Summary: Vagrancy Law

UC Berkeley Law School explains how San Francisco, and 58 other cities in California, have been implementing laws that are against homelessness. In this case, a minimum of one vagrancy law has been passed among each of the 59 California cities, with a sum of 500 collectively. Hence, California’s homeless rate has increased and in contemporary society it composes 22 percent of the United States’ total. What is ironic about California is that arrest rates for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct have continued to decrease throughout the 21st century, whereas arrest rates for homelessness have increased by 77 percent. Chris Roberts concludes how homeless rates are increasing in California such as 5 percent in a single year from 2012 to 2013, whereas the nation’s collective homeless rate has decreased by 4 percent (2015). Lastly, there has been a 20 percent increase in homeless rates of children in California, which is crucial because it is one of the most vulnerable demographics. Although the laws are what govern society and helps maintain order, it does not mean society should take it for granted and not question what is going
Again, this is evidence of a policing problem because the vagrancy laws are not only state-sanctioned, but coercive as well (Carlson 2016). Basically, it is marginalizing homeless demographics even more because simply giving them tickets that they cannot afford to pay results in criminalization. However, this is not a long-term solution because the only option the homeless have is to resort to any shelter they can find, provided it is not in the public domain. Nonetheless, this has its own issues such as further segregating the homeless from the rest of