In Kentucky, politicians are preparing to vote on a law that would authorize the use of force against unhoused people who are found to be camping on private property.
Republican politicians in Kentucky are rallying behind a new bill that would authorize the use of forceāand potentially deadly forceāagainst unhoused people who are found to be camping on private property. The bill would also criminalize unsanctioned homeless encampments and restrict cities and towns from preempting state laws.
The bill, known as the āSafer Kentucky Act,ā or HB5, would target homelessness, drug possession and mental illness by drastically increasing criminal penalties for a range of offenses. Introduced last week by Republican state representative Jared Bauman, it already has 52 sponsors in Kentuckyās House of Representatives. A vote is scheduled for this week.
Advocates are most alarmed by one aspect of the āSafer Kentucky Actā in particular: an anti-homeless provision that would authorize violence by property owners on people camping on their property. The bill says the use of force is ājustifiableā if a defendant believes that criminal trespass, robbery or āunlawful campingā is occurring on their property.
Like, where else are they supposed to go? They refuse to build any kind of a shelter becuse nobody wants to have one around them. Ironically instead they spend all their money building billion dollar sports stadiums. They just want to criminalize being poor.
Such a difficult societal ill to solve. (Or maybe not?) On the one hand nobody wants, nor should be forced to deal with a homeless encampment in their backyard. On the other, where is one supposed to go? To the woods to survive off the land? Canāt as itās mostly private property and itās illegal to camp, or stay longer than 2 weeks in any one spot on all government owned land (of which I am aware, including all those millions of acres of BLM land). So, we need an alternative and as you suggested, our priorities as a society seem to be askew. Then what about those who we simply canāt house and feed and stabilize for myriad reasons (mental health being a big, if not the biggest one)? Some people will say we canāt just continue āthrowing money at xyz unsolvable problem.ā And I see validity in this. Others may perhaps argue that a professional sports stadium brings in revenue to the city beyond what is paid out of the tax coffers. (Iād like to see the math if stadiums ever end up providing a return on investment for a cityāI have significant doubts.) Anyone out there have some legitimate ideas on solving the problem besides sending people to the woods to die or be arrested vs building huge encampments that I foresee quickly becoming superfund sites? Is there a model out there that could be applied to the US?