Report: Homeless treated like pollution

    Homeless Americans know how that feels, according to two college professors who have studied the issue in the Virginia city of Fredericksburg.
    Through interviews and research “we demonstrate that homeless persons are often viewed as a kind of environmental contaminant that should be cleaned up or kept out, either through the passage and enforcement of ‘civility codes’ that criminalize homelessness or through NIMBY [not in my backyard] movements that develop to prevent the establishment of homelessness services in particular areas,” wrote Eric Bonds, assistant professor at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and Leslie Martin, an associate professor in the department, at the University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg.
    In an article published in the journal Environmental Justice, the two described an ambivalent relationship between homeless people and residents of Fredericksburg, about 53 miles south of Washington, D.C.  The city, which has a population of about 28,000, is known for its history. George Washington’s mother, Mary Washington, for whom the university is named, lived there. It was also the site of a key battle during the Civil War.
    Churches in the city regularly provide food for poor and homeless people, the professors wrote. There is a homeless shelter, along with a homeless services organization. But the authors described a kind of vicious cycle. For example, the city's homeless shelter is “isolated from city neighborhoods in an industrial park,” the report says.
    The city bus comes to the shelter infrequently, the authors added. “The shelter's director, for instance, estimated that it takes two hours to travel from the shelter, through the city, to the major retail district, which is one potential area where residents can find jobs.”
    A homeless services provider -- offering food, shower facilities, laundry and social services -- wanted to add a job help center, a medical clinic and more. But the City Council used new zoning requirements to block the request.
    Homeless people interviewed spoke of routine discrimination, and the professors described a selective enforcement of the city’s law barring anyone from camping on public land without permission.
    Achieving true environmental justice, the authors conclude, requires “an acknowledgment of all people's human rights, the first and foremost of which is that no person should be treated like pollution. All people have a right to visibly exist and take part in the communities of their choice.”

    Read the research here: Treating People Like Pollution: Homelessness and Environmental Injustice in the journal, Environmental Justice.

 

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