Homelessness is a health emergency: criminalising homeless people will only make it worse

A few weeks ago, we gave evidence to an international inquiry convened by the UN Special Rapporteurs on the right to housing and on extreme poverty and human rights. The UN Special Rapporteurs were gathering evidence on a worrying global trend of governments using laws and criminal sanctions to punish people for being victims of social problems.1We were ashamed to tell them about proposals recently before the UK Parliament2 to criminalise rough sleeping, begging, and other activities (sleeping in doorways, for example) that desperate people on the street find themselves forced into. The Criminal Justice Bill was debated in UK Parliament on 15 May 2024, and although some amendments were made to water down the proposals, according to the charity Crisis UK the “premise remains the same” and people sleeping rough will still be at risk of fines and prison.3 The announcement of a snap general election means that the…
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