Vagrancy and Homelessness Lecture Notes

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering the historical application of vagrancy and loitering laws, their legal unconstitutionality, and the current realities of homelessness in the U.S. and Columbus.

Vagrancy laws

Criminal codes imported into colonial America and used until the $20^{th}$ century, often targeting unemployed workers searching for higher wages and viewing the failure to work as a moral failure.

Loitering laws

Laws that punished the act of appearing in public with no visible means of support.

Targeted groups of the 1960s

Specific populations against whom vagrancy laws were applied, including African Americans, civil rights workers in the South, and hippies protesting the Vietnam war.

Void for vagueness

The legal basis for the Supreme Court ruling broadly drafted vagrancy laws unconstitutional, as they provided no reasonable notice of prohibited conduct and lacked clear standards.

Extent of U.S. homelessness (2024)

Approximately $775,000$ people, both sheltered and unsheltered, in the U.S. in $2024$.

Primary reasons for homelessness

A shortage of affordable housing and a lack of shelter space.

Number one cause of homelessness

Lack of housing.

Criminalized activities of the homeless

Necessary human activities often treated as crimes, including begging, camping, storing items in public, sleeping in a vehicle, and sharing food.

Columbus homeless vs. housing statistics

About $2,000$ homeless people in the city and over $30,000$ empty housing units.

Columbus panhandling regulations

A new set of regulations regarding where, when, and how people can panhandle, enacted after a previous prohibition was not enforced due to potential unconstitutionality.

Motivations for violence against the homeless

Resentment toward the homeless, the ability to target them without fear of retaliation, and the thrill of collective violence.