Homelessness is an economic side-effect which can either be minimized through proper procedure or thrive with incorrect economic funding allocation. In other words, the occurrence, persistence and incidence of homelessness represent a failure of public policy.
Public policy initiatives generally address several main causes: lack of jobs, unaffordable housing and under-funded shelters. Additional causes that affect homeless people, such as mental or physical illness, are rarely addressed formally. Despite the abundance of issues to consider, however, usually the case is that very little needs to be done in order to substantially benefit many homeless people and creating affordable housing presents the greatest possible solution to the problem.
Dealing with homelessness and its related causes has always been difficult to do within a human rights framework. Sure, the city can outlaw begging and have police officers go on sweeps"" to relocate homeless people from the area, but such tactics are typically frowned upon.
Cities such as Toronto, Victoria and Chicago have tried taking the issue up in a different way, namely by the use of zoning laws to restrict homeless access to public lands. Unfortunately, public zoning has no room for reasonable accommodations of people. Zoning is geared toward land and buildings rather than the inhabitants of them.
Essentially, zoning implementations criminalize the act of begging and loitering. Generally, the use of public areas as any sort of temporary rest area becomes an easily over-enforceable trend. In such situations, it is obvious that police authority is misused and overtaxed, people suffer from a loss of their rights and essentially no solution is reached since relocated homeles are still homeless, just in a different area.
To date, the most effective measures are those employed by Liverpool in the United Kingdom and Brisbane in Australia. These measures feature staffed social workers on city payroll meant to assist homeless people. This is an adequate approach, but perhaps the greatest reduction measures seen in research studies come from the Melbourne Law School. These studies highlight the importance of housing, claiming that ""fiscal and public policy measures to increase access to adequate housing - that is, housing that enables people to live in security, peace and dignity - constitute integral components of a holistic and sustainable policy response to begging and to poverty reduction more generally.""
Similarly, statistics show that criminal offenses are down by 20 percent in areas with decent, affordable housing. These results are a product of the Social Exclusion Unit in Britain's Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, focusing on the successful practices noted in the cities above. One researcher found that providing affordable housing to homeless and impoverished individuals actually saved the city money - to the tune of an $8,000 or $12,000 annual reduction in shelter costs.
Homelessness is a complex and multifaceted issue, and one that is intertwined with instances of begging, poverty, drug dependency and inadequate housing. The city of Madison can take many stances on this issue. The proper approach to begging and homelessness requires a coordinated and inter-agency response that values individual human rights. This response also needs to address the issue from a preventative standpoint, which is necessary to account for cause-and-effect on our impoverished fellow citizens.
Ryan Seib is a junior majoring in English. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com
