Legal rights should reflect human rights

It seems that no matter how the issue of homelessness in our community is framed, the idea that some people are not entitled to the basic accommodations of a decent life persists.

Homelessness can happen to anyone. However, it happens most frequently and enduringly to people who have survived incredible hardships and manage multiple disabilities. Homelessness is caused by and causes complex trauma. Also, people who are homeless for long periods of time claim some of the poorest health outcomes and lowest life expectancy of any group in our society. In a country of our wealth and creative ingenuity, this is unacceptable.

It should not be divisive to say that whether or not someone produces profitable labor is irrelevant to their claim to the basic human right of safe living arrangements. Because of our severely inadequate housing supply, many citizens have no imminent prospects of moving out of homelessness. Instead, those who live in public contend with a variety of “Quality of Life” ordinances, or city laws, that criminalize the normal human behaviors that fulfill our universal biological needs.

These ordinances include bans on sitting or lying prone on the sidewalk, covering oneself from the elements, and sleeping in public. The ordinances are blatantly discriminatory, and an assault on the inherent dignity of all people. I would contend that our community’s values would be much better expressed in the form of a Homeless Bill of Rights rather than the ongoing criminalization of survival.

This story was originally published December 24, 2016 at 7:20 PM with the headline "Legal rights should reflect human rights."