A Theoretical and Legal Challenge To Homeless Criminalization as Public Policy

Abstract

You are homeless. All day you have looked for a place to sleep indoors for the night. Your search is urgent, for tonight will be bitterly cold. As the sun sets, the temperature falls into the single digits. Unfortunately, your city has no homeless shelters. As doors close, you head toward your hideaway, an abandoned apartment house with a side door that is usually unlocked. You do not go there every night-another homeless person might discover your secret and beat you to it on some freezing or snowy night. Instead, you save it for emergencies. Tonight you can either take shelter there or risk freezing to death. You enter the cold, empty building, cover yourself with newspapers and cardboard, and go to "bed." Although the abandoned building is not heated, at least you are not outside. The next morning you are awakened by a police officer, who promptly arrests you for trespassing.