my whole goal is to reduce real
homelessness not deal with the symptoms
I want to have less people are homeless
than the year before
you'll stop in homelessness because were
being ticketed and moved out of the out
of course everybody wants to move the
homeless but they gotta be somewhere
don't play
the economic crisis may be over but
three and a half million Americans we
homeless this year a number that's
remained constant for more than a decade
despite programs designed to get
homeless people back on their feet
it seems like it's getting harder I've
seen a lot of people to lose their
houses older people in the housing
crunch that have never dealt with
homelessness they don't know how to
build cities are responding to growing
public frustration with a new tactic
legislation designed to hide the
homeless rather than help them
controversial new laws have been passed
by dozens of local governments that make
it virtually illegal to be homeless
Boise Idaho is one city facing scrutiny
for the effect these laws have had on
homeless people Boise Idaho is one of a
growing number of cities across the
country passing laws designed to get
homeless people off the streets by
criminalizing basic human behaviors like
sitting down too long sleeping or even
sharing food in public a group of
homeless people in Boise have sued the
city government claiming that the laws
constitute cruel and unusual punishment
Janet Bell became homeless ten years ago
she lost her arm and nearly lost her
life
to an infection she developed while
living on the streets
she was on a railroad bridge when police
wrote her a ticket for sleeping outside
yes gathered I knew had had a camp down
by the river and I'd been down talking
to him we both came up and and we got
busted how many tickets did you get I
got to LA just for camping outside from
being outside yeah she and five other
homeless people sued the city in federal
court and the stakes are high the case
has reached a federal appellate court
and the outcome could repeal laws
targeting homeless people in cities
nationwide as the number of cities with
such laws continues to grow her case
could redefine the rights of homeless
people across America what do you think
the real purpose of that law is the law
to harass the homeless and hope hopes is
the homeless will go somewhere else of
course everybody wants to move the
homeless but they gotta be somewhere
don't they
supporters of laws like Boise's anti
camping ordinance say that they help get
homeless people off the streets critics
say that it just creates a whack-a-mole
dynamic whereby homeless are either
forced to move somewhere else or end up
in jail
the majority of cities have too few
shelter beds a shortage that's been made
worse since federal funding was scaled
back in 2012 in Boise there are only
about 300 for a homeless count that can
exceed 2000
Richard Morgan became homeless six years
ago when the auto shop where he worked
went under he couched her for a year but
ran out of options and moved to a
shelter well you know I get I tried that
when I first came literally out on the
street homeless and I could only stand
it for about two months and that's if I
drank that was part of my self
medication for the bipolar crowd anxiety
well they don't like a drink and I
didn't like drinking that much and it
was easier to move then he moved to the
streets a police harassment eventually
forced him to the woods one of the
tricks is getting in and out of here
without leaving footprints is what it's
got about a half a foot of snow on the
ground haha
it sounds extreme but we soon found he
wasn't alone taking a little stroll
through the woods yeah how's it go man
good we've only been walking a couple
minutes but all through the woods back
here you see evidence that people stay
out here to avoid the citations the
police give for public camping how many
people staying back well we're in our
area there is one two three five five
kids and the number will soon grow
citing the city's anti camping law
police just announced they're going to
ticket the hundred and fifty people
living behind this homeless shelter the
shelters don't have the capacity or
special programs these people need but
they're being ticketed anyway
where they expect everybody go it
doesn't seem like anybody has a solution
other than just to clear out the alley
at this point but you don't stop being
homeless just because you are being
ticketed and moved out of the alley in
practice the laws mean homeless people
break the law by simply being homeless I
got a warning ticket they know I'm on a
voucher I'm waiting for uh from HUD I'm
waiting for the apartments to be built
for us to move into and I'm still
getting ticketed but just throw me in
jail I got jealous my housing homeless
advocates like Lydia Blackwell say the
laws are hurting the people they're
supposed to help where do you think that
they're brought when they are released
from jail they're brought back to the
street right back to where they started
from the only thing that's changed is
they have another barrier to housing do
you see a discrepancy between what the
government says the laws are designed to
do and the effect they have in reality
yeah if the intention is in any way to
try to solve the problem of homelessness
it does quite the opposite
despite those criticisms laws
criminalizing behavior associated with
homeless people are an increasingly
