Debunking The Myths About Homelessness - MYTH #1 "THE HOMELESS THREATEN OUR SAFETY"

Hello again, fellow Venetians.

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 Many thanks to those of you who went out and fed a homeless person over the Memorial Day Weekend. Chances were one in five that it was a veteran, and if not then in all likelihood it was some deserving person down on his luck.  Good for all of you!

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This is the first in a series of short articles which will be published here from time to time titled "DebunkingThe Myths Of Homelessness". The topic of this first in the series : "THE MYTH THAT HOMELESS PEOPLE THREATEN OUR SAFETY".

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The knock on homeless people in Venice seems to be that "they are a danger to the community". You've heard the pitch : "If we leave them on the streets, they will burglarize our homes, rob us and violently attack us. Concern for public safety mandates that we run them out of town."

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It's the same old story. The wealthy and powerful in our midst take advantage of the less wealthy and powerful, and then give them a scapegoat to hate - somebody even less wealthy and powerful then they - upon  whom they can vent their frustration and rage. 

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Adolph Hitler used this ploy to perfection - he exploited the fears and distress of economically depressed and politically helpless Germans in order to rise to power, and at the same time gave them the Jews as a scapegoat - a people who could be demonized as being responsible for the problems...who could be hated and persecuted while those persecuting them continued to be the victims and pawns of HItler's attempts at fascist world-domination.

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Today, right here in Venice Beach,  little would-be, Hitler-like, power-mongers do the same type of thing - focusing the fears, anxieties and insecurities of Venice homeowners and residents upon those less fortunate, impoverished, homeless and jobless neighbors in our midst. "We have to get rid of them!" we are told. "They are a threat to our safety and security". 

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But it just ain't so.

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According to a National Law Center study on homelessness :

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"Homeless people commit LESS VIOLENT CRIMES than housed people. Dr. Pamela Fischer, of Johns Hopkins University, studied arrest records in Baltimore and found that  homeless people were less likely to commit crimes against person or property."  

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Is this an isolated statistic? Nope. 

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According to The U S Conference of Mayors Hunger and Homelessness Survey (2006) :

" The homeless are significantly less likely than housed people to commit a violent crime."

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And, The State of Maine's "Treble Street" online website tells us (April,2011) :

"Targeting the homeless population as a group of individuals to be feared has no basis in fact. Homeless people are more likely to be victims of crimes (including hate crimes) than to become criminals. In fact from 1999-2010 there were a total of 1,074 reported acts of violence against the homeless population that resulted in 291 deaths." 

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Even the American Psychological Association, in its December, 2009, report titled "New Insights On Homelessness And Violence" stated :

 "Criminal activity isn't a staple characteristic of these people,".

(It is interesting to note, however that they did find that homeless people bouncing from shelter to shelter were more likely than homeless people living on the street to commit violent crimes. Apparently, getting them off the streets and into shelters doesn't increase our safety, it decreases it. The goal should be getting them off the street and into some kind of subsidized, low-income affordable housing. That's what Venice Beach's own Venice Community Housing Corporation has been doing for over 25 years, with great success.) 

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Lastly, in a University of California study titled "Criminality and Homeless Men: An Empirical Assessment" (published in the periodical "Social Problems" - Vol. 36, No. 5 - pp 532-549), the authors state : 

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"We are prompted to write this paper by the claim that homeless persons constitute a serious threat to life and property, frequently voiced by people who oppose the location of shelters and services for the homeless in or near their own neighborhoods…this claim is without empirical foundation."

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So much for the myth that homeless people threaten our safety because they commit more crimes against people and property than the rest of us. The simple fact is, they commit LESS.

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Do we really want to be pawns in somebody's attempt to demonize the homeless by playing on our fears and insecurities? Isn't it time we quit hating and started helping?

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Stay tuned for the next installment in this series - "The Myths Of Homelessness".