Housing/Homelessness

I was running through downtown Raleigh the other day and noticed that a lot of the benches had small dividers in between them. They were about two inches tall and clearly served no other purpose other than to discourage homeless people from sleeping on them. Additionally, they offer no benefit to non homeless people — these dividers won’t make the bench more comfortable and it does not even have the functionality of an armrest. Not only does this discourage homeless people from using them, it also affects heavier people. Seeing as these benches benefit no one, I wonder why cities keep adopting them. I do not understand why lawmakers are so anti-homeless, normal benches would be a small luxury that homeless people deserve to have. It would at least keep them off the ground and away from litter or standing water. If lawmakers are going to make it more difficult for homeless people to exist, then they should at least present alternatives. What could those alternatives be?

This bench sighting reminded me of the class reading “Pervasive Penalty: How the Criminalization of Poverty Perpetuates Homelessness.” There, the authors discuss the numerous anti-homeless acts that several cities in the United States have passed. According to the reading, acts such as panhandling, sleeping in parks, and sitting on sidewalks are all affected by some of these laws. Banning these actions is stupid. The one that stuck out to me is sitting on sidewalks. A lot of people do this, and many of them are not homeless. Stupid laws like these affect everyone and makes life better for no one. I am genuinely curious why lawmakers are so insistent on making life more difficult than it already is for homeless people.