popular tactic a major force behind
their rising popularity is homelessness
consultant Robert Marvin I bend over 708
places as of last week 708 counties sued
him in eight counties cities programs
that I define it as a program he's tough
approach to cleaning up the streets has
made him a sought out consultant to
cities nationwide we followed him to
Northern California where he pitched his
services to an affluent community you
got to have a culture of transformation
and you do that by being in programs
where his advice is often the same stop
handing out free food and open a 24 hour
shelter where the homeless are kept out
of sight
feeding people has never got a single
person out of homelessness I've
challenged every feeding organization
America please bring me somebody who
you've fed and because you fed them are
no longer homeless it has never happened
this is that may sound harsh but he
cites improvements that are hard to
argue with the system we could get an
80% reduction if we just started working
smart Clearwater st. Pete all have had
that sort of 80 to 90 percent level cut
his results in st. Petersburg in
Clearwater have been his calling card on
the national stage but we learned those
claims simply weren't true
neither st. Petersburg nor Clearwater
even undertake a homeless count in the
first place but they pointed us to data
for Pinellas County where both are
located the homeless count there
actually increased by almost one
thousand people since Marv its hiring
inside this former jail that marbet just
opened as a homeless shelter his numbers
got even more convoluted earlier we
talking about metrics and how you
measure the success of these programs or
these shelters one is how many people
are graduating from the street in other
words one year from now after going out
through the program of no longer come
back that that to me is the most
important how do you know they just they
just haven't gone elsewhere you can
check across all these data systems and
see who's who commit that that's very
that's doable right that's not a
hypothetical that can be done today
these are like vastly different data
sets I mean can you really ill a data
set that tells you that these people are
truly off the street and not just on a
street in the next county over somewhere
else
well homeless the information sent as a
required federal required so if you use
the backdoor approach and say are they
hitting the system somewhere else that
data is already there that data's been
around about a decade and is getting
better and better when we asked him
about his own success rate he said he
didn't measure it the ultimate test and
I don't measure this but the ultimate
test would ability of a prior homeless
person to have free-market housing that
seems almost insurmountable
for someone to come off the street and I
have to imagine that numbers extremely
low and it is and I think that's why
people don't measure that that lack of
data hasn't stopped him from building
shelters across the country this is
Piniella Safe Harbor the county's newest
homeless refuge we looked into a shelter
marbet built in your st. Petersburg
Florida in 2011 the amenities at
Pinellas safe harbor are Spartan to be
sure they sleep on these mats
it's a bare-bones existence reduce down
to life's minimum requirements they
report before the United Nations
Committee Against Torture investigated
the shelter near st. Petersburg and
found it subjected homeless people to
cruel inhuman and degrading treatment
the report was led by Erik tars senior
attorney with the National Law Center on
homelessness and poverty in st.
Petersburg what he was pushing was for
people to be put in solitary pretrial
detention if they don't choose to go to
the shelter and so to keep them there in
solitary until they decide well I guess
the shelter is a better option pretrial
solitary confinement for what are
misdemeanors yes exactly
but Marvin's business has continued to
expand got the full life full system of
everything going on here Keith sets a
Rogaine in and they used condom we
shadowed marbet while he took stock of
the homeless situation in Grass Valley
California his focus wasn't what we'd
expected he's sending a symbol here you
know he's that's a trying to protect you
know he's this is out trying to say
don't mess with my stuff
it's in the homeless world very similar
to you know what dream catchers in the
Native American or the First Nation
community a lot of time you can fight
you can tap into water and electricity
in these encampments
I've been in Kampen instead have
satellite TV and you know cable nothing
he said it anything to do with solving
the problem of homeless
and nothing we saw suggested his
programs have helped a significant
number of homeless people turn their
lives around
but his thinking shaped the way tens of
thousands of homeless people are treated
the law is pushing people into Marvin
shelters will face serious challenges
Janet Bell wins her lawsuit against the
city what do you think the impact will
be if you win the lawsuit I've had to do
what I can you know just to uh to help
fight this thing if it changes things at
all where there's less harassment and
possibly more help with housing then it
will be a great impact of via tremendous
impact her case is in federal court and
it could be years before it's resolved
until then laws targeting the homeless
are on the books
you