residents, and the use of police in an encampment response. Shame on communities who use guidance like this to justify forcefully and violently removing people from their living situations, doing nothing to solve homelessness. The USICH guidance concerningly enables cities to redirect resources away from proven solutions to homelessness and toward policies that make homelessness worse. The solution to homelessness must include the removal of all police from homelessness response. Read the full statement from the Law Center and our partners at the National Coalition for Housing Justice: https://loom.ly/4ePekjE

As the Supreme Court begins hearing oral arguments in Grants Pass v. Johnson, a case that will determine whether or not cities can punish people for sleeping outside when they have nowhere else to turn, we affirm the fundamental right to housing for all. In their op-ed published in The Hill, Margot Kushel and Gregg Colburn argue that affordable housing, not criminalization, is the solution to homelessness. "Adequate housing — particularly deeply affordable housing — will go a long way to reducing homelessness when combined with effective, proven solutions like Housing First. But leaders must fund and scale these interventions, rather than turn to the short-term temptation to criminalize some of the most vulnerable people in society. With proper focus and investment, we can ensure a future in which everyone has a place to call home." #GrantsPass #housingfirst #affordablehousing #housingnothandcuffs

I'm paying close attention to this. Criminalizing things poor people have to do does nothing but compound the problem. The resources of religious organizations, social services, government, and law enforcement end up being focused on cleaning up the mess left behind by bad policies and laws. These policies are quick fix attempts to punish victims of systems for political expediency and they have caused such significant damage to our social infrastructures that we no longer can support the programs that would prevent people from getting stuck in these cycles in the first place. The screaming demands of the life and death situations these policies create drown out the capacity of nonprofits to whisper well-placed words of redirection and transformative support.

🎥 Hey LinkedIn community, today I want to shed light on a pressing issue that goes beyond punishment – homelessness. As Jesse Rabinowitz from the National Homelessness Law Center rightly puts it, "Homelessness is growing not because cities lack ways to punish people for being poor, but because a growing number of hard-working Americans are struggling to pay rent and make ends meet." I delve into a crucial case, Johnson v. Grants Pass, which questions the legality of punishing homeless individuals for sleeping outside when adequate shelter space is insufficient. Contrary to the belief that arresting or ticketing is a solution, Jesse emphasizes that addressing homelessness requires evidence-based approaches, like housing for all. Let's pause and reflect: How can humanity consider punishing someone life has already dealt a difficult hand to? In our pursuit of solutions, we must not forget the systemic causes of homelessness. People don't choose the streets; circumstances force them there. Join me in this exploration of compassion and understanding. Let's challenge preconceptions, advocate for humane solutions, and work towards a society where everyone has a chance for shelter and a better life. 💙🏠 #EndHomelessness #HumanityOverPunishment #CommunityCare #invisiblesnomore

https://lnkd.in/ex6Rr8_7 #bettersocietycapital Britain has the worst record on homelessness in the developed world. Our vision on what homelessness is needs to change. #bsc leading the initiative on this hugely important issue facing the UK

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments this month in Grants Pass v. Johnson, which focuses on whether a local government can make it a crime to live outside when adequate shelter is not available.  This case has resulted in an inaccurate and harmful framing of homelessness by suggesting that there are only two potential outcomes: Either arrest those who are unhoused or homelessness will become an inevitable and permanent fixture of the urban landscape.  But there is a third path: providing subsidized housing with services to people experiencing homelessness. This challenge reflects a central tension in homelessness policymaking. Homelessness demands an immediate response, while the most effective response to homelessness — permanent housing — takes longer to create. 

Here it is, the last of my blog posts on the new Housing (Scotland) Bill. This covers the homelessness reforms that are proposed. As ever, comments/thoughts welcome. https://lnkd.in/eNXZYY_E

Criminalizing homelessness IS criminal. Homelessness is a symptom of failure in leadership. Housing is the foundation for stability, good health, education, and true equity. During this escalation of the housing crisis and cost of living, housing should be first priority. After all, when people have housing, job retention increases, it supports the local economy, and strengthens communities. #affordablehousing #housingcrisis

'The province has still not put in place anything to ensure the new housing they hope to encourage will really be affordable. This budget has no funding to build any supportive housing units this year. Ontario is falling even further behind what we need. We did not find anything in this budget targeted at preventing homelessness.' Based on assumptions that current stock of supportive housing can be maintained. I can tell you that the current stock of supportive housing is very vulnerable to acquisition for redevelopment (renovations) and to other sales out of supportive housing - and this housing stock is being lost. #AffordableHousing #SupportiveHousing #OnPoli

Criminalizing homelessness is certainly "tough" but there's no "love" involved in jailing people for the "crime" of being too poor to afford a roof over their heads. Rather, criminalization is predicated on the contemptuous view that the homeless are irresponsible and "service-resistant." Therefore, they must be punished and forced into accepting services. This over-emphasis on personal choices ignores the systemic issues that manufacture poverty and breed homelessness: unaffordable housing, unlivable minimum wage, and inaccessible health care services. The only service that will end homelessness are homes. Inappropriately using the criminal justice system to address a housing and social services crisis is costly, ineffective and cruel. Criminalization serves only to prop up the inequitable status quo. It preserves the massive profits that result when housing and health care are commodities rather than human rights. Which raises the question: perhaps cruelty really IS the point of criminalizing homelessness?